4,000 women ran in the New York Mini, a 10k race. The winning time of 32 minutes and 43 seconds was the slowest time recorded in ten years.

The Eagle Man Half Ironman had 1,400 participants who competed in a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike ride and a 13.1 mile run. Recorded times were slower than normal. In another event, the Philadelphia International Championship, a 156 mile bike race, half of the competitors dropped out. In this race, the winning time of 6:14:47 was about 30 minutes slower than last year’s race. Are athletes for some reason in worse shape now than they were as recently as a year ago? Is there some mysterious force which is preventing them from performing optimally? (more…)