Road Race Stats - Marathons & Other Running Races

Saturday, April 30, 2005

Nashville's Country Music Marathon

I'm working on these stats now. In the mean time, I'll post some basic facts and stats. Just like the SLC Marathon, this had an exciting finish. The Kenyan Nephat Kinyanjui over took the race leader Yuriy Hychun of Ukraine in the last half-mile and won with a time of 2:15:37. Another Kenyan took second place, and Hychun came in third with a time of 2:16:10. It must be frustrating to come in third after leading for almost the whole race.

The top women was Irina Safarova of Russia who finished with a time of 2:33:53. Both the top man and woman won $17.5K or an 05 Nissan Xterra.

I also like the fact they had cash prizes for other categories like wheelchair, masters, local county, and state of Tennessee. Those prizes ranged from $500 to $1000. The winning Tennessee runners had times of 2:34:19 (male) and 3:02:18 (female).

Here are some of the basic stats from the Marathon's race results page:

2005 Marathon Participants:
Registered: 4656
Finishers: 3743 (80%)
Male Finishers: 2203 (59%)
Female Finishers: 1540

2005 Half Marathon Participants
Registered: 12923
Finishers: 11392 (88%)
Male Finishers: 4573 (40%)
Female Finishers: 6819

2004 Marathon Participants:
Registered: 5120
Finishers: 4138 (81%)
Male Finishers: 2446 (59%)
Female Finishers: 1692

2004 Half Marathon Participants:
Registered: 11003
Finishers: 9256 (84%)
Male Finishers: 3772 (41%)
Female Finishers: 5484

Similar to other races, the men outnumber the women for the marathons, but the women outnumber the men in the half. I'm willing to bet that the women in the twenties age group outnumber the men in the marathon.

Looking at both 2004 and 2005, the marathon finishers went down by about 10% in 2005. However in the half marathon, the finishers increased by 23%. Wonder if this is a common trend? Perhaps half marathons are able to retain more repeat runners? Something to look at in future posts.

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Salt Lake City Marathon - Facts and Stats

I had wanted to post this a few days ago, but I got behind. Before I post the stats, there are several things I found interesting about the Salt Lake City Marathon that took place last Saturday (4/23/05).

It was a very close race between Ethiopia's Araya Haregot and Kenya's Elly Rono. The two were even in the last mile until Haregot pulled away and won with a time of 2:15:14 (Rono finished second with a time of 2:15:36). Polands Dorota Gruca, who had a large lead through most of the race, won the women's race with a time of 2:30:07. Both the male and female winner won $25K.

The lead car apparently didn't do a good job at providing enough room for the front runners. From the Salt Lake Tribune article:

Haregot tried to separate from the pack at a number of spots earlier in the race but was caught each time - a couple of times by the lead car, which was going too slow and helped the rest of the runners catch him.


The marathon is at a pretty high elevation. The course starts at around 4800 ft and ends at 4247 ft. This may have affected the second place Kenyan. From the Salt Lake Tribune article:

"I started throwing up at the finish line," Rono said. "Maybe I took too much fluids. I don't know. Maybe it was the altitude."

Unlike Haregot, who lives at altitude, Rono trains in Chapel Hill, N.C., and had never raced in thin air before.


Like the Virginia Beach Marathon, they let the walkers begin first at 6:00am. This meant the runners would be passing the walkers in the race. The female winner of the Virginia Beach Marathon had collided with a walker. Looks like SLC Marathon did a good job at avoiding any of these incidents. I couldn't find any problems. Also, the winner didn't have a problem with it. The winner was quoted by the Salt Lake Tribune as saying: "Running past the other runners wasn't really a big problem".

If I were a walker, in addition to being able to finish the marathon an hour earlier, I would also enjoy seeing the elite runners go by.

Like the L.A. Marathon, the SLC Marathon had a pre-marathon bike tour. The SLC Marathon seemed to have more requirements than LA to ensure the bikers didn't interfere with the runners.

Finally, for next year, they're considering on adding a Jumbotron at the finish and live race tracking to make it funner for spectators.

The Salt Lake City Marathon Stats

One thing I was looking at in the stats was the effect of the high elevation (+4200ft). However, nothing really jumped out at me. The average male time was 4:20:52. The average female time was 4:44:30.

The weather was good. At the start around 7:00am, the temperature was 54°F with 38% humidity. By around 9:00am it had warmed to 59°F with humidity of 36%.

Here's how the average times compare with some other marathons this year. I'll just look at the thirties age group to avoid differences in age complicating the comparisons.

Average Times of the Thirties Age Groups:

SLC 2005:
Male: 4:17:14 (523 runners)
Female: 4:38:59 (390 runners)
Temperature: around 57°F

Virginia Beach 2005:
Male: 4:09:13 (332 runners)
Female: 4:30:30 (181 runners)
Temperature: around 43°F

Knoxville 2005:
Male: 4:15:11 (208 runners)
Female: 4:35:19 (98 runners)
Temperature: around 47°F

Little Rock 2005:
Male: 4:14:46 (152 runners)
Female: 4:39:09 (77 runners)
Temperature: around 55°F

New Orleans 2005:
Male: 4:24:48 (302 runners)
Female: 5:14:29 (292 runners)
Temperature: around 55°F

Except for the New Orleans Marathon, the SLC male average is slower than the others. The women averages are similar except for Little Rock. The Little Rock women were slightly slower than the SLC women. How much of this is due to the 4200+ ft elevation of Salt Lake City? Probably not enough data to make any conclusion. But one thing to note, 73% of the runners were from Utah so they were likely use to the high elevation. So perhaps this would minimize the effects.

Below are the detailed stats. Once again the women twenties age group outnumbered the men 481 to 372 (ratio of 1.29). Overall, the men made up 57% of the 2902 runners.

