More LA Marathon Comparisons

Revised on 4:03pmCST 3/5/05 - The downloads of 2004 and 2003 data had been stopped before all of the runners' data had been retrieved. So my initial stats were incomplete. I've redownloaded the full data and have revised this post with the corrected numbers. Sorry for the confusion.

The last post looked at 5-time repeat runners who ran the Los Angeles Marathon 5 consecutive times from 2000 through 2004. This post looks at 2-time repeat runners over these years. How many runners improve their times? And how many have slower times?

One thing that I didn't mention in the previous post is that I likely did not include all repeat runners. My program depends on consistent names across years. If names are not given exactly the same or if women get married or divorced and change names, I will miss them. Nevertheless, my program should get the majority of the repeat runners.

Last year's marathon (2004) seemed to be the toughest. The heat must have been brutal. Out of 5956 repeat runners, only 1399 (23%) ran faster in 2004 as compared to 2003.

I took a look at some of the 914 repeat runners of the 2004 and 2003 marathons who finished over 60 minutes slower in 2004. Many had simliar early pace times, but then the later splits of 2004 slowed. For example, take this man from Habra, CA who was 38 in 2004. In 2003, he finished with a time of 3:37:59. In 2004 he finished with a time of 05:16:28. Below are his 10K, half, and 30K splits for the 2 marathons:

2004: 0:51:54, 1:52:42, 3:03:49, (chip finish time 05:16:28)
2003: 0:51:29, 1:46:23, 2:31:00, (chip finish time 3:37:59)

Note the 10K split times were almost identical. The 2004 half was just about 6 minutes slower. But then the heat probably took its toll. The 2004 30K split time was over 30 minutes slower. Finally, the finish time was over hour and half slower.

Conditions must have been better in 2003. Out of 5797 runners who ran both 2003 and 2002, 3198 (55%) ran faster in 2003.

There were 5593 runners who ran both the 2002 and 2001 LA Marathons. Out of these 5593 runners, 2430 (43%) ran faster in 2002.

Finally, for the 2001 and 2000 LA Marathons, I counted 5257 repeat runners. Out of these 5257 runners, 2924 (56%) ran faster in 2001.

Here are the details of the repeat LA Marathon runners. Note, faster means the runner ran faster in the most recent race.

2004 vs 2003 Change	Number	Percent
over 60 min faster	173	2.9
30 to 60 min faster	272	4.6
10 to 30 min faster	490	8.2
1 to 10 min faster	398	6.7
under 1 min faster	66	1.1
under 1 min slower	51	0.9
1 to 10 min slower	600	10.1
10 to 30 min slower	1470	24.7
30 to 60 min slower	1522	25.6
over 60 min slower	914	15.3
Total	5956	100

2003 vs 2002 Change	Number	Percent
over 60 min faster	423	7.3
30 to 60 min faster	745	12.9
10 to 30 min faster	1183	20.4
1 to 10 min faster	756	13
under 1 min faster	91	1.6
under 1 min slower	81	1.4
1 to 10 min slower	690	11.9
10 to 30 min slower	1002	17.3
30 to 60 min slower	531	9.2
over 60 min slower	295	5.1
Total	5797	100

2002 vs 2001 Change	Number	Percent
over 60 min faster	248	4.4
30 to 60 min faster	490	8.8
10 to 30 min faster	891	15.9
1 to 10 min faster	718	12.8
under 1 min faster	83	1.5
under 1 min slower	79	1.4
1 to 10 min slower	678	12.1
10 to 30 min slower	1174	21
30 to 60 min slower	802	14.3
over 60 min slower	430	7.7
Total	5593	100

2001 vs 2000 Change	Number	Percent
over 60 min faster	374	7.1
30 to 60 min faster	691	13.1
10 to 30 min faster	1051	20
1 to 10 min faster	716	13.6
under 1 min faster	92	1.8
under 1 min slower	79	1.5
1 to 10 min slower	623	11.9
10 to 30 min slower	929	17.7
30 to 60 min slower	472	9
over 60 min slower	230	4.4
Total	5257	100

Race stats were derived from data provided by the LA Marathon Website which had links to race data at doitsports.com.