THE PROFILE OF ULTRA RUNNERS UNDER THE AGE 19 YEARS

Kate Dzienis • March 28, 2020

Contributed by Elizabeth Bennett

Over recent years it has been observed that the number of young runners – i.e., <19yrs – participating in ultra running events has increased. This observation has more often than not been accompanied by a questioning of whether or not it is a good thing for these youngsters to be running ultra marathons in terms of the negative impact such arduous endurance exercise may have on their immature skeletal and organ systems, and/or general health. Due to a lack of ultra running specific research, the jury is still out on that but there’s some pretty solid evidence from other sports to suggest that too much physical activity too early is not health promoting for young people, and that these negative health impacts may be further compounded by overdone young athletes turning away from physical activity altogether later in life as a consequence of long term physical and psychological exhaustion, boredom or injury. Notwithstanding this, it’s a fact that more young runners are turning up to ultra running events, and it has only been in the last few months that research has been undertaken providing a profile of this relatively new, but increasing, cohort of new ultra runners.

Scheer et al (March 2020) recently analysed runner participation data of every time limited ultra marathon event (i.e., 6hr, 8hr, 12hr, 24hr, 48hr, 72hr, 6 day and 8 day) recorded on the Deutsche Ultramarathon Vereinigung (DUV) website between 1990 and 2018. DUV is the largest ultra running database in the world and contains the results of more than 5.8 million race performances by over 1.4 million runners across approximately 60,000 ultra marathon events.

Scheer et al then extracted the data for <19 yrs olds who participated in 6hr, 12hr and 24hr races during the 1990-2018 period.

Race Duration	No. of <19yr old participants
6 hour	214
12 hour	247
24 hour	805

Scheer et al went on to categorise the <19yr old participants into the following age groups: 10-13yrs, 14-15yrs, 16-17yrs and 18yrs, and found that the percentage of the youngest cohort (10-13yrs) was relatively high. In fact, in the 24 hour races, the majority of <19yr olds were in the 10-13yr old age bracket (n=376, 46.7%). In contrast, the majority who competed in the 12 hour events were in the 16-17yr old age bracket (n=83, 33.6%), and the majority who competed in the 6 hour events were in the 18yr old age group (n=81, 37.9%).

Other interesting findings included:

In the 6hr and 24hr events, most of the <19yr old participants came from Europe (68.2% and 54.8% respectively), whereas in the 12hr events, the majority were from North America (52.6%).
Due to small sample sizes, Australia’s <19yr old participants were grouped with Africa, Asia, Central-South America, Oceania to constitute the “other” group. For this reason it is not possible to get a snapshot of Australia’s <19yr old participation from this study but that could be ascertained by going back to the individual data in DUV and painstakingly reviewing the data for each event.
The only event type in which boys were significantly faster than girls was in the 12hr events.

(Scheer et al, 2020)

Younger girls – i.e., <15yrs – were faster than boys in the 6hr events.
Across all events, the speed of both girls and boys predictably increased with age. However, also predictably, their race times were a long way off the peak performance times of adult ultra runners whose performances have been shown to peak ~35+ yrs.

This study had several limitations particularly with respect to sample sizes and the grouping of events by duration type without any accounting for differences in environmental conditions and/or terrain. Notwithstanding this, it still tells us more about our <19yr old ultra runners than we knew before. It also provides a basis for further research and performance comparisons of the <19yr old cohort as we go into the future. However, looping back to the start, given the increasing numbers of <19yr old ultra marathoners, a more pressing research priority needs to be on the physical and psychological health impacts of arduous endurance exercise on young bodies and minds.

Reference: Scheer et al. Participation and Performance Analysis in Children and Adolescents Competing in Time-Limited Ultra-Endurance Running Events. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. March 2020.

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AUTRA News Report 19-02-2025

By Kate Dzienis • February 19, 2025

The latest in race results, covering Cradle Mountain Run, City Run, Oscars 100 Hut 2 Hut and Yaberoo Trail Ultra.