Total Runners by Times

under 3:003:00 to 4:004:00 to 5:00over 5:00
35 (1%)760 (26%)1411 (49%)696 (24%)


Male Runners by Times - Move mouse over cells to see best times

Agesunder 3:003:00 to 4:004:00 to 5:00over 5:00
preteens0 (0%)0 (0%)2 (67%)1 (33%)
teens0 (0%)12 (35%)19 (56%)3 (9%)
twenties11 (3%)135 (36%)172 (46%)54 (15%)
thirties11 (2%)199 (38%)230 (44%)83 (16%)
forties7 (2%)160 (35%)220 (48%)70 (15%)
fifties0 (0%)47 (22%)113 (52%)56 (26%)
sixties0 (0%)7 (16%)21 (48%)16 (36%)
seventies0 (0%)0 (0%)1 (17%)5 (83%)
eighties+0 (0%)0 (0%)0 (0%)1 (100%)
Total29 (2%)560 (34%)778 (47%)289 (17%)


Female Runners by Times - Move mouse over cells to see best times

Agesunder 3:003:00 to 4:004:00 to 5:00over 5:00
preteens0 (0%)0 (0%)1 (100%)0 (0%)
teens0 (0%)4 (14%)17 (61%)7 (25%)
twenties0 (0%)81 (17%)241 (50%)159 (33%)
thirties4 (1%)69 (18%)210 (54%)107 (27%)
forties2 (1%)42 (17%)124 (50%)80 (32%)
fifties0 (0%)4 (5%)39 (44%)45 (51%)
sixties0 (0%)0 (0%)1 (13%)7 (88%)
seventies0 (0%)0 (0%)0 (0%)2 (100%)
Total6 (0%)200 (16%)633 (51%)407 (33%)


Average/Best Times By Age Groups (Male and Female)

AgesNumberPercentMean TimeBest Time
preteens40%4:28:444:07:54
teens622%4:25:463:12:44
twenties85329%4:31:542:15:14
thirties91331%4:26:312:15:36
forties70524%4:27:322:22:20
fifties30410%4:45:073:01:15
sixties522%4:51:433:14:29
seventies80%5:52:024:30:12
eighties+10%6:50:176:50:17
Total2902100%4:31:012:15:14


Average/Best Times By Male Age Groups

AgesNumberPercentMean TimeBest Time
preteens30%4:35:414:10:53
teens342%4:15:493:12:44
twenties37222%4:15:382:15:14
thirties52332%4:17:142:15:36
forties45728%4:18:402:22:20
fifties21613%4:35:523:01:15
sixties443%4:44:393:14:29
seventies60%5:53:074:30:12
eighties+10%6:50:176:50:17
Total1656100%4:20:522:15:14


Average/Best Times By Female Age Groups

AgesNumberPercentMean TimeBest Time
preteens10%4:07:544:07:54
teens282%4:37:513:42:21
twenties48139%4:44:293:00:52
thirties39031%4:38:592:30:08
forties24820%4:43:512:37:48
fifties887%5:07:493:40:37
sixties81%5:30:304:40:20
seventies20%5:48:485:09:12
Total1246100%4:44:302:30:08


Average/Best Times By Cities

CityNumberPercentMean TimeBest Time
Bountiful, UT401%4:38:273:13:59
Draper, UT753%4:38:273:20:10
Holladay, UT211%4:25:403:29:09
Layton, UT321%4:36:352:57:06
Mesa, AZ221%4:27:233:17:29
Midvale, UT231%4:36:162:34:14
Murray, UT421%4:39:463:20:57
Ogden, UT251%4:13:422:28:31
Orem, UT662%4:31:173:15:22
Park City, UT401%4:38:063:20:26
Pleasant Grove, UT241%4:21:283:08:35
Provo, UT1134%4:25:412:37:49
Riverton, UT341%4:19:513:11:39
Salt Lake City, UT80428%4:34:262:35:14
Sandy, UT1626%4:37:132:55:50
South Jordan, UT331%4:31:573:19:53
St George, UT221%4:16:403:22:54
Taylorsville, UT241%4:38:273:28:09
West Jordan, UT692%4:29:513:07:22
West Valley City, UT211%4:53:593:27:41
Below Cutoff121042%4:27:412:15:14
Total2902100%4:31:012:15:14


Average/Best Times By State

StateNumberPercentMean TimeBest Time
AZ562%4:25:432:22:20
CA1184%4:36:552:39:00
CO813%4:19:302:41:34
ID632%4:18:412:59:27
IL271%4:30:363:04:39
MT201%4:14:103:25:50
NV361%4:27:473:14:29
OR331%4:37:193:21:30
TX241%4:27:343:07:47
UT212173%4:33:502:28:31
WA502%4:35:223:12:02
WY291%4:07:342:54:01
other281%4:20:192:19:32
Below Cutoff2167%4:14:382:15:14
Total2902100%4:31:012:15:14


All stats are based on results posted at the RaceCenter.com SLC Marathon results page.

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Thursday, April 28, 2005

Austin Bun Run 5K - Three-Peat Gainers

How many times have you run the Bun Run 5K? And how many those times did you improve your time? That's basically the idea behind what I call three-peat gainers (I guess there's probably a better name than this. Let me know if you know of one.) I started to look at Three-Peat Gainers in the Boston Marathon. Now I'll see how well it works for a short race. For the Bun Run 5K, I required the following for a three-peat gainer:

  1. Ran the Bun Run 5K the last three times (2005, 2004, and 2003)
  2. Improved each year (ran faster in 2004 than 2003, and faster in 2005 than 2004)
  3. Had a respectable pace in all races (finished top 500 male or top 500 female)


I found 5 women and 16 men who qualified for the Three-Peat Gainer. Here are some samples of their results:

This 15 year-old male from Dripping Springs is one of the fastest three-peat gainers. At age 13, he finished 21:08 in 2003. He was over a minute faster in 2004 with a time of 20:07. And this year he was again a minute faster than 2004 with a time of 18:48. At this rate, he'll be in the top 10 in the next couple of years.

