The aims of this study were (1) to investigate the participation and performance trends at the '100 km Lauf Biel' in Switzerland from 1998 to 2010, and (2) to compare the age-related changes in 100-km running performance between males and females. For both sexes, the percent of finishers significantly (P<0.01) decreased for the 18-29 and the 30-39-year age groups, while it significantly (P<0.01) increased for the 40-49 and the 50-59-year age groups over the studied period. From 1998 to 2010, the mean age of the top ten finishers increased by 0.4 years per annum for both females (P=0.02) and males (P=0.003). The running time for the top ten finishers remained stable for females, while it significantly (P=0.001) increased by 2.4 min per annum for males. There was a significant (P<0.001) age effect on running times for both sexes. The best 100-km running times was observed for the age comprised between 30 and 49 years for males, and between 30 and 54 years for females, respectively. The age-related decline in running performance was similar until 60-64 years between males and females, but was greater for females compared to males after 65 years. Future studies should investigate the lifespan from 65 to 75 years to better understand the performance difference between male and female master ultra-marathoners.

Little research has examined ultra-endurance swimming performances. The 'English Channel Swim', where swimmers have to cover a distance of 32 km between England and France represents a unique long-distance, open-water, sea-swimming challenge, and each year swimmers from all over the world try to succeed in this challenge. The best times in minutes and the nationality of successful men and women swimmers were analysed from 1900 to 2010. A total of 1,533 swimmers (455 women and 1,078 men) from more than 40 countries have successfully completed the 'English Channel Swim'. Great Britain was the country most represented, with 38% of the total, followed by the United States with 20%. Swim speed has increased progressively for both sexes (P < 0. women's open-water ultra-swim performances.

Despite of the growth of ultra-endurance sports events (of duration >6 h) over the previous few decades, the age-related declines in ultra-endurance performance have drawn little attention. The aim of the study was to analyse the changes in participation and performance trends of older (>40 years of age) triathletes between 1986 and 2010 at the Hawaii Ironman triathlon consisting of 3.8 km swimming, 180 km cycling and 42 km running. Swimming, cycling, running and total times of the best male and female triathletes between 18 and 69 years of age who competed in the Hawaii Ironman triathlon were analysed. The relative participation of master triathletes increased during the 1986-2010 period, while the participation of triathletes younger than 40 years of age decreased. Linear regression showed that males older than 44 years and females older than 40 years significantly improved their performances in the three disciplines and in the total time taken to complete the race. Gender differences in total time performance significantly decreased in the same time period for all age groups between the 40-44 and 55-59 years ones. The reasons for these relative improvements of Ironman athlete performances in older age groups remain, however, unknown. Further studies investigating training regimes, competition experience or sociodemographic factors are needed to gain better insights into the phenomenon of increasing participation and improvement of ultra-endurance performance with advancing age.

We investigated the timeline of performances in the three races of the 'World Challenge Deca Iron Triathlon', held in 2006, 2007 and 2009, where the athletes completed one Ironman triathlon daily on 10 consecutive days. The association of anthropometric characteristics such as body fat estimated using bioelectrical impedance analysis and previous experience in ultra-triathlon with race time was investigated using multiple linear regression analysis. Forty-nine athletes participated in these three races; 23 (47%) participants completed the race within 8,817 (1,322) min. Day 1 was the fastest with 762 (86) min; the slowest was Day 10 with 943 (167) min (P<0.05). The time per Ironman increased during the race (P<0.05). Body mass and fat mass decreased whereas lean body mass increased (P<0.05). Race time was related to both the number of finished Triple Iron triathlons (P=0.028) and the personal best time in a Triple Iron triathlon (P<0.0001). We concluded that performance in a Deca Iron triathlon decreased throughout the competition, with the fastest race on Day 1 and the slowest on Day 10. The number of finished Triple Iron triathlons and the personal best time in a Triple Iron triathlon, but not anthropometry, were related to race time. To conclude, athletes need to have a high number of previously completed Triple Iron triathlons, as well as a fast personal best time in a Triple Iron triathlon, in order to finish a Deca Iron triathlon successfully.

