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Road Races Report: The State of Running 2019
Fast Eddie:
Key conclusions
1. Event participation has declined by 13% since 2016, when it peaked with 9.1 million runners crossing the finish line. Growth continues in Asia.
2. Runners have never been slower - male runners in particular. In 1986 the average finish time was 3:52:35, whereas today it's 4:32:49 - a slowdown of 40 minutes and 14 seconds.
3. Runners have never been older aging from 35.2 in 1986 to 39.3 in 2018.
4. Spain has the fastest recreational runners on the marathon distance, Russia on the half marathon, Switzerland on the 10K and Ukraine on the 5K.
5. For the first time in history, there are more female than male runners. In 2018, 50.24% of runners were female.
6. Traveling to race has never been more popular than today.
7. The motives for participating in running are potentially changing from being acheivement-focused to being phycological, health and socially focused, which in part can be proved by more people traveling to race, slower finish times and how milestone-ages (30, 40, 50) now are much less dominant than 15 and 30 years ago.
https://runrepeat.com/state-of-running?fbclid=IwAR0g8WfSOBBq0kOLiciD1JKsuVOhE31ET_0-P1IoqC2BdgK0K3foyUoKhdQ
SnarlyMarly:
Interesting about the male vs female numbers don’t coincide with what BAA says and it’s need to get more females. If the male female ratio is pretty much the same and the men are slowing down more than women. Why are the men’s times so stringent?
And I should keep myself in the butt for writing this😗
nadra's babydaddy:
I think 2 is largely redundant and related to 7. There are definitely a lot more hobby-joggers, which slows the overall curve, but I don't think there are any fewer fast people, especially when you consider the progression of BQ times. When I'd jump into road races back in high school (early 00s), you'd probably be in the back half of the field if you ran over 20 for 5k. Now the fields are just bigger. Plus there are a lot more gimmick events where the running is secondary to the whole experience (color runs, mud runs, etc.). I think marathons in particular are drawing a lot more of the 'bucket list/stop and take a selfie every mile/run your best marathon on less than 10 miles a week and essential oils' types. Not necessarily a bad thing, but lends itself more toward the casual crowd rather than hardened competitors.
CheryG:
Gonna agree with Lackey. Plus, is there any data that includes ultras and trail runs?
IMO those have seen huge increases. The mountain running circuit is now much more competitive.
CheryG:
https://www.wser.org/2019/11/29/2020-lottery-statistics/
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