An even faster three-peat gainer is this 42 year-old male from Austin. At age 40, he finished with a time of 19:06 in 2003. He was over a half-a-minute faster in 2004 with a time of 18:29. This year he finished more than a minute faster than 2004 with an excellent time of 17:26.

One of the gainers with the biggest improvement is this 33 year-old male from Austin. His times in 2003 and 2004 were close (21:31 in 2003 and 21:13 in 2004). But this year, he smashed his old times with a finish of 17:43 (3.5 minutes faster than 2004).

On the women side, there were only 5 three-peat gainers.

This one 16 year-old teenager finished with a time of 27:56 this year. It was almost 2 minutes faster than her time last year and 4.5 minutes faster than her 2003 time.

Another big gainer was this 41 year-old female from Austin. She finished this year with a time of 29:10 which was over 3 minutes faster than last year and over 6 minutes faster than 2003.

The fastest female three-peat gainer was a 17 year-old from Kingsland. She finished with the excellent time of 17:39 this year just beating her time of 17:43 last year. Her time in 2003 was 18:11. With these times at this young age, she's sure to have a long and successful running career. Hope she can keep making gains. As can be seen by the times, at this high level, it can be tough.

Overall I found 66 runners who ran the last 3 years. 44 (67%) of those ran faster this year than in 2003.

Just looking back at 2004, I found 227 runners who ran again last Sunday. Out of those 227, 124 (55%) ran faster this year. One interesting repeat runner was this 42 year-old male from Austin. In 2004 he finished with a time of 28:48. This year, he finished over 10 minutes faster with the impressive time of 18:42.

Here are the detailed breakdown of those 227 repeat runners:

2005 vs 2004 ChangeNumberPercent
over 10 min faster31.3
5 to 10 min faster31.3
1 to 5 min faster7131.3
0 to 1 min faster4720.7
0 to 1 min slower5524.2
1 to 5 min slower3515.4
5 to 10 min slower83.5
over 10 min slower52.2
Total227100


Note, these stats are based on results from Run-Far. Also note, some repeat runners may have been missed if names were different between years. However, my program did ignore case in the names. There were a few runners who had the same names. I took care of this by including ages. For example, a "40 year-old John Doe" in 2004 would be considered different than a "30 year-old John Doe" in 2005. Nevertheless, there could be two people with the same name and same age. In these cases, some may have been wrongly classified as repeat runners.

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Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Austin Bun Run 5K Stats

I've finally put together the Bun Run stats. I looked at how the lack of elite runners and cash prizes affected this year's race. The major sponsor, Scholtsky's Deli, decided not to offer cash prizes this year. I wanted to see if this would have an effect visible in the stats. I thought maybe the elite runners would attract more local runners or more top local runners. And perhaps the top local runners may push themselves harder. Well that doesn't seem to be the case.

There were more timed non-elite runners than the previous two years. There were 1446 this year compared with 1172 in 2004 and 1187 in 2003.

I then looked at the average times of the top 50 men and top 50 women excluding the elite field of 2004 and 2003. Here's how that looks:

Top 50 Men - Excluding Elites
Avg Best
2005: 18:03 16:16 (-0 elites)
2004: 17:57 16:03 (-13 elites)
2003: 18:16 16:38 (-22 elites)

Top 50 Women - Excluding Elites
Avg Best
2005: 20:44 17:31 (-3 elites)
2004: 21:45 17:42 (-12 elites)
2003: 21:45 18:11 (-18 elites)

For the men there wasn't much change. All three years averaged around 18 minutes. The women were actually faster by about a minute than previous years. One thing to note, however, about this year. The temperature was great for running. Just before race time, the temperature was 53°F last Sunday. In 2004 it was 64°F and in 2003 it was 62°F. So if the previous temperatures had been like this year, perhaps the average times in those years would have been substantially lower.

Schlotzsky's 5K Bun Run Stats

Run-Far results reported 1450 total runners (female: 709 male: 740). My stats excluded 4 runners due to incomplete information.

As has been the case in previous races, the women in their twenties outnumber the men. For this race the women/men ratio for this age group is 1.47 (178 to 121). The ratio drops, however, for each later decade.

The fastest averages came from the teens age group (13-19) for both men and women. The teens averaged about 2 minutes faster than the 20's averages. There were a higher percentage of teens compared to longer races. For example, in the Cap10K, only 5% of the runners were in their teens. Marathons have even fewer. Perhaps the shorter races get more participation by the cross country and track runners in high school.

In addition to the 2005 stats, I've also included the 2004 and 2003 average stats. The earlier years exclude the elite runners. All are based on results posted at Run-Far.

