Road Race Stats - Marathons & Other Running Races

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Mini-Marathon Repeat Runners

I found 8141 repeat runners in last Saturday's Indianapolis Mini-Marathon who had also run in last year's race. That's about a third of the 25028 finishers. Out of these repeat runners, 56% ran faster.

In 2004, there were 7673 repeat runners who had also run in 2003. That was about 39% of the 19577 runners. Out of these repeat runners, only 37% ran faster. It can be seen that the high temperature and humidity in 2004 had a big impact.

Three-Peat Gainers

I also looked at the runners who ran all three races from 2003 to 2005. There were 4267 of these runners or about 17% of the 25028 finishers. Out of these 703 had run faster in each race (2004 faster than 2003 and 2005 faster than 2004). That's only about 16% of these 4267 runners.

I then looked only at the top 1000 men and top 1000 women for all three races. From these runners, there were only 34 men and 28 women who have run faster in each race. Below is a look at the top male and female.

A 16 year-old male from Martinsville Indiana went from 1:27:45 in 2003 to 1:13:41 this year which was 28th overall and just 6 seconds behind female winner. In 2004, he took almost 8 minutes off his time to finish in 1:19:57. This was an especially strong finish considering how much warmer and more humid it was in 2004 as compared to 2003. He continued this improvement this year by cutting another 6 plus minutes off his 2004 time.

For the women, this 36 year-old women from Indianapolis went from 1:43:33 in 2003 to 1:27:46 this year which was 26th place for the women. In 2004 she cut over 3 minutes from this time to finish with 1:39:50. Then she made a huge improvement this year by cutting over 12 minutes off her 2004 time.

2005 and 2004 Repeat Runners

2005 vs 2004 ChangeNumberPercent
over 20 min faster5827.1
10 to 20 min faster94311.6
5 to 10 min faster118814.6
0 to 5 min faster182922.5
0 to 5 min slower142017.4
5 to 10 min slower7659.4
10 to 20 min slower7038.6
over 20 min slower7118.7
Total8141100


2004 and 2003 Repeat Runners

2004 vs 2003 ChangeNumberPercent
over 20 min faster4956.5
10 to 20 min faster4976.5
5 to 10 min faster6118
0 to 5 min faster120115.7
0 to 5 min slower155720.3
5 to 10 min slower124116.2
10 to 20 min slower121215.8
over 20 min slower85911.2
Total7673100


The above stats are based on results from the Indianapolis 500 Festival Mini-Marathons for 2005, 2004, and 2003.

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2 Comments:

  • Ken, in 2004, they shut the timing devices off and red-flagged the event somewhere around the 3 hour mark as a 40-something-year-old man died of cardiac arrest on the course. Not sure how that works into your repeat numbers, but thought that I'd throw that caveat out there. (I ran the event in 2004, finished with a gun time of 2:48, and just barely before they shut things down.)

    By Blogger WalkSports.com, at 5:46 PM  

  • Thanks for the info. That would definitely reduce the recorded repeat runners. It's good to have first-hand experience. Things like this can't be understood by just looking at the results.

    By Blogger Ken, at 7:38 AM  

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