Apr 1, 2020
Paul Ronto, Director of Digital Content and Chief Marketing Officer at RunRepeat is a fellow data-wonk as he’s part of the recently released report, The State of Ultra Running 2020, produced by RunRepeat and International Association of Ultra-runners, and co-author, Vania Nikolova, PhD.
In this episode we discuss their landmark report, The State of Ultra Running 2020, the first report of its kind, the inspiration for it, the design and methodology, and most interestingly, the results. It is based on analyzing 5,010,730 results from 15,451 ultra-running events over the past 23 years. Just remarkable.
Explore the trends in ultra-running over the last 23 years, analyzing 5,010,730 results from 15,451 ultra-running events:
- Female ultra-runners are faster than male ultra-runners at distances over 195 miles.
- There have never been more ultra-runners.
- Women are as fast as men in long-distance ultras. The longer the distance the shorter the gender pace gap.
- There have never been more women in ultrarunning.
- Ultra runners have never been slower across distance, gender and age group.
- Runners improve their pace in their first 20 races, and then their pace stabilizes.
- The fastest ultra-running nations are South Africa, Sweden, and Germany.
- A record amount of people travel abroad for ultra-running events.
- Runners in the longer distances have a better pace than the runners in the shorter distances for each age group.
- All age groups have a similar pace, around 14:40 min/mile.
- The average age of ultra-runners has decreased.