April 24, 2005 Stats

Total Runners by Times

under 20m20 to 24m24 to 28mover 28m
101 (7%)281 (20%)433 (30%)617 (43%)


Male Runners by Times - Move mouse over cells to see best times

Agesunder 20m20 to 24m24 to 28mover 28m
preteens0 (0%)8 (22%)8 (22%)21 (57%)
teens19 (31%)18 (29%)18 (29%)7 (11%)
twenties16 (13%)42 (35%)36 (30%)27 (22%)
thirties19 (10%)63 (32%)62 (31%)53 (27%)
forties21 (11%)49 (25%)66 (34%)59 (30%)
fifties8 (10%)18 (22%)32 (39%)24 (29%)
sixties0 (0%)2 (13%)6 (40%)7 (47%)
seventies0 (0%)0 (0%)2 (25%)6 (75%)
eighties+0 (0%)0 (0%)0 (0%)3 (100%)
unknown0 (0%)3 (38%)3 (38%)2 (25%)
Total83 (11%)203 (28%)233 (32%)209 (29%)


Female Runners by Times - Move mouse over cells to see best times

Agesunder 20m20 to 24m24 to 28mover 28m
preteens0 (0%)2 (9%)4 (18%)16 (73%)
teens2 (3%)14 (19%)24 (33%)32 (44%)
twenties6 (3%)18 (10%)52 (29%)102 (57%)
thirties5 (2%)22 (10%)60 (28%)129 (60%)
forties4 (3%)18 (12%)45 (29%)87 (56%)
fifties0 (0%)4 (9%)9 (20%)32 (71%)
sixties0 (0%)0 (0%)4 (40%)6 (60%)
seventies0 (0%)0 (0%)0 (0%)3 (100%)
unknown1 (25%)0 (0%)2 (50%)1 (25%)
Total18 (3%)78 (11%)200 (28%)408 (58%)


Average/Best Times By Age Groups (Male and Female)

AgesNumberPercentMean TimeBest Time
preteens594%30:3221:29
teens1349%25:4416:22
twenties29921%28:1216:24
thirties41329%28:0116:16
forties34924%27:4816:41
fifties1279%27:5616:28
sixties252%29:4120:45
seventies111%30:4924:03
eighties+30%54:2333:02
unknown121%26:4816:24
Total1446100%28:0016:16


Average/Best Times By Male Age Groups

AgesNumberPercentMean TimeBest Time
preteens375%28:4321:29
teens628%22:4816:22
twenties12116%25:0716:40
thirties19727%25:3716:16
forties19526%25:5216:41
fifties8211%25:5516:28
sixties152%28:1720:45
seventies81%29:5124:03
eighties+30%54:2333:02
unknown81%25:5923:03
Total738100%25:4916:16


Average/Best Times By Female Age Groups

AgesNumberPercentMean TimeBest Time
preteens223%33:3522:03
teens7210%28:1617:39
twenties17825%30:1816:24
thirties21631%30:1117:31
forties15422%30:1617:01
fifties456%31:3621:15
sixties101%31:4525:22
seventies30%33:2329:06
unknown41%28:2716:24
Total707100%30:1716:24


April 25, 2004 Stats

Average/Best Times By Age Groups (Male and Female)

AgesNumberPercentMean TimeBest Time
preteens474%31:0420:09
teens11210%26:2016:03
twenties25422%28:1116:31
thirties33128%27:5716:58
forties25021%27:5317:20
fifties958%27:4119:14
sixties232%30:1220:16
seventies91%35:2125:30
eighties+10%31:5731:57
unknown403%28:3118:39
Total1172100%28:0216:03


Average/Best Times By Male Age Groups

AgesNumberPercentMean TimeBest Time
preteens213%28:4920:09
teens589%23:1916:03
twenties11418%25:0316:31
thirties17628%26:1016:58
forties15424%25:5617:20
fifties6110%26:5519:14
sixties163%28:0120:16
seventies61%31:2825:30
eighties+10%31:5731:57
unknown193%25:0418:39
Total634100%25:5316:03


Average/Best Times By Female Age Groups

AgesNumberPercentMean TimeBest Time
preteens265%32:5223:50
teens5410%29:3517:42
twenties14026%30:4419:54
thirties15529%29:5719:11
forties9618%30:5919:57
fifties346%29:0321:18
sixties71%35:1026:13
seventies31%43:0738:10
unknown214%31:3826:30
Total538100%30:3417:42


April 13, 2003 Stats

Average/Best Times By Age Groups (Male and Female)

AgesNumberPercentMean TimeBest Time
preteens615%32:1121:36
teens857%24:4016:46
twenties26022%28:0416:38
thirties33828%28:3016:55
forties24120%27:5117:20
fifties12010%29:4118:07
sixties242%30:0221:01
seventies50%33:0827:51
eighties+10%30:4730:47
unknown192%32:2719:28
Total1187100%28:2916:38


Average/Best Times By Male Age Groups

AgesNumberPercentMean TimeBest Time
preteens406%30:1821:36
teens477%22:3516:46
twenties11117%25:4116:38
thirties15925%25:5516:55
forties14723%26:0517:20
fifties7311%28:1618:07
sixties173%29:5621:01
seventies41%30:4327:51
eighties+10%30:4730:47
unknown81%29:3119:28
Total639100%26:3916:38


Average/Best Times By Female Age Groups

AgesNumberPercentMean TimeBest Time
preteens214%35:4524:18
teens387%27:1518:11
twenties14927%29:5019:33
thirties17933%30:4919:42
forties9417%30:3720:25
fifties479%31:5421:49
sixties71%30:1526:03
seventies10%42:5042:50
unknown112%34:3521:50
Total547100%30:3818:11


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Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Austin Bun Run 5K - The Russian Women

As was mentioned in my last post and on this RunTex article, the two Russian women (Olga Romanova and Tatyana Chulakh) almost took the overall winning time in last Sunday's Austin Bun Run 5K. Both had a time around 16:24 which was just 8 seconds behind the winning man. Looking back at their race history, the Austin men were very lucky.

The two have done well in previous Bun Runs. In 2004, Tatyana Chulakh finished fourth in the women division with a time of 16:06. In 2003, Olga Romanova finished first in the women's division with a time of 15:55. Both of those years were much warmer than last Sunday. Just before race time, the temperature was 53°F last Sunday. In 2004 it was 64°F and in 2003 it was 62°F.

