Why men are more likely to collapse in marathons than women
Data from more than 20 years of the Berlin Marathon shows: Men experience performance slumps significantly more often than women. This applies not only to recreational runners but also to professionals. A possible cause could be incorrect race tactics.
Men run marathons faster on average than women – but their performance breaks down significantly more often during the race. An analysis of more than 870,000 finishers of the Berlin Marathon shows: Men experience a strong performance breakdown ("hitting the wall") about twice as often as women. Surprisingly, this difference exists even among very experienced and fast runners and is particularly pronounced among the fastest. The results suggest that not only physical conditions but also the chosen race strategy are crucial.
A research team led by Aldo Seffrin from the Federal University of São Paulo and Beat Knechtle from the University of Zurich analyzed the finishes of around 660,000 men and 214,000 women at the Berlin Marathon between 1999 and 2025. They compared how much the speed decreased in the second half of the race compared to the first. On average, men lost 10.7 percent of their pace, women 8.3 percent. A significant breakdown was defined as a slowdown of at least 20 percent. This affected 17.6 percent of men, but only 9.7 percent of women. Thus, for every woman with a strong breakdown, there were about two men.
The difference is evident in all performance classes. It is particularly striking among the fastest: If the finish time is under three hours, performance breakdowns are rare overall, but occur about six times more frequently in men than in women (1.42 percent compared to 0.23 percent). Detailed split times confirm this picture: Men maintain their pace less consistently than women. While 52 percent of the latter show no clear breakdown during the race, only 36 percent of men do. In the last five kilometers, men also lose significantly more speed – an average of about 18 percent. Women, on the other hand, lose only about 13 percent on average.
Thus, the work also challenges a common assumption: that experience and high performance automatically lead to better race pacing. Although the absolute number of performance breakdowns decreases among faster runners, the difference between the sexes grows. This suggests that errors in pace selection are not just a problem for beginners.
Earlier studies had hinted at similar differences, but mostly with significantly less data. The new work shows that the pattern is very stable. Why men in particular break down more often remains an open question. Possible reasons include differences in energy metabolism and a faster starting pace, perhaps due to overestimation of their abilities. The authors suggest that men could reduce the risk of a performance breakdown by starting the run slower and increasing their pace during the race.
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Original article on Spektrum.de
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