Pacing and Performance in the 6 World Marathon Majors

José Joaquín Díaz; Andrew Renfree; Eduardo J Fernández-Ozcorta; Miguel Torres; Jordan Santos-Concejero

doi:10.3389/fspor.2019.00054

Pacing and Performance in the 6 World Marathon Majors

Front Sports Act Living. 2019 Nov 8:1:54. doi: 10.3389/fspor.2019.00054. eCollection 2019.

Authors

José Joaquín Díaz¹, Andrew Renfree², Eduardo J Fernández-Ozcorta³, Miguel Torres⁴, Jordan Santos-Concejero¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physical Education and Sport, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain.
² School of Sport and Exercise Science, University of Worcester, Worcester, United Kingdom.
³ Research Group HUM-643, Department of Integrated Didactics, University of Huelva, Huelva, Spain.
⁴ Department of Energy Engineering, University of Seville, Seville, Spain.

Abstract

The main goal of this study was to analyse the pacing strategies displayed by the winners of the six World Marathon Majors in order to determine which race offers the greatest potential for future world record attempts. For data analysis, the total distance of the marathon was divided into eight sections of 5 km and a final section of 2.195 km, and time needed to complete each section was calculated in seconds. When we analyzed the mean winning time in the last 13 editions of each of the World Marathon Majors, we observed differences between New York and London (ES = 1.46, moderate effect, p = 0.0030), New York and Berlin (ES = 0.95, small effect, p = 0.0001), London and Boston (ES = 0.08, small effect, p = 0.0001), Boston and Berlin (ES = 0.10, small effect, p = 0.0001), Boston and Chicago (ES = 0.16, small effect, p = 0.0361), Berlin and Tokyo (ES = 0.20, small effect, p = 0.0034), Berlin and Chicago (ES = 0.27, small effect, p = 0.0162). This study shows that Berlin and London are likely candidates for future world record attempts, whilst such a performance is unlikely in New York or Boston.

Keywords: athletics; endurance; long-distance running; pacing; tactics.