Participation and Performance Analysis in Children and Adolescents Competing in Time-Limited Ultra-Endurance Running Events

Ultra-endurance running is of increasing popularity in the adult population, mainly due to master runners older than 35 years of age. However, youth runners younger than 19 years of age are also competing in ultra-endurance events, and an increase has been observed in distance-limited events, but no data is available on time-limited ultra-endurance events in this age group. This study investigated participation and performance trends in time-limited ultra-endurance races, including multi-day events, in runners younger than 19 years of age. Between the period 1990 and 2018, the most popular events recorded a total of 214 finishes (from 166 unique finishers (UF)) for 6-hour events, 247 (212 UF) for 12-hour events, and 805 (582 UF) for 24-hour events, respectively. The majority of athletes originated from Europe and North America. Only a minority participated in multi-day events. Overall, speed increased with age, but the overall performance speed decreased across calendar years for 6- and 24-hour events as participation numbers grew. In summary, in youth ultra-endurance runners, differences were observed regarding participation and performance across the different time-limited events, the age of the athletes and their country of origin