Re: Tour de France: No Women Ever?

07-10-2003, 07:11 AM

"Bill Davidson" <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote in message
>
> Some people are mentioning the ultra marathoners and I think part of that
> is that the speed goes down. Those ultra marathoners are not doing the
> 5 minute miles that the top regular marathoners are doing.
>

The difference between the male and female world records has gotten to be
quite small. The male record is 2:05:38 and the female record now stands at
2:15:25. Paula Radcliff's average pace during her recent record run was
5:10:

[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

Mark

07-10-2003, 04:55 PM

"Bill Davidson" <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote in message
>Some people are mentioning the ultra marathoners and I think part of that
>is that the speed goes down. Those ultra marathoners are not doing the
>5 minute miles that the top regular marathoners are doing.

Mark Weaver wrote:
>The difference between the male and female world records has gotten to be
>quite small. The male record is 2:05:38 and the female record now stands at
>2:15:25. Paula Radcliff's average pace during her recent record run was
>5:10:

As with any sport where it's about speed, one finds that the faster one
goes, the harder it is to get that next little increment of speed. These
are the fastest marathoners in the world. They are at the maximum already.
At this level 10 minutes is actually quite a lot; 22-23 seconds per mile at
a roughly 5 minute pace. That's 11.6 mph (5:10/mile) vs 12.5 mph (4:48/mile).
How many times has the men's record been broken since it was around 2:15 and
how long ago was that?

Also, how does this compare with the pace of ultra-marathoners?

--Bill Davidson