male equivalent to a female 3 hour marathon?

jaguar1 wrote:

.... wrote:

You have to use Paula's time in your calculation.

Paula is an outlier.

She is indeed. But is the male/female spread in marathoning a difference of mental dedication or physical strength? There are a lot more male than female sub-2:30 marathoners. It seems there are a lot more men who just TRY harder, and keep at it, year after year.

.... wrote:

I wouldn't call Paula an outlier. That would mean she is training harder than any other woman or man. I think she trains as hard as most of the top male marathoners, its the rest of the women that need to raise their game.

No, a woman being built more like a man makes her more likely to perform, well, like a man. Women can and do train just as hard, if not harder than men (we have to spend more time on our feet to run the same number of miles, although this likely is not the case for Paula!). Combine hard training with the right 'build', and you get an outlier. The rest of the female population is not so lucky!