According to new data from the running app Strava, runners in their 40s are streets ahead of younger rivals

According to data released by the running app Strava, middle-aged runners consistently average faster marathon times than their younger rivals, apparently defying the usual rules of athletic performance. Men in the 40-49 age bracket clock an average time of four hours and 17 minutes for a marathon, according to the recent figures. Women in the same age range typically come in at just under the five-hour mark.

In both instances, middle-aged runners outperform runners in their 20s, with fortysomething men and women more than two minutes and one minute faster than their younger peers, respectively. And, the data seems to suggest why: more hours spent pounding the pavements.

A key differential appears to be the hours the two groups are willing to put in. According to Strava, older runners average 28 miles (45km) a week about three months before race-day, compared wth 24 miles for those in their 20s.

The rationale seems sound – marathon runners talk about having “miles in their legs” in reference to the buildup of strength and muscle from years of training. Yet how much difference an extra four miles a week makes is debatable. For the 59-year-old veteran Richard Askwith, the author of Feet in the Clouds, older runners’ success is more likely to be about mentality.

“Your perception of time changes with age. You become more patient in training and in racing … rather than fretting about the distance, we just cruise along in a more relaxed frame of mind,” he says.

The author of Primate Change, Vybarr Cregan-Reid, 50, argues that what 20-year-olds have in bone density and muscle mass, they lack in race experience and tenacity. “I’m sure if you saw race splits for younger runners, you would see that they went off much faster. Those in their 40s have enough experience not to make that rookie mistake.”

But it may not be a case of the tortoise and the hare, he adds. “I’m not convinced that people in their 40s train more. But I suspect it’s much more likely that someone in their 40s will track their training with an app.”