More women than ever are competing in endurance running events and new research challenges the stereotype that men have the advantage.
Female participation in ultramarathons has increased from 14 to 23 per cent in the past two decades. At this year’s Red Bull Defiance endurance race, to be held in Queensland in August, there is a 40/60 split of registered female to male competitors.
Female competitors in last year’s Red Bull Defiance endurance race.
For the new study, a collaboration between the International Association of Ultrarunners and footwear review company RunRepeat, analysts looked more than 15,000 ultra running events over 23 years. It found that females are typically faster than males over “extreme” distances of 300 kilometres or more.
“The longer the distance, the shorter the gender pace gap,” said the researchers.
“In 5 kilometres, men run 17.9 per cent faster than women, at marathon distance the difference is just 11.1 per cent, 100-mile (160.9km) races see the difference shrink to just .25 per cent, and above 195 miles (313.8km), women are actually 0.6 per cent faster than men.”
Professor Evangelos Pappas is the head of physiotherapy at the University of Sydney and an expert in biomechanics.
He notes that while the study explored sex differences in performance, it was not peer-reviewed research and that a “hypothesis-driven study with a large number of runners and appropriate statistical (covariate) adjustment” is needed to truly understand such differences.
“With these limitations in mind, these data add to previous findings demonstrating that men are faster than women in shorter distances but at longer distances, the gap closes with men and women running at a similar pace for races over 100 miles (160.9km),” Professor Pappas said. “If this finding holds true in future studies, then it may indicate an important advantage but currently I would be cautious with over-interpreting this.”
Why women may be faster than men over extreme distances is unclear.
“I am not sure that differences in anatomy and biomechanics would explain this finding,” Professor Pappas said. “There are some sex differences in muscle fibre composition that may or may not contribute to this finding but I would be searching at other domains.
“Women seem to be better than men with maintaining a steady pace which is important for long-distance running performance.”
Another factor may be mental resilience, Professor Pappas said. “Mental strength probably plays a major role when running over 100 miles,” he suggested.
While it remains a hypothesis, there is some evidence to suggest the resilience theory has substance.
Despite “assumptions about masculine strength and feminine frailty”, research has found that when men and women are subjected to harsh conditions, women who are more likely to survive.
Research also shows that female babies are more resilient, leading experts to believe there may be biological factors at play.
These include hormonal and chromosomal genetic differences. For instance, oestrogens have anti-inflammatory, vasoprotective effects whereas testosterone and progesterone may have immuno-suppressive effects. These same hormones are among the factors that give men the speed and power advantage in life and explosive sports.
Others speculate that higher body-fat ratios – hence a greater emergency fuel store – makes women better suited to long-distance running, and has led some to wonder whether women will soon outrun men? Most experts say it’s unlikely to happen.
But, whatever is going on, the research indicates that women are catching up to men, we’re getting faster, and, in some cases, we’re overtaking them in the race.
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