July 16, 2015
Women Are Racing More Than Men (And Other Interesting Running Facts)
According to data from Running USA, in 2014 the majority of people who competed in races were women. Women had 10.7 million finishers to the men's 8 million.
Running USA is a non profit body that studies trends and growth in running found that women dominated every type of race except full marathons.
They also found that for both genders, the majority of finishers (53 percent) were between 25-44 years of age.
It appears people are looking to push themselves harder and go greater distances as half marathon participation was up for both gender by 4 percent over 2014 and a record number of people worldwide -- 550,637 to be exact -- finished marathons.
Curiously enough, they also found that we are getting slower. The average marathon finishing times in 2014 (4:19:27 for men and 4:44:19 for women) were about 40 minutes slower than they were than they were in 1980. Why? Likely because there are greater numbers of people signing up to run full marathons. The number has been rising for years but last year alone, there were 9000 more people signing up!
Another factor in slower times might be due to the fact that not everyone is looking for a personal best. I know more than my fair share of people who are working up to running a marathon. It isn't so they can post some record time or even win the darn thing. It is so they can achieve a huge goal! Even if you have to crawl across the finish line. Finishing is its own reward.
So runnners, lets see if we can push those numbers even higher! Let's all get out there and do it! Why? Because we can!
Source: Shape
It appears people are looking to push themselves harder and go greater distances as half marathon participation was up for both gender by 4 percent over 2014 and a record number of people worldwide -- 550,637 to be exact -- finished marathons.
Curiously enough, they also found that we are getting slower. The average marathon finishing times in 2014 (4:19:27 for men and 4:44:19 for women) were about 40 minutes slower than they were than they were in 1980. Why? Likely because there are greater numbers of people signing up to run full marathons. The number has been rising for years but last year alone, there were 9000 more people signing up!
Another factor in slower times might be due to the fact that not everyone is looking for a personal best. I know more than my fair share of people who are working up to running a marathon. It isn't so they can post some record time or even win the darn thing. It is so they can achieve a huge goal! Even if you have to crawl across the finish line. Finishing is its own reward.
So runnners, lets see if we can push those numbers even higher! Let's all get out there and do it! Why? Because we can!
Source: Shape