Fast men slow more than fast women in a 10 kilometer road race

PeerJ

article

Robert O. Deaner¹  Vittorio Addona²  Rickey E. Carter³  Michael J. Joyner⁴  Sandra K. Hunter⁵ 

[1] Psychology Department, Grand Valley State University;Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science, Macalester College;Department of Health Sciences Research, Mayo Clinic;Department of Anesthesiology, Mayo Clinic;Exercise Science Program, Department of Physical Therapy, Marquette University

关键词: Gender;    Risk taking;    Endurance exercise;    Distance running;    Athletic performance;    Marathon;    Pacing;    Sex differences;    Road races;    Decision making;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.2235

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

Background. Previous studies have demonstrated that men are more likely than women to slow in the marathon (footrace). This study investigated whether the sex difference in pacing occurs for a shorter race distance.Materials & Methods. Data were acquired from the Bolder Boulder 10 km road race for the years 2008–2013, which encompassed 191,693 performances. There were two pacing measures, percentage change in pace of the first 3 miles relative to the final 3.2 miles and percentage change in pace of the first mile relative to the final 5.2 miles. Pacing was analyzed as a continuous variable and as two categorical variables, as follows: “maintain the pace,” defined as slowing <5% and “marked slowing,” defined as slowing ≥10%.Results. Among the fastest (men < 48:40; women < 55:27) and second fastest (men < 53:54; women < 60:28) sex-specific finishing time sextiles, men slowed significantly more than women with both pacing measures, but there were no consistently significant sex differences in pacing among the slower four sextiles. For the fastest sextile, the odds for women were 1.96 (first pacing measure) and 1.36 (second measure) times greater than men to maintain the pace. For the fastest sextile, the odds for women were 0.46 (first measure) and 0.65 (second measure) times that of men to exhibit marked slowing. Multiple regression indicated that being older was associated with lesser slowing, but the sex difference among faster runners persisted when age was controlled.Conclusions. There was a sex difference in pacing during a 10 km race where glycogen depletion is not typically relevant. These results support the hypothesis that the sex difference in pacing partly reflects a sex difference in decision making.

【 授权许可】

CC BY