BACKGROUND This study examined the changes in participation, performance and age of East African runners competing in half-marathons and marathons held in Switzerland between 2000 and 2010. METHODS Race times, sex, age and origin of East African versus Non-African finishers of half-marathon and marathon finishers were analyzed. RESULTS Across time, the number of Kenyan and Ethiopian finishe...

BACKGROUND Current literature evaluating body mass (BM) changes across a variety of running race distances is limited. The primary objective of this study was to profile the range of BM changes across race distances. The secondary objective was to evaluate the prevalence of exercise-associated hyponatremia (EAH) in runners admitted to the on-site medical tent following participation of race eve...

BACKGROUND Endurance running performance of African (AF) and non-African (NAF) athletes is investigated, with better performances seen for Africans. To date, no study has compared the age of peak performance between AF and NAF runners. The present research is an analysis of the age and running performance of top AF and NAF athletes, using the hypothesis that AF athletes were younger and faster ...

the purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between cortisol hormone and plasma metabolites change in male runners. for this purpose, 16 young male runners (age 21.8 ± 2 years, height 175 ± 5.26 cm, weight 64.17 ± 2.21 kg) volunteered in this study. in order to examine plasma cortisol and metabolites changes, subjects were required to perform balk exercise test. blood samples we...

study investigated the phenomenon of kinematic asymmetry of the lower limbs in distance runners. The subjects, 29 male distance runners, were recorded by high-speed filming while running on a motor 'driven treadmill under two experimental conditions (with running shoes and barefoot). Twelve selected kinematic variables were subjected to multivariate statistical andysis. It was demonstrated that...

It has been shown that prior experience with a task improves temporal prediction, even when the amount of prior experience with the task is often limited. The present study targeted the role of extensive training on temporal prediction. Expert and intermediate runners had to predict the time of a 5 km running competition. Furthermore, after the race's completion, participants had to estimate th...

A questionnaire was sent to all 960 entrants in a major city marathon race to obtain information on training-related injuries. A total of 497 replies were received; of these 287 (58%) had incurred some form of injury during preparation for the race. Seventy-one of these individuals reported more than one injury. Almost all injuries affected the lower limb, with 113 cases (32%) involving pain or...

This study intended to take a biomechanical approach to understand the success of Kenyan distance runners. Anthropometric, gait and lower extremity strength characteristics of six elite Kenyan distance runners were analyzed. Stride frequency, relative stride length and ground contact time were measured at five running speeds (3.5 - 5.4 m/s) using a motion capture system. Isometric knee extensio...

There is considerable inter-individual variability in self-selected intensity or running speed. Metabolic cost per distance has been recognized as a determinant of this personal choice. As biomechanical parameters have been connected to metabolic cost, and as different running patterns exist, we can question their possible determinant roles in self-selected speed. We examined the selfselected s...

Prior to 1969, marathon runners were advised against drinking or eating during competition (1) since it was believed that, especially fluid ingestion would impair performance, not least by causing unpleasant gastrointestinal symptoms including the “stitch”. At that time, marathon runners and marathon races were quite different from their modern descendants. In particular, there were few competi...