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- Hacker News
- And yet women seem to be defeating men at ultramarathons. I think more research is needed.by moogleii
- There’s been like 2 times.by dyauspitr
- I'm still curious on how much this is an artefact of less participants that run >150km marathons. The link in the other comment compiles data over lots of runners from lots of marathons, but I still haven't found data about how much actually runs the >150km marathons.by mcmoor
- It seems like men hold every ultramaathon record. What event are you referring to where women do better than men?by jtari3333
- I doubt there was much evolutionary selection for the ability to run more than 50 miles at once (my understanding is that the female advantage in ultra endurance has to do with muscle/fat composition and lower total skeletal mass, which is a major tradeoff to make for other areas).by _--__--__
- Women aren't better at ultra marathons they are just more competitive as the distance increases.
Speed is mostly a matter of muscle mass and maintaining speed over time and distance is related to lung capacity and ability to manage lactate build up and men usually have more muscle mass, which means they can maintain more speed.
Women usually weigh less, have less muscle and have more bodyfat so they are ultimately more efficient in overall energy use which starts to become more important as the distance and time increases and the outright speed becomes less important.
Ultramarathons are not really like an marathon where everyone is running at their maximum sustainable speed, there are usually rest stops so women being efficient need less time to refuel on calories compared to men can keep or get going quicker. It's like having a more fuel efficient car that doesn't need to stop for fuel as long or as often compared to a faster car that needs to stop more and for longer at refueling stops.
by fivefifty - So does that mean modern human females are less efficient at walking or locomotion than men?by fmajid
- The linked article certainly implies this:
> Because our legs are positioned slightly more forward, our quads both absorb the shock of stepping and spring our bodies back upward. This more energy efficient gait may give men an advantage over long distances. Because they were constrained by the demands of childbirth, women’s pelvises weren’t able to develop these modifications, researchers say.
However, the study, available at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-59915-8 only states:
> The shock-absorbing device seems to benefit modern males, mainly in long-distance walking.
followed by:
> Regardless of whether this exchange confers a net advantage in long-distance walking, it requires empirical testing, like everything that we propose here.
So the conclusion seems to be that this may confer advantages in long-distance walking. Long-distance is not explicitly defined either.
Regardless, it's mind-blowing to think that Neanderthal males had the same pelvis bone structure as modern women.
- FWIW, women are equally competitive in ultra-running, so I suspect the claimed advantages only apply at faster paces & longer gaits.by calmbonsai
- Do you know off hand what distance a run needs to approach before women and men are equally competitive?by chrisco255
- Or it could be that women's ability to metabolise fat outweighs the mechanical advantage at that point.