In other races, they even had better times. Tatyana finished first in the 2004 Vytra Long Island 5K Run with a time of 15:59. Tatyana's 5K PR is 15:50 in 2003, and Olga's 5K PR is 15:33 in 2001. Tatyana's running bio and Olga's running bio have more of their accomplishments.

So did they hold back last Sunday? Perhaps it was the lack of a cash prize incentive. Or perhaps they didn't want to shame the local Austin men. Well, I suppose I shouldn't question their efforts. They did Austin a favor by running, and I'm glad they ran. They made it a better race.

BTW, I'm currently working on the stats for this race. I'll be posting these stats shortly.

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Monday, April 25, 2005

Austin Bun Run 5K - The 2005 Change

After covering the major world races like the Boston and London Marathon I thought I would cover something local to me: the Schlotzsky's 5K Bun Run in Austin, Texas. I had found a great place to watch the runners on Lamar's pedestrian bridge. This allowed me to see the runners at about mile 1 and 2. I then was able to sprint over to the finish line to watch the runners come in. RunTex has a good race summary.

An interesting thing about the race was the two women leaders. Both wore the same blue running suits, and they were running right near the leading men. They actually almost beat the men, finishing just 8 seconds behind. I found out from this Austin Statesman article that they were from Russia's national team and have been training in Germantown, Maryland.

An interesting thing about the Bun Run race this year is that they removed the cash prizes. The major sponsor, Schlotzsky's Deli, had filed for Chapter 11 last year was sold off to Bobby Cox Companies, Inc. this year. In previous years, the prize purse had reached $20K and it had become one of the largest 5Ks in the country with over 20 years of history.

Even without cash prizes, the Bun Run was able to attract the two Russion women who agreed to race largely due to their ties to Austin's running community. So these elite women gave the local Austin men a challenge.

So with this change in the Bun Run, I'll look into how it affected the race results. The top times were definitely slower, but outside the elite runners, how did the times change? More to come in future posts.

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Boston Marathon Three-Peat Gainers

When comparing the Boston Marathon repeat runners, I thought up an interesting category of runners. I call it the three-peat gainers. Here's how I define it:

  • Finish the same race in 3 consecutive years
  • Negative chiptimes (second race is faster than the first, third is faster than the second)
  • Finish in the top 1000 men and women for all three races


Perhaps something like this may be useful for races to reward the non-elite runners. Here are my thoughts:

The first criteria rewards those who are in it for the long haul. It encourages runners to think about races as part of a journey rather than an end game.

The second criteria rewards steady improvements. Each year there's a new goal to attain.

Finally, the third criteria helps reduce sandbaggers who may run very slowly for the first race so they can easily run faster for the next two. Other races could decide on a percentage or factor in age.

Boston Marathon Three-Peat Gainers

From my previous post, I had already found the runners who had run 2003, 2004, and 2005 (and had been in the top 1000 in all three years). There were a total of 97 men and 48 women who did this. I then looked for the runners who gained in both 2004 and 2005 (2005 faster than 2004 and 2004 faster than 2003). There weren't many who accomplished this. The heat in 2004 made this very difficult. But I did find a few: 16 men and 5 women. Here are samples of these runners:

3 of the 5 Women Three-Peat Gainers (year, chiptime, age)
Hometown: Boston, MA , USA
2003 : 3:25:27 : 31
2004 : 3:22:15 : 32
2005 : 3:17:41 : 33
Hometown: Seattle, WA , USA
2003 : 3:30:04 : 40
2004 : 3:24:40 : 41
2005 : 3:19:05 : 42
Hometown: Sapporo, Japan
2003 : 3:39:07 : 42
2004 : 3:31:20 : 43
2005 : 3:25:32 : 44

3 of the 16 Men Three-Peat Gainers (year, chiptime, age)
Hometown: Halifax, NS , Canada
2003 : 2:55:46 : 34
2004 : 2:53:39 : 35
2005 : 2:51:08 : 36
Hometown: Stockton, CA , USA
2003 : 2:55:08 : 38
2004 : 2:48:11 : 39
2005 : 2:44:22 : 40
Hometown: Denver, CO , USA
2003 : 2:44:38 : 36
2004 : 2:44:29 : 37
2005 : 2:37:22 : 38

The above times are based on results from marathonguide.com. Note that some repeat runners may have been missed if they didn't finish in the top 1000 in one of the years or if their names weren't exactly the same in all years.

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Saturday, April 23, 2005

More on Boston Marathon Repeat Runners

I've added in 2003 into the comparisons. First, I compared 2004 with 2003. For those trying to improve their times, 2004 was tough. The heat took its toll. 207 out of 1000 men ran in both the 2004 and 2003 marathons. Out of these 163 (79%) ran slower. Only 44 ran faster. It was worse for the women. Out of 139 repeat runners in the top 1000, 124 (89%) ran slower.

I then looked at the top 1000 runners who have run 2003, 2004, and 2005. I then compared the times between 2003 and 2005. Neither of these years were hot like 2004 so it would provide a better comparison. In 2003 the temperature was around 50°F. This year it was around 63°F.

I found 97 top 1000 men who ran all three years. Out of these 51 (53%) ran faster in 2005 than in 2003. For the women, I only found 48 who ran all three years. The majority of these women ran slower in 2005 (26 out of 48 or 54%.)

At least for these comparisons, the temperatures seem to affect the women more.

Below are the details based on the results from marathonguide.com. Note that some repeat runners may have been missed if they didn't finish in the top 1000 in one of the years or if their names weren't exactly the same in all years. Also note, faster means that the runner ran faster in the later year.

