In one recent study, we recruited over 1,100 varsity intercollegiate distance runners to complete surveys addressing their training, motivation and performance.
Compared to men, women reported being less competitive, training less and wanting to train less. The women reported greater commitment to their studies. Perhaps the most interesting finding was that these sex differences were just as large among the fastest as among the slowest runners. That is, even the very best female athletes, the ones with full scholarships and realistic professional prospects, were still quite different than their male counterparts.
In another recent study, we assessed the pacing of 92,000 runners at 14 different marathons. Although men and women both tended to slow their pace in the second half of marathons, this effect was stronger for men.
The sex difference was especially pronounced when looking at runners who slowed by 30% or more – men were three times as likely as women to do this. These results indicate that more male marathoners undertake a competitive, risky pace. They begin at a pace that could lead to a superb performance, given their own talent and training, but one that also increases their chances of crashing or “hitting the wall.”
Another study of ours focused on participation at track races and road races by masters runners, who are at least 40 years old.
At road races, women comprised 52% of participants, but at track meets they comprised about 25% of participants. This pattern is remarkable because road races and track meets draw different kinds of runners. At road races, most runners have a recreational orientation, not a competitive one. This is revealed in how road racers answer questionnaires and in their generally slow performances.
Track meets are different because, although they are not as popular, the runners who do show up almost always run fast relative to sex-specific, age-specific world records.
The sex difference in participation at track meets indicates that the relatively small number of older competitive runners are still much more likely to be men than women. In this study, we also checked if the sex difference in track meet participation had decreased over the past 25 years, as it had for road race participation. We found that women narrowed the gap slightly in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but the sex difference has been stable since then.
We have also found substantial sex differences in performance depth. For example, in a typical 5-kilometer road race, for every woman that finishes within 125% of the female world record, there are roughly three men who finish within 125% of the male world record.
We have documented this pattern in hundreds of road races and also in large samples of high school, collegiate and professional runners. The best supported explanation for this sex difference is that more men are motivated to do the training necessary for fast performances. We have examined whether this sex difference is shrinking and, again, we found that it isn’t.