The aims of the present study were to (1) investigate the participation trends for the origin of athletes competing in 100-km ultra-marathons and (2) determine the nationalities of athletes achieving the fastest 100-km race times worldwide. Race times and nationality from 112,283 athletes (15,204 women and 97,079 men) from 102 countries who completed a 100-km ultra-marathon worldwide between 1998 and 2011 were investigated using single-and multi-level regression analyses. The number of finishers increased exponentially, both for women and men. Most of the finishers (73.5%) were from Europe, in particular, France (30.4%). The number of finishers from Japan, Germany, Italy, Poland and the United States of America increased exponentially during the studied period. For women, runners from Canada became slower while those from Italy became faster over time. For men, runners from Belgium, Canada and Japan became slower. Between 1998 and 2011, the ten best race times were achieved by Japanese runners for both women with 457.1 (s = 28.8) min and men with 393.4 (s = 9.6) min. To summarise, most of the finishers in 100-km ultra-marathons originated from Europe, but the best performances belong to Japanese runners. Although East African runners dominate running up to a marathon, Japanese were the best in 100 km.

The age of peak performance has been well investigated for elite athletes in endurance events such as marathon running, but not for ultra-endurance (>6 h) events such as an Ironman triathlon covering 3.8 km swimming, 180 km cycling and 42 km running. The aim of this study was to analyze the changes in the age and performances of the annual top ten women and men at the Ironman World Championship the 'Ironman Hawaii' from 1983 to 2012. Age and performances of the annual top ten women and men in overall race time and in each split discipline were analyzed. The age of the annual top ten finishers increased over time from 26 ± 5 to 35 ± 5 years (r (2) = 0.35, P < 0.01) for women and from 27 ± 2 to 34 ± 3 years (r (2) = 0.28, P < 0.01) for men. Overall race time of the annual top ten finishers decreased across years from 671 ± 16 to 566 ± 8 min (r (2) = 0.44, P < 0.01) for women and from 583 ± 24 to 509 ± 6 min (r (2) = 0.41, P < 0.01) for men. To conclude, the age of annual top ten female and male triathletes in the 'Ironman Hawaii' increased over the last three decades while their performances improved. These findings suggest that the maturity of elite long-distance triathletes has changed during this period and raises the question of the upper limits of the age of peak performance in elite ultra-endurance performance.

This study examined participation and performance trends in the 26.4-km open-water ultra-swim "Marathon Swim in Lake Zurich," Switzerland. A total of 461 athletes (157 women and 304 men) finished the race between 1987 and 2011. The mean age of the finishers during the studied period was 32.0 ± 6.5 years for men and 30.9 ± 7.2 years for women. The mean age of finishers and the age of winners increased significantly across years for both sexes (p < 0.01). The winner times were significantly lower for men (403 ± 43 minutes) compared with women (452 ± 63 minutes) (p < 0.01). In contrast, the mean swimming time of the finishers did not differ between men (530 ± 39 minutes) and women (567 ± 71 minutes) (p > 0.05). The swimming time performance remained stable (p > 0.05) for both sexes across years. A higher age was associated with an increased risk for not finishing the race (odds ratio = 0.93, p = 0.045). Swim time was negatively associated with water temperature in the top 3 swimmers (ß = -9.87, p = 0.025). These results show that open-water ultra-swimming performance of elite swimmers over 26.4 km in a freshwater lake is affected by age, sex, and water temperature. The sex difference in open-water ultra-swimming performance (approximately 11.5%) remained unchanged these last 25 years. It seems unlikely that elite female swimmers will achieve the same performance of elite male swimmers competing in open-water ultra-swimming in water of approximately 20 °C. Anthropometric and physiological characteristics such as skeletal muscle mass and thermoregulation need additional investigations in female and male open-water ultra-swimmers.

OBJECTIVES:The performance and age of peak ultra-endurance performance have been investigated in single races and single race series but not using worldwide participation data. The purpose of this study was to examine the changes in running performance and the age of peak running performance of the best 100-mile ultra-marathoners worldwide.METHOD:The race times and ages of the annual ten fastest women and men were analyzed among a total of 35,956 finishes (6,862 for women and 29,094 for men) competing between 1998 and 2011 in 100-mile ultra-marathons.RESULTS:The annual top ten performances improved by 13.7% from 1,132±61.8 min in 1998 to 977.6±77.1 min in 2011 for women and by 14.5% from 959.2±36.4 min in 1998 to 820.6±25.7 min in 2011 for men. The mean ages of the annual top ten fastest runners were 39.2±6.2 years for women and 37.2±6.1 years for men. The age of peak running performance was not different between women and men (p>0.05) and showed no changes across the years.CONCLUSION:These findings indicated that the fastest female and male 100-mile ultra-marathoners improved their race time by ∼14% across the 1998–2011 period at an age when they had to be classified as master athletes. Future studies should analyze longer running distances (>200 km) to investigate whether the age of peak performance increases with increased distance in ultra-marathon running.