Male 2004 and 2003 Repeat Boston Marathon Runners

2004 vs 2003 ChangeNumberPercent
over 30 min faster0
15 to 30 min faster10.5
5 to 15 min faster104.8
0 to 5 min faster3315.9
0 to 5 min slower3818.4
5 to 15 min slower9646.4
15 to 30 min slower2914
over 30 min slower0
Total207100


Female 2004 and 2003 Repeat Boston Marathon Runners

2004 vs 2003 ChangeNumberPercent
over 30 min faster0
15 to 30 min faster21.4
5 to 15 min faster53.6
0 to 5 min faster85.8
0 to 5 min slower2518
5 to 15 min slower6949.6
15 to 30 min slower2518
over 30 min slower53.6
Total139100


Male 2005, 2004, 2003 Repeat Boston Marathon Runners - Faster means runner ran faster in 2005 as compared to 2003

2005 vs 2003 ChangeNumberPercent
over 30 min faster0
15 to 30 min faster33.1
5 to 15 min faster2323.7
0 to 5 min faster2525.8
0 to 5 min slower3030.9
5 to 15 min slower1616.5
15 to 30 min slower0
over 30 min slower0
Total97100


Female 2005, 2004, 2003 Repeat Boston Marathon Runners - Faster means runner ran faster in 2005 as compared to 2003

2005 vs 2003 ChangeNumberPercent
over 30 min faster0
15 to 30 min faster36.3
5 to 15 min faster1327.1
0 to 5 min faster612.5
0 to 5 min slower1020.8
5 to 15 min slower1531.3
15 to 30 min slower12.1
over 30 min slower0
Total48100


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Friday, April 22, 2005

Boston 2005: Repeat Runners

I've started looking at the repeat runners in the Boston Marathon and how they did compared to previous years. I'm starting with repeat runners from 2004 to 2005. I'll go back to previous years in future posts. Also for simplicity, I'll stick with the top 1000 male and female runners.

My program found the repeat runners for 2004 and 2005 and compared their times. It then grouped the runners into eight slower and faster categories.

From the top 1000 men, I found 199 runners who ran in both 2004 and 2005. Out of these 199 runners, 83% ran faster this year. Based on the hot temperatures last year, this would be expected. There was one runner who ran over 30 minutes faster. He was a 28 year-old from Birmingham Alabama. He improved from 3:16:31 to 2:39:21.

The highest percentage of repeat runners were between 5 to 15 minutes faster this year. There were 90 of them. One example is a 40 year-old from Overland Park Kansas. In 2004 he finished 2:58:24. This year he finished 2:50:53.

About 37% of the repeat runners were extremely consistent, running within 5 minutes of their 2004 times. There were a few who were actually less than a minute between their 2004 and 2005 times. One such runner is a 52 year-old from Omro Wisconsin who finished 3:05:15 in 2004 and 3:05:40 in 2005.

For the top 1000 women the results were very similar. I found 143 who ran in 2004 and 2005. And just like the men, 83% of these women ran faster in 2005. Four women ran over 30 minutes faster this year. The fastest of them was a 37 year-old women from Basking Ridge New Jersey who improved from 3:23:46 to 2:49:45.

There weren't as many extremely consistent women as men. Only 32% of these repeat women finished within 5 minutes of their 2004 times (5% less than the men).

Below are the details based on results from marathonguide.com. Note that some repeat runners may have been missed if they didn't finish in the top 1000 in one of the years or if their names weren't exactly the same in both years.

Male Repeat Boston Marathon Runners

2005 vs 2004 ChangeNumberPercent
over 30 min faster10.5
15 to 30 min faster3015.1
5 to 15 min faster9045.2
0 to 5 min faster4522.6
0 to 5 min slower2814.1
5 to 15 min slower52.5
15 to 30 min slower0
over 30 min slower0
Total199100


Female Repeat Boston Marathon Runners

2005 vs 2004 ChangeNumberPercent
over 30 min faster42.8
15 to 30 min faster2517.5
5 to 15 min faster6142.7
0 to 5 min faster2920.3
0 to 5 min slower1711.9
5 to 15 min slower64.2
15 to 30 min slower10.7
over 30 min slower0
Total143100


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Thursday, April 21, 2005

Boston 2005: Times by Age Groups

Yesterday I looked at the top 1000 men and women by region of the 2005 Boston Marathon. This post will look at them my age groups.

For the men, the largest group were those in their thirties. There were 420 of them in the top 1000. The next largest group was the 20-29 group with a total of 305 runners. Both of these are higher than last year in which the 20-29 age group had 283 runners and the 30-39 age group had 408 runners. Seems like this year there were fewer 40 to 60 year olds in the top 1000 men. Perhaps last year the more experienced runners were able to pace themselves better in the heat.

The 20-29 age group had the fastest average time of 2:52:49 which was about 2.5 minutes faster than the 30-39 age group, the second fastest average.

For the top 1000 women, the largest group were those in their twenties. There were 415 of them in the top 1000. The next largest group was the 30-39 group with a total of 370 runners. There were 33 more runners in the 20-29 age group than there were last year. Unlike the men, the women 30-39 age group went down from 409 in 2004 to 370 in 2005. The other age groups remained about the same between the two years. Unlike 2004, this year showed the common trend of the women 20-29 age group having the most runners. It would be interesting to see if this is the same if all runners were included instead of just the top 1000.

Just like the men, the 20-29 age group had the fastest average time of 3:25:37. But unlike the men, there wasn't as big a difference between the twenties, thirties, forties, and fifties age groups. They were all within 2 mintues of each other. For the men, the times slowed by about two or more mintues with every added decade. Similar results occurred last year. I wonder if men have a harder time maintaining their endurance as they age compared to women.

Here's an overview of the stats for 2005, 2004 and a little for 2003.


