Ultra Running – State of Play for 2020

For all of you who think a marathon is just not quite far enough then here (State of Ultra Running 2020) is a new study looking at developments and findings in that market. Here are some of the key findings and a few of them seem highly controversial at first sight:

• Female ultra runners are faster than male ultra runners at distances over 195 miles. The average female pace is 17:19 min/mile, which is 0.6% faster than the average male pace of 17:25 min/mile.
• Participation has increased by 345% in the last 10 years from 137,234 to 611,098, and 17.8 times over the last 23 years (from 34,401 to 611,098 runners). There have never been more ultra runners.
• Women are as fast as men in long-distance ultras. The longer the distance the shorter the gender pace gap. In 5Ks men run 17.9% faster than women but on a 100-miler the difference is just 0.25%.
• There have never been more women in ultrarunning. 23% of participants are female, compared to just 14% 23 years ago.
• Ultra runners have never been slower across distance, gender and age group. The average pace in 1996 was 11:35 min/mile, currently, it is 13:16 min/mile. The average runner has added 1:41 min/mile to their average pace, which is a slowdown of 15% since 1996. We don’t believe that individual runners have become slower, but that these distances are attracting less prepared runners now because the sport is more mainstream.
• Runners improve their pace in their first 20 races, and then their pace stabilizes. From their first to their second race runners improve by 0:17 min/mile (2%) on average. But by their 20th they improve by 1:45 min/mile (12.3%).
• The fastest ultra running nations are South Africa (average pace 10:36 min/mile), Sweden (11:56 min/mile), and Germany (12:01 min/mile).
• A record amount of people travel abroad for ultra running events. 10.3% of people travel abroad to run an ultra, for 5Ks this percentage is just 0.2%.
• Runners in the longer distances have a better pace than the runners in the shorter distances for each age group.
• All age groups have a similar pace, around 14:40 min/mile. Which is unusual compared to the past and to other distances.
• The average age of ultra runners has decreased by 1 year in the last 10 years. It has changed from 43.3 years to 42.3 years.

Source: State of Ultra Running 2020

Last Updated on 16 January 2026 by the5krunner

the5krunner

tfk is the founder and author of the5krunner, an independent endurance sports technology publication. With 20 years of hands-on testing of GPS watches and wearables, and competing in triathlons at an international age-group level, tfk provides in-depth expert analysis of fitness technology for serious athletes and endurance sport competitors.