Final 2024 Points Competition Results

By Alexis Oosterhoff • January 30, 2025

Results for the 2024 AUTRA Points Competition have been finalised, and are available on our Points Competition page. Full details of the top 10 (as shared on Facebook during January) are detailed below, and results for all participating AUTRA members can be found in the documents at the above link. It was a real battle throughout the year between our top two finishers, Phil Gore & Kevin "BK" Matthews, with both giving it their it their all at events, and through contributions to the community - volunteering at multiple events, and submitting articles to our monthly newsletter, Ultramag. They finished within 2km of total distance for the year (Phil on 1203.087km, and Kevin on 1205.510km), and it was only Phil's final volunteering effort on 6 Inch Trail Marathon in December that gave him the that very narrow victory. As you'd be aware from previous communications, this marks the end of the Points Competition. With trail running (of all distances) now incorporated into AU T RA's constitution, and after careful consideration of the costs of the competition payouts in it's current form, the committee felt it was time for it's retirement. This marks my seventh and final year of delivering the points competition to membership (2018-2024), after taking on the role from Cheryl Symons. It has brought me great joy in doing so, and I feel like I've had an opportunity to get to know so many of our members through seeing their race (and volunteering) performances over the years! I'm continuing in my role as the AUS/NZL statistician for DUV (from whom we shared the data for the points comp), and you can expect to continue to find your ultra-race result on their site. 1st Place - Phil Gore (WA) - 86 points Phil's achievements this year have included a massive 265.653km (and 2nd place) at the IAU 24h Asia & Oceania Championships, wins at the Red Dirt Backyard Ultra (33 laps), the Australian leg of Big Dog's Backyard World Team Championship (96 laps), and the Soochow/Taipei 24h Ultramarathon (270.826km). He also knocked out an easy (!) 72km at the Light Horse Ultra 24h in between supporting his amazing wife Gemma. Those two 24h wins netted Phil new Oceania 24h Open Male records, IAU Level 1 qualifiers, and pushed him to the top of Australia's 24h trophy board (with only the great Yiannis Kouros having run further). Phil topped-up his points by contributing one article to Ultramag, worked as an Event Director at Herdy's Frontyard Ultra, and volunteered at a further five events through the year. He finished on 86 points. 2nd Place - Kevin Matthews (WA) - 84 points Finishing in 2nd place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Kevin Matthews. He monstered his way through the year with finishes at Australia Day Ultra 100km, Delirious WEST 200mi, 24 laps at Herdy's Frontyard Ultra, 190km at Light Horse Ultra 24h, 23 laps at Birdy's Backyard Ultra, and also completed Feral Pig 100 miler, Sandman 50km and Six Inch 47km. And to top things off, he contributed five articles to Ultramag, and volunteered at five events. BK ran 1205km in Ultramarathon races this year, all of them AUTRA-listed, and surpassed 100 marathon finishes (including 51 Ultramarathons!) Kevin finished the year on 84 points, a massive 34 points ahead of our 3rd place finisher Sue Robertson. 3rd Place - Sue Robertson (WA) - 50 points Finishing in 3rd place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Sue Robertson. Sue completed the Ultra Series 100 miler trilogy of Delirious WEST, Irrational SOUTH and Unreasonable EAST, and rounded out her year with the Sandman 50km and Six Inch 47km races. She received 30 points from the racing at AUTRA-listed events, and was awarded a further 20 points by volunteering across eight events and contributing two articles to Ultramag, for a total of 50 points for the year. Thank you Sue! 4th Place - Margie Hadley (WA) - 47 points Finishing in 4th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Margie Hadley . She was the top-female finisher at both the No Time to Die Frontyard Ultra & Wild Dog Backyard Ultra, 2nd at Birdy's Backyard Ultra, ran 182km at the Australian 24h Track Invitational and placed 3rd at Coast to Kosci. Margie received 47 points in the competition 5th Place - Melissa Robertson (NSW) - 44 points Finishing in 5th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is NSW's Melissa Robertson. Melissa took out 1st place at Irrational SOUTH 200 miler, 2nd place at Lakes Trail Festival 100km, 1st place at Hume & Hovell 100 miler, 3rd place at Rumble in the Jungle and 6th place at Ultra-Trail Kosciuszko 100 miler! She also volunteered at the GNW 50km event, receiving 44 points in the competition! 6th Place - Aaron Young (WA) - 42 points Finishing in 6th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Aaron Young . Aaron finished in 1st place at each of the Ultra Series "Triple Crown" of 200 milers (Delirious WEST, Irrational SOUTH and Unreasonable EAST), 55 laps at Big Dog's Backyard World Team Championship, and rounded his year out with Feral Pig 100 miler. Aaron receives 42 points, just nudging ahead of Maree Connor (who also finished on 42 points) on a count-back 7th Place - Maree Connor (NSW) - 42 points Finishing in 7th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is NSW's Maree Connor. Maree had an outstanding year, achieving 2nd place with 221km (and an IAU Level 1 qualifier) at the IAU 24th Asian and Oceania Championships, 1st place at the Lakes Trail Festival 100km, 1st place with 67km at the Southern Sydney 6h race, and 1st place with 116km at the Narrabeen Allnighter 12h. Maree also competed at Spartathlon race this year (for which she contributed an article to the September Ultramag on her experience), receiving 42 points in the competition. 8th Place - Darren Linney (SA) - 41 points Finishing in 8th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is SA's Darren Linney . Darren completed 34 laps at No Time to Die BYU, 199km at the Adelaide 24h race, and 814km at the Australian 6 Day race, for a total of 1241km raced and 41 points . 9th Place - Tristan Cameron (WA) - 40 points Finishing in 9th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Tristan Cameron. Tristan completed the Ultra Series Triple Crown of 200 mile races (Delirious WEST, Irrational SOUTH and Unreasonable EAST), along with Feral Pig 100 miler, for a total of 1154km raced and 40 points. 10th Place - Jen Millum (WA) - 39 points Finishing in 10th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Jen Millum . Jen finished 1st at all three of the Ultra Series Trilogy of 100 milers (Delirious WEST, Irrational SOUTH and Unreasonable EAST), and was 2nd female with 35 laps at the Wild Dog Backyard Ultra. With a volunteer stint at the Yaberoo Trail Ultra, Jen finished the year with 39 points in the competition. To view the complete list of members who secured points in 2024 click here and then follow through to Points Summary under the 2024 tab. All winners have already been contacted, with cash prizes distributed for 1st - 7th places, and AUTRA Store vouchers sent for 8th, 9th & 10th.