2005 Finishers: Total - 17549, Males - 10894 (62%), Females - 6655
2004 Finishers: Total - 16743, Males - 10504 (63%), Females - 6239
2003 Finishers: Total - 17046, Males - 10737 (63%), Females - 6309

Top 1000 Male Averages:
2005: 2:55:17
2004: 3:04:00

Top 1000 Female Averages:
2005: 3:26:06
2004: 3:36:38

Number of Men Who Ran Under 2:30:
2005: 30
2004: 19
2003: 17

Number of Women Who Ran Under 3:00:
2005: 42
2004: 21
2003: 26


Below are the age group details for the 2005 Boston Marathon. As before these are based on the results from marathonguide.com.

Male Runners by Times - Move mouse over cells to see best times

Agesunder 2:302:30 to 2:452:45 to 3:00over 3:00
teens0 (0%)0 (0%)1 (17%)5 (83%)
twenties17 (6%)44 (14%)144 (47%)100 (33%)
thirties10 (2%)59 (14%)173 (41%)178 (42%)
forties3 (1%)14 (6%)117 (50%)102 (43%)
fifties0 (0%)0 (0%)15 (48%)16 (52%)
sixties0 (0%)0 (0%)2 (100%)0 (0%)
Total30 (3%)117 (12%)452 (45%)401 (40%)


Average/Best Times By Male Age Groups

AgesNumberPercentMean TimeBest Time
teens61%3:02:582:54:31
twenties30531%2:52:492:11:45
thirties42042%2:55:292:13:39
forties23624%2:57:232:19:28
fifties313%2:59:122:45:08
sixties20%2:56:432:54:06
Total1000100%2:55:172:11:45


Female Runners by Times - Move mouse over cells to see best times

Agesunder 3:003:00 to 3:153:15 to 3:30over 3:30
teens0 (0%)1 (11%)2 (22%)6 (67%)
twenties18 (4%)42 (10%)176 (42%)179 (43%)
thirties17 (5%)36 (10%)145 (39%)172 (46%)
forties6 (3%)23 (12%)64 (34%)93 (50%)
fifties1 (5%)3 (15%)5 (25%)11 (55%)
Total42 (4%)105 (11%)392 (39%)461 (46%)


Average/Best Times By Female Age Groups

AgesNumberPercentMean TimeBest Time
teens91%3:28:543:02:23
twenties41542%3:25:372:27:03
thirties37037%3:26:022:25:13
forties18619%3:27:032:32:41
fifties202%3:27:252:58:56
Total1000100%3:26:062:25:13


To review previous posts on similar stats for Boston 2004: men's age group stats, women's age group stats

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Wednesday, April 20, 2005

London-Boston Double Marathon Results

I found another runner who ran both the London and Boston Marathon. Walter Schaller is his name, and this article mentioned that he's 68 years old and has been running for about 10 years. He ran his first marathon when he was 60. This makes him the oldest of the five runners that I've found who ran both marathons this year.

Perhaps this is the start of a trend of double marathon runs. Maybe marathons like Boston and London should create a new double-marathon category (Although I suppose they won't always be just one day apart.) I bet in 10 years, there'll be 1000s of these double-marathon race participants.

Below are the results of the double marathon runners. Note, I assume the London times are gun times. The London Marathon results page didn't provide these details. Boston times are based on chip times and are from the Boston Maraton results page.

Paul Goransson did the best at keeping a consistent pace. His Boston time was less than 10 minutes slower than London. However, it should be noted that Pam Reed and Laura Yasso included an additional marathon right before Boston.

I'm still looking for some post-Boston news articles on Pam Reed. Let me know if you find any.


Pam Reed: London: 3:25:02, Boston: 4:18:13
Laura Yasso (Kulsik): London: 4:08:25, Boston: 4:52:29

Ray Greenlaw: London: 2:56:39, Boston: 3:23:31
Paul Goransson: London: 3:24:44, Boston: 3:34:05

Walter Schaller: London: 4:27:32, Boston: 4:41:21


My previous posts on these double marathon runners: Running Both the London and Boston Marathons, Running Both London and Boston - An Update

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Boston 2005: Fastest City, State, Country

Similar to my previous post for Boston 2004, I loooked at the top 1000 men and 1000 women at last Monday's Boston Marathon. I then took an average of the runners from each U.S. city and state. I also did this for countries. The state had to have at least 20 runners in the top 1000. Cities had to have at least 5 and countries had to have at least 2. Here are the countries, U.S. cities, and states with the fastest averages for both men and women.

Fastest Country - Men

Kenya easily won this. It had 7 men who averaged 2:15:23. The next closest was Ethiopia with 3 runners who averaged 2:19:47. Ethiopia was helped by Hailu Negussie who won the race with 2:11:45.

Fastest U.S. State - Men

Massachusetts just barely beat Connecticut. Massachusetts had 123 runners who averaged 2:54:23. This was 7 seconds faster than the average of Connecticut's 31 runners.

Fastest U.S. City - Men

The fastest city was Somerville Massachusetts which had 9 runners who averaged 2:45:03. They easily beat their next closest competitor, Washington DC which had an average of 2:49:36 from its 9 runners.

Fastest Country - Women

Ethiopia's two women runners had the fastest average of 2:30:27. Catherine Ndereba of Kenya was the fastest woman at 2:25:13, but I did not find another Kenyan woman in the top 1000.

Fastest U.S. State - Women

There was a tie for the fastest state. Both Wisconsin and Florida had an average of 3:24:31. There were 29 women from Florida and 20 from Wisconsin. The fastest woman in the U.S. lives in Florida. Her time was 2:41:05.

Fastest U.S. City - Women

Raleigh North Carolina had the fastest average for the women. The 5 women from Raleigh averaged 3:19:01. The second place city was Houston Texas which had 6 women who averaged 3:22:37.

