Guys, I think the women are taking over... (Read 814 times)

I was looking at the statistics for the last race I ran, which was New York road Runner’s last timed race of the year. I was mildly surprised that there were more women runners than men. Holiday 4 Mile Race 12/15/07 Total Finishers: Men – 2345 Women – 2606 Total – 4951 Finishers by Age and Gender Age Group Men Women Total 12 - 14 88 64 152 15 - 19 32 23 55 20 - 29 448 960 1408 30 - 39 854 917 1771 40 - 44 291 231 522 45 - 49 242 162 404 50 - 54 125 85 210 55 - 59 83 48 131 60 - 64 49 35 84 65 - 69 35 16 51 70 - 74 12 9 21 75 - 79 6 3 9 80 - 84 1 3 4 Even more surprising was the large number of women between the ages of 20-29. I began looking at the statistics of other races and found that this tread extended to longer races as well. Note again, the large number of Women between the ages of 20-29. Hot Chocolate 15K 12/01/07 Total Finishers: Men – 2319 Women – 2447 Total – 4766 Finishers by Age and Gender Age Group Men Women Total 12 - 19 16 13 29 20 - 29 493 1024 1517 30 - 39 889 882 1771 40 - 44 337 226 563 45 - 49 237 148 385 50 - 54 138 74 212 55 - 59 102 39 141 60 - 64 55 20 75 65 - 69 29 15 44 70 - 74 9 3 12 75 - 79 7 2 9 80 - 84 2 1 3 It looks as though there is an influx of young women outnumbering the men by 2-1. I wonder if this means women are taking over the sport(at least here in New York). Thoughts?

Yeah, seriously, how about this race: Maine Coast Half Marathon The race had 800 women and only 1 man. Of course, he got into the trace through a lottery...

That was a pretty good race--my wife ran it and I "spectated". It was a loop course so you could see the runners at several points just by walking back and forth across the course. I am considering entering the lottery for next year. The $ goes to a good cause and there's a chance for a half-marathon win for me!

That was a pretty good race--my wife ran it and I "spectated". It was a loop course so you could see the runners at several points just by walking back and forth across the course. I am considering entering the lottery for next year. The $ goes to a good cause and there's a chance for a half-marathon win for me!

My wife was going to run, but she was too busy studying and decided against going since she didn't feel that she was in good enough shape for a half mary. Maybe next year.

It's interesting to see that women mainly outnumber men in the 20s age groups. By the time the age groups hit mid-forties, the men seem to far outnumber the women. I wonder why?

The more 20-29 y/o women in races, the better.

Haha

It's interesting to see that women mainly outnumber men in the 20s age groups. By the time the age groups hit mid-forties, the men seem to far outnumber the women. I wonder why?

Zoom's idea about motherhood may be a small piece (although a couple of teammates of mine just qualified for the marathon trials in April that both have kids - they are in their 30s though) - I think the bigger issue is that running as a recreational sport really started to boom relatively recently and the runners that are in their mid-40s would have been the ones to jump in quicker. I don't know how much it relates, but I have a bunch of teammates in their 40s that are much faster than I am. We even have a 51 year old on the team that can run low-16s in the 5k. Those guys were the ones winning races 20 years ago, and except for a few young upstarts that are in their early/mid 20s they are the guys that are still winning races now. Maine has a very strong masters division and it isn't unusual for the 5-8 of the top 10 of some races to be masters runners.