Participation and performance trends in 'Ultraman Hawaii' from 1983 to 2012

BACKGROUND: Participation and performance trends have been investigated in a single stage Ironman triathlon such as the 'Ironman Hawaii,' but not for a multi-stage ultra-triathlon such as the 'Ultraman Hawaii' covering a total distance of 515 km. The aims of this study were to analyze (1) changes in participation and performance, (2) sex-related differences in overall and split time performances, and (3) the age of peak performance in Ultraman Hawaii. METHODS: Age and race times including split times for 98 women and 570 men who successfully finished Ultraman Hawaii (day 1 with 10-km swimming and 145-km cycling, day 2 with 276-km cycling, and day 3 with 84-km running) between 1983 and 2012 were analyzed. Changes in variables over time of annual winners and annual top three women and men were investigated using simple linear regression analyses. RESULTS: The number of female finishers increased (r2 = 0.26, p 0.05). Overall race times decreased for both female (r2 = 0.28, p 0.05). The age of the annual top three finishers increased from 33 +/- 6 years to 48 +/- 3 years for men (p < 0.01) and from 29 +/- 7 years to 49 +/- 2 years for women (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Both the annual top three women and men improved performance in Ultraman Hawaii during the 1983--2012 period although the age of the annual top three women and men increased. The sex-related difference in performance decreased over time to reach approximately 12% similar to the reports of other endurance and ultra-endurance events. Further investigations are required to better understand the limiting factors of the multi-activities ultra-endurance events taking place over several days