The State of Ultra Running 2020: Innovation in “Data-Athletics” with Paul Ronto
Dr. Chris Stout
LinkedIn Top Voice | Best Selling Author | Adventurer | Startup Whisperer | (Accidental) Humanitarian | APA's "Rockstar" Psychologist | éminence Grise
Paul Ronto, Director of Digital Content and Chief Marketing Officer at RunRepeat is a fellow data-wonk as he’s part of the recently released report, The State of Ultra Running 2020, produced by RunRepeat and International Association of Ultra-runners, and co-author, Vania Nikolova, PhD.
Paul is also a hiking expert, ultra-marathoner, and adventurer, having climbed, hiked, and run all over the world. He’s summited peaks throughout the Americas, trekked through Africa, run 6 marathons and also competed in 24-hour trail races. Additionally he has worked in the outdoor industry as a whitewater and hunting guide, gear tester, copywriter, and outfitting specialist at the National Outdoor Leadership School, No Barriers USA, and Sierra Trading Post. He has been quoted in NYMagazine, NBCNews, and Business Insider just to name a few. His industry experience includes work with hyper-growth-stage SaaS startups, non-profits, $20B multi-national companies, and a number of small and midsized businesses across the nation. So he knows his way around data and all things running.
Vania holds a Ph.D. in Mathematical Analysis and is into Obstacle Course Racing and has earned a Spartan Trifecta medal. She also has over 10 years of experience in weightlifting, martial arts, and nutrition. Her work has been featured on NPR, the Washington Post, Shape, Prevention and many other venues.
In this episode we discuss their landmark report, The State of Ultra Running 2020, the first report of its kind, the inspiration for it, the design and methodology, and most interestingly, the results. It is based on analyzing 5,010,730 results from 15,451 ultra-running events over the past 23 years. Just remarkable.
Some Key Findings
● Female ultra-runners are faster than male ultra-runners at distances over 195 miles. The average female pace is 17:19 min/mile, which is 0.6% faster than the average male pace of 17:25 min/mile.
● Participation has increased by 345% in the last 10 years from 137,234 to 611,098, and 17.8 times over the last 23 years (from 34,401 to 611,098 runners). There have never been more ultra-runners.
● Women are as fast as men in long-distance ultras. The longer the distance the shorter the gender pace gap. In 5Ks men run 17.9% faster than women but on a 100-miler the difference is just 0.25%.
● There have never been more women in ultrarunning. 23% of participants are female, compared to just 14% 23 years ago.
● Ultra runners have never been slower across distance, gender and age group. The average pace in 1996 was 11:35 min/mile, currently, it is 13:16 min/mile. The average runner has added 1:41 min/mile to their average pace, which is a slowdown of 15% since 1996. We don't believe that individual runners have become slower, but that these distances are attracting less prepared runners now because the sport is more mainstream.
● Runners improve their pace in their first 20 races, and then their pace stabilizes. From their first to their second race runners improve by 0:17 min/mile (2%) on average. But by their 20th they improve by 1:45 min/mile (12.3%).
● The fastest ultra-running nations are South Africa (average pace 10:36 min/mile), Sweden (11:56 min/mile), and Germany (12:01 min/mile).
● A record amount of people travel abroad for ultra-running events. 10.3% of people travel abroad to run an ultra, for 5Ks this percentage is just 0.2%.
● Runners in the longer distances have a better pace than the runners in the shorter distances for each age group.
● All age groups have a similar pace, around 14:40 min/mile. Which is unusual compared to the past and to other distances.
● The average age of ultra-runners has decreased by 1 year in the last 10 years. It has changed from 43.3 years to 42.3 years.
Paul provides a great deal of color commentary to go along with the data that is as fascinating as it is engaging. Paul lives his life to the fullest, both in a quantitative and qualitative way.
For your own copy of The State of Ultra Running 2020 click here: https://runrepeat.com/state-of-ultra-running
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