Where do the Differences Lie?: An Analysis of Distance Road Running Populations
View/ Open
Abstract
Recently, much research has been focused on the gap in performance between male and female runners. Our research is focused on examining the gap between these two running populations in depth to determine where the specific differences are located. We will investigate three marathons which require some form of qualification before one can participate along with thirty-two races which do not require qualification. For the qualifying marathons, we will examine if the proportion of male and female finishers are equal at predetermined levels of performance. We will also examine the overall descriptive statistics and the age group patterns for each marathon. The non-qualifying races are equally divided among the four popular running distances – marathon, half marathon, ten kilometer (10k) and five kilometer (5k). The proportions of the male and female race finishers were tested to be equal for each individual race at three different levels of performance. To further inspect the population differences, we tested the equality of the distributions through the comparisons of the means, medians, and variances between the two populations. We also examined whether or not the differences followed a specific pattern by investigating the age groups. All results for the individual races were combined using meta-analysis both at the overall race level and for each age group at all four race distances. We performed a separate meta-analysis for the qualifying marathons and for the non-qualifying races. Several differences between the male and female population of distance runners were discovered through our research. These inequalities were not what we expected to see when we began this study.