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For immediate release
June 1, 2007

MARATHON TRAINING AND PERFORMANCE STRATEGIES BASED ON NEW RESEARCH
Gender, training miles, and weather all play roles

NEW ORLEANS – Two studies presented at the American College of Sports Medicine’s (ACSM) 54th Annual Meeting in New Orleans examined marathoners and marathon performance, giving further insight into what makes a great runner.

The first study looked at physical and training characteristics of all, not just elite, marathon runners and how these characteristics affected race outcomes. Gender, body size and training miles were the greatest predictors of race success.

In general, male runners had faster race times than female runners, due to men’s greater aerobic capacity and ability to pump more blood through the heart than women. Successful marathoners of either gender were very light in proportion to height.

Another key factor to race success was training mileage per week. Although a high per-week mileage was not necessary to merely finish the race, greater mileage increases aerobic fitness and usually leads to faster race times.

Surprisingly, years of running experience did not play a significant role in race success. This was probably due to having many experienced marathoners who were not fast runners, and many fast novice marathoners who have not yet learned the most effective strategies for running their best race. Non-serious past injuries and physical symptoms during the race, such as nausea, also had no significant bearing on outcome compared to the other variables studied.

“Basically, ‘legs and lungs’ are the major body parts that marathoners need to run a successful race,” said James Pivarnik, Ph.D., FACSM, one of the lead authors on the study.

A related study examined weather conditions for optimal marathon performance, and found that the fastest marathon times were run in cool conditions of approximately 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Although the study did not examine why this was true, lead study author Matthew Ely believes that cooler temperatures allow for sufficient dissipation of metabolic heat and therefore maintenance of thermal equilibrium during a race.

Since weather during a marathon can be unpredictable, Ely recommends that marathoners be prepared to run in all weather conditions.

“The last four years of the Boston Marathon have been hot, warm, cool and cold,” he said.

Ely can relate his research to personal experience. He recently finished 79th of all male competitors in the Boston Marathon, and placed third in ACSM’s five-kilometer Gisolfi Fun Run in 2004. The Fun Run is held yearly at ACSM’s Annual Meeting.

The American College of Sports Medicine is the largest sports medicine and exercise science organization in the world.  More than 20,000 international, national, and regional members are dedicated to advancing and integrating scientific research to provide educational and practical applications of exercise science and sports medicine.

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The conclusions outlined in this news release are those of the researchers only, and should not be construed as an official statement of the American College of Sports Medicine.