Beginners and Beyond

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Gender Differences at Races (Read 108 times)


Hip Redux

     

    Is is flat and fast?  Sheeit, sign me up then!

     

    Wait, what's that?  it's the week after my goal event?

     

    Hmm, you said it's flat and fast right?

     

    Sheeit, sign me up then!

     

    I actually completely forgot what the answer was. lol  I figured you men would pipe up with how you decide to do events.   This was specifically geared towards charity events and the women cared about what the cause was.  Maybe men just don't care. lol

     

       Men use a different decision process.

       

      Can I jog to the starting line from my house?

      Do they have free beer at the finish?

      Dave

      LRB


         

        I actually completely forgot what the answer was. lol  I figured you men would pipe up with how you decide to do events.   This was specifically geared towards charity events and the women cared about what the cause was.  Maybe men just don't care. lol

         

        Well I am obviously only speaking for myself but the cause of an event is for the most part completely inconsequential.  Unless of course I am doing it specifically for the cause, in which case the course profile would be completely inconsequential.

          agree with the others that it may depend on who showed up which could be a function not just of races that day but the weekend before or after - OR even other activities having nothing to do with running. That's actually a fairly large race for what I usually do (200 racers in Anchorage, <50 out here).

           

          A girl outright won the Junior Mt. Marathon Race on July 4 - first time that's happened. She's also a state champion runner in both track and xc, iirc, and probably at top end of juniors now. (I think jrs are 7-17) (with juniors, girls and boys run in the same race. Seniors, the men and women have separate races - one morning, other afternoon..)

           

          PS: Just looked at the "cause" - doesn't surprise me that there would be more women than men, and I'd expect more young people. It also doesn't surprise me that families might run together or people just out to participate. That is, how many people were actually racing?

          "So many people get stuck in the routine of life that their dreams waste away. This is about living the dream." - Cave Dog
          Half Crazy K 2.0


             

            Can I jog to the starting line from my house?

            Do they have free beer at the finish?

            It is rare that the low cost races have beer. Since this one started and end at a local high school, pretty sure alcohol is not permitted.

            kettledrum


              I want to know where Bandit Number 1 finished.  I didn't see that in the overall finishers list Smile

               

               

              I choose 5ks based upon (in no particular order)

              1) cost

              2) distance from my house

              3) course (elevation, certified or not)

               

              I'll also sometimes look at last year's results to see in general how big of a race it is.

              Brrrrrrr


              Uffda

                I want to know where Bandit Number 1 finished.  I didn't see that in the overall finishers list Smile

                 

                 

                I choose 5ks based upon (in no particular order)

                1) cost

                2) distance from my house

                3) course (elevation, certified or not)

                 

                I'll also sometimes look at last year's results to see in general how big of a race it is.

                 

                Ditto this, except I generally don't creep on last years results. Wink

                 

                As far as finding out what charity it supports, I honestly don't check. As long as it's nothing crazy like the KKK then I don't care if it's Saint Judes, the Shriners, the local pubhouse, or whatever. I've done enough races that I spread the wealth around quite nicely. Obviously if there was a cause that was close to my heart then I'd go out of my way to attend. I just don't have one of those yet.

                - Andrew

                Half Crazy K 2.0


                   

                  This is generally true, yes - one of my friends went to a seminar on attracting participants to charity events (running, biking) and according to the various focus groups someone there had studied, women will sign up for things if they like the charity and cause.   Men use a different decision process.

                   

                  Oski, I thought this may be true. When I have gotten a team together for a race with a cause, it has been through work. My department is at least 80% female, maybe higher, so of course the team always had way more women.

                  JerryInIL


                  Return To Racing

                    60+ M/F didn't exactly set any records either.  Is this near DC?

                        

                    Half Crazy K 2.0


                      60+ M/F didn't exactly set any records either.  Is this near DC?

                      About an hour to 1.5 hours north of DC. The race was about 20 minutes north of downtown Baltimore.

                      MothAudio


                        The women are kicking but the the A/G compared to the men but to be fair the men's A/G times are very slow. I would have placed in the 20-29 A/G as a 55 YO. That should never happen!  And I'm not even breaking sub-20. Heck, I would have won the 30 and 40 A/G too. Sad. It's a small sampling but those are just very slow times and you'd rarely see placing like that in this area.

                         

                        There are more women running, at least where I run the women out-number the guys quite a bit and in races it's close to 50/50 on average. I think women do tend to choose more "cause" or "fun" races whereas guys are focused more on the competitive aspect [least I am ] or the social aspect [beer, theme, girls].

                         Youth Has No Age. ~ Picasso / 1st road race: Charleston Distance Run 15 Miler - 1974 / profile

                         

                        MothAudio


                          Yeah I believe the distance of choice for women was the half marathon, by a lot.  I think the 10k was second (at least in terms of finishers which I posted a thread about once) but do not quote me on either....meaning I am probably wrong. 

                           

                          They can't be racing the 10k. That or they're idiots.

                           Youth Has No Age. ~ Picasso / 1st road race: Charleston Distance Run 15 Miler - 1974 / profile

                           

                          MothAudio


                            Nothing really stands out to me other than the 40-49 AG Male results which are astoundingly slow.  Even the overall male results, while slower than I normally see, aren't completely off the mark as I have seen plenty of overall winner results approaching 20 minutes.  I think it's just a function of who showed up that day.  As someone in the 50-59 AG, I find that, at least in local 5Ks it is either completely uncompetitive and I finish 3-5 minutes ahead of the next AG competitor or it is insanely competitive and the top 3 are all within less than two minutes.  In this one, the top 3 in my AG all finished within 30 seconds.

                             

                            Same here. We have 5-6 races locally every weekend. It just depneds who shows up. If the fast guys in my A/G do I'm just outside awards, otherwise I'm scoring, even finishing in the top 10-20 finishers. Professor @ Ohio State just moved here from England, he's 5 years my junior, he ran the big Spring half marathon here in 1:12 and finished 7th overall. He contending for overall in most races he enters!

                             Youth Has No Age. ~ Picasso / 1st road race: Charleston Distance Run 15 Miler - 1974 / profile

                             

                            MothAudio


                              Can I jog to the starting line from my house?

                              Do they have free beer at the finish?

                               

                              When I lived downtown I could jog 3/4 mile right down the middle of the street to the marathon start - awesome.

                               Youth Has No Age. ~ Picasso / 1st road race: Charleston Distance Run 15 Miler - 1974 / profile

                               

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