The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Endurance and Ultra-Endurance Running The Covid-19 outbreak has become a major health and economic crisis.The World Health Organization explained in March 2020 to the pandemic, and many sporting events were canceled. We investigated the effects of Covid 19 pandemic on endurance and extreme duration runs and analyzed the results and events during the Covid 19 pandemic (observation period March 2020 - October 2020) for the same period before Covid-19 outbreak (March 2019 -October 2019). The number of finishers decreased during the pandemic (459'029 to 42'656; male: 277'493 to 25'582; female 181'536 to 17'074).Similarly, the number of events decreased (213 vs. 61 events). The average marathon end times decreased during the pandemic in men (5: 18: 03 ± 0: 16: 34 vs. 4: 43: 08 ± 0: 25: 08 H: Min: S and women (5:39:32± 0: 19: 29 Vs. 5: 14: 29 ± 0: 26: 36 H: Min: S). In extreme duration run, the figures of finishers (580'289 to 110'055) and events (5839 to 1791) decreased significantly.Popular venues in the US, France, Great Britain and Germany decreased significantly. All distance and temporary ultramarathons decreased significantly.
The Covid 19 pandemic had a significant impact on endurance and extreme duration run, and it is unlikely that the ongoing activities soon return to the level in front of the pandemic.Measuring strategies and security protocols should be set. All the work can be downloaded under https://www.mdpi.com/1648-9144/57/1/52