If we took all the toughest ultratrail races in recent years, we would discover something that not so many years ago few would have expected: not only are women becoming more numerous and faster and more resilient, but more importantly, women are becoming faster than men.
It happened in last year’s Green Lakes Endurance Run-a 50-kilometer ultratrail-when Ellie Pell beat Richard Ellsworth by as much as 8 minutes. Needless to specify that she is a woman and he is a man.
A case? Not really.
It is 1989 and Ann Trason finishes second in the 24-hour national championship, behind Scott Demaree. The problem is that he ran 3.5 miles longer than him.
in 2002 and 2003 Pam Reed won the tremendous Badwater 135 by beating every man. Finished? Not yet.
Courtney Dauwalter in 2004 beat the first ranked man in the Moab 240 Endurance Run. By 10 hours. For now, let us stop here and analyze in what women are demonstrating all their physical and mental preparedness, often surpassing that of men, who have always been recognized as physically more performing and superior (in physical and athletic terms, that is).
Made to endure
There are distances over which man’s biological superiority is evident: from the shortest up to marathons or even certain ultras, man’s heart is bigger and tissues are better supplied with oxygen, decreeing by necessity an undeniable advantage.
If you go into longer distances, however, this advantage gets thinner and thinner, until it reverses beyond 100 miles: in that territory women are 0.6 percent faster than men. How is this possible? There could be two causes.
More estrogen, more fat
Women have more estrogen, which helps them burn fat better. This means that past 90 minutes of running-that is, when the carbohydrates have been depleted-women know how to better process the fats they have in a more abundant proportion than men. And it’s not over.
Matter of fiber (muscle)
Man’s muscles contract more forcefully, thus generating greater exertion and faster speeds. Those of the woman, however, bear the strain better, partly because they are less stressed by contracting with less force. This advantage can be seen in the final stages of a race, when men are most at risk of excessive muscle fatigue.
Pain management
Endurance races are races in which pain and suffering must be endured the longest. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that the individual who can best endure these efforts is the one who is able to endure the pains of childbirth and generally all physical pains. Mind you: the woman does not suffer less than the man, it is that she has more capacity to bear pain.
The mentality of resistance
As mentioned, women can handle pain better; it is not that they feel it less. From a certain point in any competition, the physical advantage is nullified. After that, as you know, you run with your mind and no longer with your body. It is at this stage that women’s mental switch is different from men’s: the latter conceive of suffering as a limitation to be overcome, women (even unconsciously, since the ability to withstand the pain of childbirth is written in the genetic code, not taught or learned) as a way to learn something that can improve them. YES is about a different attitude, and many of the very strong female athletes mentioned earlier describe the reasons they compete not out of a desire to excel and prove themselves but instead as a way to improve through pain management.
Sharing
Women seem not to conceive of this activity as exclusively individual. Of course, they practice it solo but are able to sincerely rejoice in the victories of other women, whom they know and with whom they have often exchanged advice. Being united by a single goal makes them less obsessed than men who always think of these competitions as something that involves only their individual sphere, without being able to be a shared joy.
The lesson to be learned from this is not only that excessive individualism has great limitations and that physical advantage is verified only up to a certain distance. The strongest and most beautiful lesson is that a physical disadvantage can be turned into an advantage by the power of the mind: that it can endure more, that it can cultivate a community feeling, that it pushes further and stronger those who can train that very special muscle: it is not a muscle and it is in everyone’s head. But in women’s it works much better.
(from Women’s Running)