Comment by onlypassingthru

That's interesting! At the same time, your two linked articles:

> Pfendler ... after nearly a month and a half at sea ... appears to have broken both the previous women’s speed record as well as the men’s speed record

Would you say hunters keep running for 1 month to catch an antelope?

And:

> Catherine Breed, 33, didn’t look terribly exhausted ... swimming for more than 100 days ... the entire 900-mile length of the California coast

It makes sense if in ultra-ultra marathons, rowing, swimming, there's advantages to having more body fat and other female traits.

But hunting is shorter and quicker:

"Hunter-gatherers (such as the San people of the Kalahari Desert) typically pursue an antelope or kudu for 4 to 8 hours, covering a distance of roughly 10 to 30 kilometers (about 6 to 19 miles) before the animal collapses from heat exhaustion", an AI said.

(And, as the sibling comment about marathons says, then men are faster.)

It helps a lot when you don't cherry-pick data that supports your pre-existing belief.

https://runninglevel.com/running-times/marathon-times

https://swimswam.com/comparing-mens-womens-records-in-swimmi...

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/2052-1847-6-7

https://results.nyrr.org/event/M2025/overview (pick any year you like by changing the URL)

https://www.marathon.tokyo/en/about/past/2026/ (Same)

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-46032-9?fromPaywa...

The overall story is one where the difference in performance decreases with distance, but is very real.

Is a marathon a power event?