Quote Originally Posted by Marco View Post
It definitely seems to be the case in very long races. I read that it is because women have smaller hearts, lungs and muscles than men; in shorter races men's higher power usually wins, but in very long events the extra energy cost of running bigger hearts, lungs and muscles works against men.

In 1967, cyclist Beryl Burton set a new 12-hour time trial record of 277.25 miles. It exceeded the men's record by 0.73 miles and was not beaten by a man until 1969.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryl_Burton
Well there was only one Beryl Burton and I am not convinced the facts support this general argument because the same (few) cases are always trotted out, really I suspect to prompt discussion.

In the forthcoming and excellent new book by Steve Chilton, Voices From The Hills, which is all about women runners, Steve has a chapter Women Coming First - but it only runs to 3 pages (and 2 sentences) in a book of 343 pages.