To the Editor: Robinson et al.¹ (April 11 issue) determined the physiological profile of a 70-year-old man who ran a marathon in 2:54:23, thanks to his ability to “maintain a remarkably high percentage of his maximum oxygen uptake” (approximately 95%, according to our calculations). Although persons 80 years of age reach the ventilatory threshold closer to the maximum oxygen uptake (VO_2max) than do persons 20 to 30 years of age (at 85 to 90% of the VO_2max vs. 60 to 70%),² the ability to maintain approximately 95% of the VO_2max for about 3 hours seems unrealistic.

REFERENCIA

• Valenzuela, P. L., Santos-Lozano, A., & Lucia, A. (2019). More on the Record-Breaking Performance in a 70-Year-Old Marathoner. The New England journal of medicine, 381(3), 293.