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

Ages	under 2:30	2:30 to 2:45	2:45 to 3:00	over 3:00
teens	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	1 (17%)	5 (83%)
twenties	17 (6%)	44 (14%)	144 (47%)	100 (33%)
thirties	10 (2%)	59 (14%)	173 (41%)	178 (42%)
forties	3 (1%)	14 (6%)	117 (50%)	102 (43%)
fifties	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	15 (48%)	16 (52%)
sixties	0 (0%)	0 (0%)	2 (100%)	0 (0%)
Total	30 (3%)	117 (12%)	452 (45%)	401 (40%)

Average/Best Times By Male Age Groups

Ages	Number	Percent	Mean Time	Best Time
teens	6	1%	3:02:58	2:54:31
twenties	305	31%	2:52:49	2:11:45
thirties	420	42%	2:55:29	2:13:39
forties	236	24%	2:57:23	2:19:28
fifties	31	3%	2:59:12	2:45:08
sixties	2	0%	2:56:43	2:54:06
Total	1000	100%	2:55:17	2:11:45

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

Ages	under 3:00	3:00 to 3:15	3:15 to 3:30	over 3:30
teens	0 (0%)	1 (11%)	2 (22%)	6 (67%)
twenties	18 (4%)	42 (10%)	176 (42%)	179 (43%)
thirties	17 (5%)	36 (10%)	145 (39%)	172 (46%)
forties	6 (3%)	23 (12%)	64 (34%)	93 (50%)
fifties	1 (5%)	3 (15%)	5 (25%)	11 (55%)
Total	42 (4%)	105 (11%)	392 (39%)	461 (46%)

Average/Best Times By Female Age Groups

Ages	Number	Percent	Mean Time	Best Time
teens	9	1%	3:28:54	3:02:23
twenties	415	42%	3:25:37	2:27:03
thirties	370	37%	3:26:02	2:25:13
forties	186	19%	3:27:03	2:32:41
fifties	20	2%	3:27:25	2:58:56
Total	1000	100%	3:26:06	2:25:13

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

Technorati Tags: running, marathons, boston marathon