Is the level of competitiveness roughly equal? Can anyone apply statistics to it? It seemed like a lot of the women in the photos were not in "Typical runner shape" that all the men require to be competitive.
Is the level of competitiveness roughly equal? Can anyone apply statistics to it? It seemed like a lot of the women in the photos were not in "Typical runner shape" that all the men require to be competitive.
So, are you saying because women have more body fat than men they look "less competitive"? I think D1 women actually look healthier, and run faster, as compared to in the past.
Of course men are more competitive and there is greater depth.
The front runners are all anorexic so please don't comment on the normal looking women mid-pack.
What does "competitiveness" mean? I'd say that if you look at the average training of the men and women at NCAAs, the men on average are training harder. (At a guess, -- the men's average is probably at least 75 mpw, and I doubt the women's is much over 50, though I could be wrong about that. For the men see
http://etd.lib.umt.edu/theses/available/etd-05262009-154309/unrestricted/Keller_Philip_Thesis.pdf
, starting on p58, for the women I don't know of any data out there.) Much of this could have to do with the fact that they are training for two different races, but if you controlled by looking at say 5k track runners of both genders I think you'd come to the same conclusion.
But that doesn't mean the men are more "competitive" just that the women are more susceptible to injury and so it's tougher for them to train at high volume.
At the very top (say top 10) I think it's roughly equal, the studs on both sides tend to mainly end up being elite but not Olympians, with occasional future Olympians and medalists (Rupp, Kipyego).
If you look at the depth at any particular place in the race, they're probably roughly equal (if you run X% faster, you score Y% fewer points).
My opinion is that it would be easier for a relatively unknown girl to start from nowhere as a freshman and end up in the top 10 as a senior than it would be for a guy.
So again it comes down to what you mean by competitive.
I’m a D2 female runner. Our coach explicitly told us not to visit LetsRun forums.
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