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The longer the race, the closer it gets: women are closing in on men in the ultra-endurance arena
(www.theguardian.com)
A place for runners.
Looking at records for 100 mile and other ultra marathon distances the men's record is significantly faster than 10%. The 100 mile for men is 11:14:56 while the women's is 12:41:11. I certainly don't see the 4% the article claims.
In the source:
In 50-mile races, race times were 11.74 ± 1.95 h for men and 12.31 ± 1.69 h for women. In 100-mile races, race times were 26.6 ± 3.49 h for men and 27.47 ± 3.6 h for women. The sex differences decreased with older age and were smaller in 100-mile (4.41%) than in 50-mile races (9.13%)
My point was longer distances are not the cause of a narrower sex difference, the records show that. They only found that trend in older racers where men will have lower testosterone levels.