Physiological alterations after a marathon in the first 90-year-old male finisher: case study

Pacing During and Physiological Response After a 12-Hour Ultra-Marathon in a 95-Year-Old Male Runner

In recent years, outstanding performances of elderly people up to 100 years have been reported. In this case study, pacing during and recovery after a 12-h ultra-marathon were described for a 95-year old runner. The athlete achieved a total distance of 52.987 km. Pacing followed a parabolic pattern (U-shaped), where the speed decreased till the middle of the race and then increased. However, no end spurt was observed. A large main effect of lap quartile on speed was observed, where the second quartile was slower than the first quartile and forth. The smallest variability was shown in the first quartile and the largest in the second quartile. During recovery, erythrocytes, hemoglobin and hematocrit increased whereas thrombocytes and leucocytes decreased. CRP, GOT, GPT, y-GT, CK, and LDH were increased post-race and decreased to reference range during recovery. Also, creatinine and urea decreased during recovery. Creatinine clearance increased during recovery. Sodium increased during recovery and remained constantly within the reference range. During recovery body fat and visceral fat mass decreased, whereas body water and lean body mass increased. In summary, a 95-year-old man was able to run during 12 h using a U-shaped pacing and achieving a total distance of nearly 53 km. Increased selected hematological and biochemical parameters returned to pre-race values within a recovery phase of 5 days.

Pacing in a 94-year-old runner during a 6-hour run

It is well known that elderly people up to 90 years of age are able to finish a marathon. We have no knowledge, however, how runners at the age of 90 years or older pace during a long run. In this case report, we describe the pacing of a 94-year-old man competing in a 6-hour run in order to prepare for a marathon at the age of 95 years in category M95. In the “6-Stunden-Lauf ” held in Brugg, Switzerland, participants have to run as many laps of 0.934 km as possible on a completely flat circuit within 6 hours to achieve as many kilometers as possible. Before and after the competition we measured body weight, percentage of body fat, fat-free mass and percentage of body water using a bioelectrical impedance scale. On the day before the start, 24 hours after the finish and then every 24 hours for the following 4 days, capillary blood samples at a fingertip were drawn to determine hemoglobin, hematocrit, leukocytes, platelets, C-reactive protein, creatine kinase, creatinine and potassium and sodium. The runner achieved 26 laps during the 6 hours, equal to 24.304 km. Lap times increased continuously and running speed decreased nearly linearly. A large main effect of time point (hours) of the race on running speed was observed (p=0.015, η²=0.48) with running speed being slower in the last hour than that in the first hour (3.5±1.4 km/h versus 5.3±0.4 km/h). Body mass decreased by 0.6%, percent body fat by 1.4% and fat-free mass by 0.7%. During recovery, hemoglobin, hematocrit and the number of thrombocytes increased, whereas the number of leukocytes remained unchanged. C-reactive protein was highest on day 1 after the race and decreased by day 4 nearly to zero. Creatine kinase was slightly elevated pre-race, highest the day after the race and remained slightly elevated until day 4. Creatinine and potassium were increased pre-race but returned to normal values during recovery. Sodium remained within normal values on all days. Based on the linear decrease in running speed, we extrapolated for the marathon distance to run a marathon in age group M95 (i.e., male marathoners aged 95–99 years). In the worst-case scenario (i.e., the athlete develops maximal fatigue), he would stop the race before 40 km, in the best scenario (i.e., the athlete develops minimal fatigue), he would achieve an overall race time of ~8.3 hours and in the most probable scenario (i.e., the athlete can continue in the same manner), the final race time will be longer than 11 hours.

The Age in Swimming of Champions in World Championships (1994⁻2013) and Olympic Games (1992⁻2012): A Cross-Sectional Data Analysis

(1) Background: We investigated the age of swimming champions in all strokes and race distances in World Championships (1994–2013) and Olympic Games (1992–2012); (2) Methods: Changes in age and swimming performance across calendar years for 412 Olympic and world champions were analysed using linear, non-linear, multi-level regression analyses and MultiLayer Perceptron (MLP); (3) Results: The age of peak swimming performance remained stable in most of all race distances for world champions and in all race distances for Olympic champions. Longer (i.e., 200 m and more) race distances were completed by younger (~20 years old for women and ~22 years old for men) champions than shorter (i.e., 50 m and 100 m) race distances (~22 years old for women and ~24 years old for men). There was a sex difference in the age of champions of ~2 years with a mean age of ~21 and ~23 years for women and men, respectively. Swimming performance improved in most race distances for world and Olympic champions with a larger trend of increase in Olympic champions; (4) Conclusion: Swimmers at younger ages (<20 years) may benefit from training and competing in longer race distances (i.e., 200 m and longer) before they change to shorter distances (i.e., 50 m and 100 m) when they become older (>22 years).