Women, Endurance, FKTs in the Paper of Record

Jennifer Pharr had some musings in the New York Times yesterday about the disappearance of a gender gap on long-distance hiking trails when it comes to FKTs.

Given that women are winning 100-milers outright, and that the composition of those races is around 10-15% female (thus there are plenty of women who may be fantastic who simply aren't signing up), my guess is that any male physiological advantage probably goes away by the 50 mile mark for the pointy end of the field.

jniehof said:

my guess is that any male physiological advantage probably goes away by the 50 mile mark for the pointy end of the field.

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??
Or that typically a lot of 100 mile races are obscure and post very small and undiverse entry fields. If you look at the larger 100's (Leadville, Vermont, Western States) you have a lot more predictable finishing rates and positions for men and women that you'd find in a marathon or any other race.

The longer multi-day (or multi-week) events such as the AT FKT I cannot comment.

-Dr. Wu

dr_wu002 said:

If you look at the larger 100's (Leadville, Vermont, Western States) you have a lot more predictable finishing rates and positions for men and women that you'd find in a marathon or any other race.

The longer multi-day (or multi-week) events such as the AT FKT I cannot comment.

-Dr. Wu

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This sentiment is corroborated by the current records in all events up to 48 hrs. And it's hard to think of a smaller and less diverse field than that going for the AT FKT. It's a stretch (at best) to extrapolate general trends from this tiny datum.

Though a different type of muscular action, ultrarunning might a place to look at the gender gap if you need higher numbers to extrapolate from in a somewhat similar form of exercise. it is pretty popular, or at least more popular than most would think running fifty or more miles is. N=thousands of us.