Participation and performance characteristics in half-marathon run: a brief narrative review

Half-marathon (HM) is a running sport of increasing popularity in both sexes and in all age groups worldwide during the last years. Many studies have examined several aspects of HM, such as performance and participation trends, sex and age differences, physiological correlates, and training; however, no comprehensive review has ever been contacted to summarize the recently accumulated knowledge. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to review all previous research in this sport, focusing on participation and performance aspects. It was shown that HM runners had similar anthropometric and physiological characteristics as full-marathon runners which should be attributed to the affinity of these two races in terms of metabolic demands. Performance in HM was related with superior scores in aerobic capacity (maximal oxygen uptake, anaerobic threshold and running economy) and training characteristics (sport experience, weekly distance, training speed, frequency of sessions and long single endurance run distance), and lower scores in adiposity-related scores (e.g. body mass, body mass index, body fat percentage and skinfold thickness). Considering the popularity of HM race and the lack of many original studies (compared to FM race), this is an exciting field for scientific research with a large potential for practical applications, since the majority of HM runners are amateur runners in need of sex-, age- and performance-tailored exercise prescription.