This study presents data showing that 15-km running performance is influenced by age, gender, training state, and the year of the run, of which gender and training had the largest influence. Age effects on running speeds were rather small and the drop-out number among older persons is very low. During the last 12 years, the number of elderly participants increased most quickly, and their good running performances prove that elderly persons can very well train for, run, and finish in a 15-km run. As a result of this increasing participation of elderly people mean running time increased, especially for untrained participants.
With aging, mean running time showed only limited decline of 0.2% per year. The decline in performance per year is smaller than described for marathon performances (10.5–14.8% per decade) [2]. Running performance is influenced by several physiological variables, which can explain the decline in running performance with age. Most important are maximum aerobic capacity (VO2max), muscle function, strength, and lactate threshold [8, 13, 15, 17]. Aging is associated with a decline in muscle mass, which becomes progressive beyond the age of 50 [2, 4, 11, 13, 24, 25]. The lactate threshold is reached at a faster rate, through which elderly people have a lower tolerance for strenuous physical activities [5, 7, 13, 26–28]. With growing old, cardiovascular parameters decline also, which causes decline in VO2max [2, 7, 8, 13–15, 20, 29, 30]. Training can increase VO2max and the lactate threshold, even for elderly people [5, 7, 10, 13, 16–18, 20, 21, 25, 29, 30]. Possibly, elderly participants may also show less motivation to reach their fastest running performance [5].
Velocity in men on average was 13.0% faster than in women, comparable to studies on marathons [3, 13, 14]. Difference in running performance between sexes is probably caused by a lower VO2max [7, 14, 16, 28] and less muscle mass for women compared to men [12, 14]. Running performance differed 15.7% on average between training groups. Training effects on running speed were larger for men than for women, and aging had a larger negative effect on running speed for trained than untrained participants. This is consistent with the faster decline of VO2max with aging in trained compared to sedentary elderly people, but running performance remains better in elderly trained than elderly untrained participants as has been shown for VO2max [3, 12, 20, 29]. The increase in participation of elderly and women, was also described by Jokl et al. [2]. However, results on women and older people are still based on small groups. The participation number of the Seven Hills Run was restricted to a certain maximum for reasons of logistics. For the past years, the limit was increased with 1,000 individuals every year. During these years, the Seven Hills Run has changed from a small quite competitive run into the largest Dutch road run for a more varied (untrained) public.
Over the last decade, running performance decreased significantly for all participants with 9.9%. Other studies showed better or constant running performance with passage of time [2, 7, 14]. Their conclusions were that improvements were possible by better tracks and more competition. For the studied years, the track of the Seven Hills Run was the same, but participation numbers increased, most in the older age groups. Probably the change in competitiveness, caused by less professionally trained participants, in combination with the increasing number of elderly, is the best explanation for higher average finish time.
Participants ≥60 years had significant slower running times compared to younger participants, especially in the last part of the run, men even more than women. Other studies found a higher decline for women compared to men, but their results were possibly confounded by selection bias [7, 9, 13, 21]. In our study, effect modification by age is possible, because in the male group, compared to women, more participants ≥65 years were present.
Analysis of master running performance in athletic records has not frequently been carried out in the past. However, our data comprise a lot of information on performance, health, and aging. An advantage of using these records is that they are based on very large samples. Other studies examined maximum performance in master athletes and less trained older persons, which makes it very likely that these results are not representative for the average older person.
A limitation of this study is the lack of information concerning confounders, such as medical diagnoses, laboratory, and physiological parameters. With no upper limit for age, a considerable range of variability is allowed, within which the desired homogeneity of the exposure of the run may not be achieved. Because of this, exact age was used for most analyses. In addition, variable weather conditions could have influenced running performance, although these conditions are relatively stable.
It is unclear whether competitive membership of an athletic club is an accurate measurement instrument for training status, because other participants also prepared themselves for the run and no data were available for the duration and intensity of trainings within a club.
It is well evidenced that exercise has multiple positive effects on health and substantially contributes to healthy and successful aging. This study showed that age only has a minor effect on running times and that elderly people can very well run a 15-km road race. Running performance is better in members of athletes clubs, also in the elderly participants. Overall, our data are promising and can stimulate and inform professionals in guiding elderly in running. Our results underline that running holds great opportunities to improve general health, because it is a simple, cheap, safe, and healthy means of active aging. Moreover, running and other exercises are equally available to all aging societies, which clarifies why the World Health Organization emphasizes this exercise as an important opportunity to reach active aging [31].