Our purpose was to investigate whether the slow rate of muscle glycogen resynthesis after a competitive marathon is associated with a decrease in the total muscle content of the muscle glucose transporter (GLUT-4). Seven well-trained marathon runners participated in the study, and muscle biopsies were obtained from the lateral head of the gastrocnemius muscle before, immediately after, and 1, 2...

PURPOSE Arterial stiffness is an independent predictor of cardiovascular risk and may contribute to reduced running capacity in humans. This study investigated the relationship between course record and arterial stiffness in marathoners who participated in the Seoul International Marathon in 2012. METHODS A total of 30 amateur marathoners (Males n = 28, Females n = 2, mean age = 51.6 ± 8.3 ye...

A high drop-out rate prior to the running of a Marathon reduces its value as a spectacle and needlessly causes rejection and antagonism amongst potential runners. This research investigates reasons for pre-race drop-out in the 1983 Glasgow Marathon, and finds that a major cause was injury or illness during training, with a motivational difference existing between runners and non-runners.

Each year in the past three decades has seen hundreds of thousands of runners register to run a major marathon. Of those who attempt to race over the marathon distance of 26 miles and 385 yards (42.195 kilometers), more than two-fifths experience severe and performance-limiting depletion of physiologic carbohydrate reserves (a phenomenon known as 'hitting the wall'), and thousands drop out befo...

Over the years, ultra-endurance events have increasingly piqued the interest of the scientific community as they are considered an outstanding model to study the adaptive responses to both extreme loads and stresses on the human body (Millet andMillet, 2012). Notably, ultra-marathons, i.e., any event longer than the traditional marathon length of 42.195 km (Millet and Millet, 2012), have seen r...

Background: The purpose of the study was (1) to examine the changes in participation and performance of males and females at the Oita International Wheelchair Marathon in Oita, Japan, between 1983 and 2011, and (2) to analyze the gender difference in the age of peak wheelchair marathon performance. Methods: Age and time performance data for all wheelchair athletes completing the Oita Internatio...

The first aim of this study was to determine the age group at which marathon performance declines in top male and female runners and to compare that to the runners of average ability. Another aim of this of this study was to examine the age-related yearly decline in marathon performance between age group winners and the average marathon finisher. Data from the New York (NYC), Boston, and Chicag...

Telomere length is recognized as a marker of biological age, and shorter mean leukocyte telomere length is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease. It is unclear whether repeated exposure to ultra-endurance aerobic exercise is beneficial or detrimental in the long-term and whether it attenuates biological aging. We quantified 67 ultra-marathon runners' and 56 apparently healthy...

Renal functions were investigated in 29 marathon runners and in 20 runners in connection with 16-kilometre long-distance run. Body weight in runners decreased after marathon run in average of 1.3 +/- 0.5 kg and after 16-kilometre long-distance run in average of 1.4 +/- 0.4 kg. Blood pressure decreased after both runs. Total proteinuria and albuminuria significantly increased after both runs. Th...