In 2018, more women than men ran marathons for the first time, according to a new study.
The percentage of marathon runners made up by women has risen dramatically, going from 20 percent in 1986 to a little over 50 percent in 2018, making it the first year more women than men ran marathons.
At the same time, marathon runners have never been older.
The average age of marathon runners has risen from 38 in 1986 to 40 in 2018, according to the study, a collaboration between Danish research firm Run Repeat and the International Association of Athletics Federation.
The average age of general runners has also steadily increased even more, going from 35.2 in 1986 to 39.3 in 2018.
The average woman runner is 36, while the average male runner is 40.
These demographic shifts have posed some challenges to marathon organizers around the country.
'Twenty years ago, you ran a marathon,' Virginia Brophy Achman, one of the organizers of the Twin Cities Marathon in Minneapolis-St.Paul, told the Star Tribune.
'But [baby] boomers are aging out and younger people have so many choices - not only shorter, more manageable races, but they're going to the gym, they're doing CrossFit and yoga and biking,'
'They're combining travel with a race.'
'Our greatest challenge, and I think the industry's as a whole, is to resonate with this demographic.
Today, marathon runners appear less interested in optimizing their times than they are the experience.
'Maybe the average runner today is more focused on a good experience than an achievement than before - not saying it's overshadowing the achievement motive, but saying that maybe achievement means less today, relatively to the experience itself,' the study authors say.
Iceland is the nation with the highest percentage of women runners, with 59 per cent.
The United States has the second highest percentage of women runners at 58 per cent, followed by Canada, Ireland, and Australia.
The countries with the highest percentage of men runners are Switzerland, Japan, India, Italy, and Korea.
The rising popularity of ultra marathons and other extreme running events may also have contributed to some declines in completion times as fewer expert or experienced runners are among those still competing.
Average completion times for both men and women have gone up over the last 30 years.
In 1988, the average woman finished a marathon in four hours and 13 minutes.
In 2018, the average finish time for women had risen to four hours and 51 minutes.
For men the finish time in 1988 was three hours and 45 minutes and in 2018 had risen to four hours and 21 minutes.
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