Below are the details. These stats are based on results from Marathonguide.com.

Average/Best Times By Country - Men

CountryNumberPercentMean TimeBest Time
Australia30%2:46:252:16:38
Austria30%2:51:492:49:23
Canada788%2:57:362:32:38
Costa Rica20%2:47:332:38:26
Ethiopia30%2:19:472:11:45
France20%2:30:472:16:41
Germany51%2:57:192:47:20
Italy30%2:51:022:27:33
Japan61%2:45:062:27:09
Kenya71%2:15:232:12:21
Mexico111%2:51:372:35:18
Philippines20%2:47:512:47:01
Republic of20%2:49:082:35:01
Switzerland30%2:55:452:50:48
USA85485%2:55:582:13:39
United Kingdom40%2:37:292:19:28
Below Cutoff121%2:49:442:19:04
Total1000100%2:55:172:11:45


Average/Best Times By State - Men

StateNumberPercentMean TimeBest Time
CA737%2:55:122:17:32
CO263%2:55:102:13:39
CT313%2:54:302:31:32
IL404%2:57:102:36:45
MA12312%2:54:232:27:20
MD384%2:59:002:40:33
MI374%2:55:002:18:17
NY717%2:57:112:36:21
OH283%2:55:392:31:29
PA404%2:58:442:46:31
TX333%2:57:352:39:48
VA232%2:55:022:25:22
WI283%2:55:402:37:28
outside US14615%2:51:212:11:45
Below Cutoff26326%2:55:522:19:41
Total1000100%2:55:172:11:45


Average/Best Times By Cities - Men

CityNumberPercentMean TimeBest Time
Alexandria, VA51%2:54:092:49:24
Annapolis, MD121%3:00:052:51:40
Atlanta, GA61%3:02:322:59:02
Austin, TX91%2:56:222:47:20
Boston, MA182%2:52:512:31:47
Brooklyn, NY71%2:56:522:41:24
Cambridge, MA141%2:53:292:33:34
Chicago, IL141%2:55:172:36:45
Denver, CO71%2:56:062:35:09
Fairbanks, AK51%2:52:362:39:37
Los Angeles, CA51%2:56:002:38:48
Madison, WI51%2:55:102:47:24
Mississauga, ON51%3:02:202:56:23
New York, NY192%2:54:522:39:02
Ottawa, ON61%2:56:392:47:01
Philadelphia, PA61%2:55:182:46:31
Portland, OR61%2:54:582:52:02
Princeton, NJ51%2:57:102:43:46
San Diego, CA61%2:54:022:35:15
San Francisco, CA152%2:57:372:23:50
Seattle, WA61%2:50:462:34:35
Somerville, MA91%2:45:032:27:20
Washington, DC91%2:49:362:19:41
West Point, NY71%2:57:442:46:11
outside US/Canada687%2:44:112:11:45
Below Cutoff72673%2:56:232:13:39
Total1000100%2:55:172:11:45


Average/Best Times By Country - Women

CountryNumberPercentMean TimeBest Time
Australia30%3:18:543:17:10
Canada747%3:29:002:58:56
Ethiopia20%2:30:272:27:03
Germany20%3:28:543:24:59
Italy20%2:53:272:29:51
Japan61%3:08:282:37:34
Mexico30%3:17:192:57:40
Russian Federation20%2:32:292:31:34
USA89089%3:26:402:41:05
United Kingdom40%3:22:423:13:13
Below Cutoff121%3:03:322:25:13
Total1000100%3:26:062:25:13


Average/Best Times By State - Women

StateNumberPercentMean TimeBest Time
CA9510%3:26:212:43:46
CO414%3:27:012:57:39
FL293%3:24:312:41:05
GA202%3:29:353:02:23
IL495%3:27:362:57:44
MA12513%3:26:152:51:35
MI303%3:25:052:44:02
NJ253%3:26:052:49:45
NY616%3:26:192:50:10
OH303%3:28:363:06:53
PA374%3:26:222:54:23
TX374%3:30:053:00:10
VA333%3:27:003:05:43
WA242%3:27:153:05:53
WI202%3:24:313:07:48
outside US11011%3:21:322:25:13
Below Cutoff23423%3:26:292:43:14
Total1000100%3:26:062:25:13


Average/Best Times By Cities - Women

CityNumberPercentMean TimeBest Time
Arlington, VA101%3:29:253:15:42
Atlanta, GA71%3:30:523:13:31
Austin, TX51%3:31:153:19:27
Boston, MA182%3:24:352:58:22
Boulder, CO91%3:29:033:13:31
Brighton, MA61%3:26:343:11:58
Brookline, MA51%3:26:013:04:21
Brooklyn, NY71%3:23:212:55:27
Cambridge, MA111%3:23:283:03:08
Chicago, IL212%3:26:323:01:42
Denver, CO91%3:32:033:25:50
Houston, TX61%3:22:373:00:10
Kansas City, MO61%3:32:003:24:11
London, ON51%3:25:013:08:57
Los Angeles, CA51%3:28:523:21:04
Nashville, TN91%3:29:432:59:03
New York, NY152%3:31:383:20:40
Philadelphia, PA51%3:27:493:18:19
Phoenix, AZ51%3:25:183:18:37
Raleigh, NC51%3:19:013:03:35
San Diego, CA61%3:24:473:10:02
San Francisco, CA182%3:22:492:43:46
Seattle, WA81%3:24:373:18:25
Somerville, MA61%3:26:593:20:09
South Boston, MA81%3:26:033:13:28
Toronto, ON51%3:30:373:25:29
Washington, DC111%3:29:033:17:21
outside US/Canada364%3:06:122:25:13
Below Cutoff73373%3:26:492:41:05
Total1000100%3:26:062:25:13


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