Some of the key points were......
a) 46 per cent of finishers in 2000 were female. By 2015 that proportion had fallen to 30 per cent.
b) Young men doing their first marathon are the most likely ones to blow up and hit the wall! :o))
c) Marathon runners are getting older.
First off, here is one of the charts that Barry put together which highlights some of the points....
Percentage Women.....I had always assumed that the percentage of women taking part in marathons was lower in the past as more women seem to be running now than ever before. It was a bit of a suprise to see that the percentage was around 46% back in the year 2000.
Sometimes you can get strange results when the numbers are low but there were 7170 finishers that year which is hardly low. I wonder why the percentage of women was higher back then?
Finishers getting older.......This ties in a lot with the way club membership is going. The average runner now tends to be older than before. Back in the 80's, they were usually young men in their 20's and 30's. In the 2000's, they tended to be 30's and 40's and now, it is more late 30's and early 40's.
The chart above shows the percentage of finishers in the Dublin Marathon aged 40 and above is now over 50%. As you can see, the age profile really started to climb after 2012.
Links...
1) The Irish Times article can be seen HERE
2) Barry Smyth as his original article HERE. It contains a lot of other stats as well which you may find of interest.