Marathon Demographics

From Running Times online…

How Demographics Are Affecting the Racing Scene

Races are getting bigger and slower

By Marc Chalufour

As featured in the October 2010 issue of Running Times Magazine

For decades -- a century, almost -- road racing was a world of competitive men. Since emerging from the first running boom, however, the sport has quickly evolved. The competitive core is still there, leading the pack. But now that core is being chased through the streets by thousands upon thousands of new runners, many of them motivated by very different factors.

The numbers really began to change in the early 1990s when aging running boomers filled out the masters ranks. By 2000, 44 percent of marathon finishers were 40-plus. Growth of the women's division was even more dramatic. Just 10 percent of marathon finishers in 1980 were female. That figure is now 40 percent, while women now make up more than half the finishers at many shorter distances.

Though these demographic shifts have slowed, overall growth continues. Runners are flooding road races in unprecedented numbers -- and with that flood are coming more subtle changes. No event has benefited more than the half marathon, the fastest-growing distance on the roads with more than 1 million finishers annually now; more than a quarter of them are women under the age of 35. According to the Running USA data, in the last two years the average age of a female road racer has dropped nearly a full year, to 38.6.

Running USA surveys runners every year on their motivations, and their answers today are telling. Fifteen percent of men began running to compete in school, but even more say they began to run for exercise. On the women's side of the ledger, "exercise" and "weight concerns" account for nearly 40 percent. A study conducted by sociologist Elizabeth Loughren found that men more often were motivated to run their first marathon for "competition" and "personal goal achievement," while women more often said "self esteem" and "weight concerns" were among the motivating factors. And for those who chose to run a second marathon? The response that men selected more than women: "lower finish time."

Road racing has become a growth industry, but what impact are these new runners having on the sport?

Read on here.