More on the LA Marathon
One interesting aspect of last Sunday's LA Marathon that I hadn't mentioned was the Battle-of-the-Sexes challenge. The challenge is intended to make the race more interesting. Elite women runners are given a head start that's timed so that the best men and women runners are neck and neck at the finish. A hefty cash prize of $75K is given to the winner.
A little controversy happened last Sunday when they moved the women's start to be only 15:50 before the men (which was almost 5 minutes less than last year). As a result, Mark Saina on the men's side won. The female Russian, Lyubov Denisova, who broke the course record was angered by this move and thought the women's start should have been the difference between the men's and women's course records in which case should would have easily won.
I have to admit, this seems unfair. But I like the idea of this challenge. It does add some excitement to the race.
Another interesting result that I learned from this article was about the fifth place challenge runner, Tatiana Pozdnyakova. She is 50 years old and she ran the fastest ever marathon by a woman over 50. Her time was 2:31:05.
I did some more number crunching on this race, and found that Pozdnyakova was the only woman in her fifties to do a sub-3 marathon last Sunday. In fact only 11 other women overall had a sub-3 marathon. I've posted these stats below.
One last thing I found interesting about this marathon was the pre-marathon bike tour. About 2 hours before the race, bicyclists get to ride the 26.2 miles of the car-free marathon course. This has been going on since 1995. It seems like a great idea.
Time Breakdowns By Age For Male Runners
Time Breakdowns By Age For Female Runners
The above stats for this marathon are based on data that I downloaded from doitsports.com.
A little controversy happened last Sunday when they moved the women's start to be only 15:50 before the men (which was almost 5 minutes less than last year). As a result, Mark Saina on the men's side won. The female Russian, Lyubov Denisova, who broke the course record was angered by this move and thought the women's start should have been the difference between the men's and women's course records in which case should would have easily won.
I have to admit, this seems unfair. But I like the idea of this challenge. It does add some excitement to the race.
Another interesting result that I learned from this article was about the fifth place challenge runner, Tatiana Pozdnyakova. She is 50 years old and she ran the fastest ever marathon by a woman over 50. Her time was 2:31:05.
I did some more number crunching on this race, and found that Pozdnyakova was the only woman in her fifties to do a sub-3 marathon last Sunday. In fact only 11 other women overall had a sub-3 marathon. I've posted these stats below.
One last thing I found interesting about this marathon was the pre-marathon bike tour. About 2 hours before the race, bicyclists get to ride the 26.2 miles of the car-free marathon course. This has been going on since 1995. It seems like a great idea.
Time Breakdowns By Age For Male Runners
| AgeGroup | Under 3hr | 3hr to 4hr | 4hr to 5hr | Over 5hr |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| preteens | 0 (0%) | 2 (1%) | 17 (11%) | 142 (88%) |
| teens | 2 (0%) | 103 (8%) | 339 (26%) | 884 (67%) |
| twenties | 26 (1%) | 320 (15%) | 735 (33%) | 1117 (51%) |
| thirties | 42 (1%) | 523 (16%) | 1137 (35%) | 1552 (48%) |
| forties | 21 (1%) | 515 (16%) | 1090 (34%) | 1547 (49%) |
| fifties | 2 (0%) | 163 (9%) | 532 (29%) | 1116 (62%) |
| sixties | 0 (0%) | 27 (5%) | 118 (21%) | 405 (74%) |
| seventies | 0 (0%) | 1 (1%) | 8 (9%) | 83 (90%) |
| eighties+ | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 1 (10%) | 9 (90%) |
| Total | 93 (1%) | 1654 (13%) | 3977 (32%) | 6855 (54%) |
Time Breakdowns By Age For Female Runners
| AgeGroup | Under 3hr | 3hr to 4hr | 4hr to 5hr | Over 5hr |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| preteens | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 3 (2%) | 154 (98%) |
| teens | 0 (0%) | 11 (1%) | 91 (9%) | 868 (89%) |
| twenties | 4 (0%) | 102 (6%) | 509 (28%) | 1194 (66%) |
| thirties | 7 (0%) | 105 (5%) | 457 (23%) | 1450 (72%) |
| forties | 0 (0%) | 69 (4%) | 337 (20%) | 1296 (76%) |
| fifties | 1 (0%) | 13 (1%) | 104 (12%) | 765 (87%) |
| sixties | 0 (0%) | 1 (0%) | 11 (5%) | 209 (95%) |
| seventies | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 24 (100%) |
| eighties+ | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 0 (0%) | 4 (100%) |
| Total | 12 (0%) | 301 (4%) | 1512 (19%) | 5964 (77%) |
The above stats for this marathon are based on data that I downloaded from doitsports.com.
posted by Ken at
4:28 PM
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