I heard somewhere that women are better in stamina tests than men. If so, it should show up in running records - so I went looking
Track & field records
Code:
distance men women ratio
100m 9.72 10.49 1.079
200m 19.32 21.34 1.105
400m 43.18 47.60 1.102
800m 01:41.10 01:53.30 1.120
1000m 02:12.00 02:29.00 1.129
1500m 03:26.00 03:50.50 1.119
Mile 03:43.10 04:12.60 1.132
2000m 04:44.80 05:25.40 1.142
3000m 07:20.70 08:06.10 1.103
5000m 12:37.40 14:11.20 1.124
10000m 26:17.50 29:31.80 1.123
20000m 56:26.00 1:05:26.60 1.160
25000m 1:13:55.80 1:27:05.90 1.178
30000m 1:29:18.80 1:45:50.00 1.185
I was wrong: the women are closer to the men's times on shorter distances, with the ratio climbing as the distance gets longer.
But when we look at road racing, it's the other way around - the longer the race, the closer the women's record is to the men's:
Code:
distance men women ratio
10km 27:02 30:21 1.123
15km 41:29 46:55 1.131
20km 55:31 62:57 1.134
Half-Marathon 58:33 66:25 1.134
25km 01:12:45 01:22:13 1.130
30km 01:28:36 01:38:49 1.115
Marathon 02:04:26 02:15:25 1.088
100km 06:13:33 06:33:11 1.053
Are the trends pure coincidence? If not, can anyone figure out what's happening?
