Pacing Strategy During 24-Hour Ultramarathon-Distance Running.
OBJECTIVE
To describe pacing strategy in a 24-h running race and its interaction with sex, age group, athletes' performance group, and race edition.


METHODS
Data from 398 male and 103 female participants of 5 editions were obtained based on a minimum 19.2-h effective-running cutoff. Mean running speed from each hour was normalized to the 24-h mean speed for analyses.


RESULTS
Mean overall performance was 135.6 ± 33.0 km with a mean effective-running time of 22.4 ± 1.3 h. Overall data showed a reverse J-shaped pacing strategy, with a significant reduction in speed from the second-to-last to the last hour. Two-way mixed ANOVAs showed significant interactions between racing time and both athlete performance group (F = 7.01, P < .001, ηp2= .04) and race edition (F = 3.01, P < .001, ηp2= .02) but not between racing time and either sex (F = 1.57, P = .058, ηp 2 < .01) or age group (F = 1.25, P = .053, ηp2= .01). Pearson product-moment correlations showed an inverse moderate association between performance and normalized mean running speed in the first 2 h (r = -.58, P < .001) but not in the last 2 h (r = .03, P = .480).


CONCLUSIONS
While the general behavior represents a rough reverse J-shaped pattern, the fastest runners start at lower relative intensities and display a more even pacing strategy than slower runners. The "herd behavior" seems to interfere with pacing strategy across editions, but not sex or age group of runners.
Arthur H
AH
Bossi
Guilherme G
GG
Matta
Guillaume Y
GY
Millet
Pedro
P
Lima
Leonardo C
LC
Pertence
Jorge P
JP
de Lima
James G
JG
Hopker
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003163:Competitive Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010807:Physical Endurance / Q000502:physiology*; D012420:Running / Q000502:physiology*; D012737:Sex Factors; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult
competitive behavior; gender; track and field; ultraendurance; work distribution