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The role of weather conditions on running performance in the Boston Marathon from 1972 to 2018

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  • Beat Knechtle
  • Stefania Di Gangi
  • Christoph Alexander Rüst
  • Elias Villiger
  • Thomas Rosemann
  • Pantelis Theo Nikolaidis

Abstract

This study examined the relationship of weather conditions, together with sex and country of origin, with running performance in the Boston Marathon from 1972 to 2018. A total of 580,990 observations from 382,209 different finishers were analyzed using Generalized Additive Mixed Models. Different groups and subgroups were considered such as all runners, near elite 101:200 finishers, near elite 21:100, annual top ten finishers and annual winners. Weather conditions, over the hours of the event, were average air temperature (°C), total precipitations (mm), wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) (°C), wind speed (km/h), wind direction (head wind, side wind, tail wind) and barometric pressure (hPa). These effects were examined in a multi-variable model, together with: sex, country of origin, calendar year, an interaction term country:sex and a spline smooth term in function of calendar year and sex. The average temperature, when increasing by 1°C, was related to worsened performance (by 00:01:47 h:min:sec for all finishers and by 00:00:20 h:min:sec for annual winners). Also, the pressure and wet-bulb globe temperature, when increasing, were related to worsened performances. Tail wind improved performances of all groups. Increasing precipitation was significantly (p

Suggested Citation

  • Beat Knechtle & Stefania Di Gangi & Christoph Alexander Rüst & Elias Villiger & Thomas Rosemann & Pantelis Theo Nikolaidis, 2019. "The role of weather conditions on running performance in the Boston Marathon from 1972 to 2018," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(3), pages 1-16, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0212797
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0212797
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Abraham J Miller-Rushing & Richard B Primack & Nathan Phillips & Robert K Kaufmann, 2012. "Effects of Warming Temperatures on Winning Times in the Boston Marathon," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(9), pages 1-5, September.
    2. Nour El Helou & Muriel Tafflet & Geoffroy Berthelot & Julien Tolaini & Andy Marc & Marion Guillaume & Christophe Hausswirth & Jean-François Toussaint, 2012. "Impact of Environmental Parameters on Marathon Running Performance," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(5), pages 1-9, May.
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    Cited by:

    1. Pantelis Theodoros Nikolaidis & Ivan Cuk & Thomas Rosemann & Beat Knechtle, 2019. "Performance and Pacing of Age Groups in Half-Marathon and Marathon," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-10, May.
    2. Zhanbing Ren & Yifan Zuo & Yudan Ma & Mu Zhang & Lee Smith & Lin Yang & Paul D. Loprinzi & Qian Yu & Liye Zou, 2020. "The Natural Environmental Factors Influencing the Spatial Distribution of Marathon Event: A Case Study from China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-17, March.

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