RunYoung50
Women’s running history
and the stories of older women runners
Recent articles…
IAU 24 Hour Championships Milton Keynes 1990 – the greatest race yet
An ultramarathon in a shopping mall Until 1994, nearly all shops in the UK were closed on Sunday by law. Small “corner shops” and newsagents, garden centres, chemists and and garages were allowed to open but large shops were not. This meant that...
Ais North – the further I ran the happier I was
** Guest post ** I am very pleased to share this article by Ais North who started running at 64 in 2014 and soon found out that her preferred distance was ultras. Ais is one of a small number of women over 60...
Book review “Broken” by Ally Beaven
The subtitle of Ally Beaven’s book, “Broken”, is “2020: the year running records were rewritten”. 2020, our first year of living with Covid-19, was a year when plans were thrown in the bin and runners looked for new ways of motivating themselves to...
Taking a Tumble – Running Hazards
After thousands of miles, runs in the dark, runs on icy pavements, dozens of muddy, slippery cross country races, tens of thousands of kerbs and almost ten years of running, today was the day when I took a tumble. Three miles into my run, I was on...
Hell in Paradise – the 1994 Telecom Tasmania Run
“The organisers dubbed this race “Hell in Paradise”. I am sure that when they coined this phrase they never anticipated how right they would be.” This seven-day stage race lived up to its nickname in more ways than one. Eleven of the 27 starters...
Nikki Love – ultrarunning and the menopause
Earlier this year I interviewed ultrarunning adventurer Nikki Love about how the perimenopause has affected her running. Since 2016, Nikki has been undertaking ultra distance adventures, starting with the JungleUltra, a 5-day race through the...
The perfect day – Melbourne 24h track race 1989
It isn't too often that everything goes well and perhaps this is part of the attraction of the 24 hour race - the waiting for the perfect day and the perfect performance.Eleanor Adams The period from 1985 to 1990 saw top performances from Eleanor...
Dale Greig and the women’s marathon in the 1960s
Imagine a time when women did not run in road races. Imagine a time when women were told distance running would harm their health. Imagine a time when running in a marathon meant risking being jeered at or even assaulted. This time was in my...
Road running in the UK in the 1950s
Road races in the 1950s in the UK were very different from today's races. Most races were over 10 miles and distances varied. The only standard distances were 20 miles and the marathon. Petrol rationing ended in 1950 but the number of vehicles on...
IAU 100km World Champion Eleanor Adams Robinson
The first ultrarunning World Championships were created in 1987 when the International Association of Ultrarunners (IAU) held the inaugural 100km World Championships in Torhout, Belgium. What attracted top-class ultrarunners like Eleanor Adams to...
British women’s success at IAU 100km World Championships
British women have been very successful at the IAU 100km World Championships, taking seven gold medals, two silvers and six bronzes. They stand second in the medals table behind Russia who have won 19 medals. GB have won the team competition twice,...
Vanessa Walker – running for a cause
Vanessa Walker chose to celebrate her 60th birthday in 2019 by competing in the Dukeries 30 ultra race with her two sons and six friends from her running club. Despite a very early start and 30 miles of running, she had enough energy left to attend...
Most Read Articles
The six most popular articles on my blog recently….
The first Badwater ultra race
It is 6am on Friday 31st July 1987 and the temperature at the Badwater sinkhole in Death Valley, California, is already over 30°C. By midday it will rise to over 40°C. British ultrarunner Eleanor Adams stands with three others waiting to start the...
Female Ultrarunners over 50
In January I added three women to my list of running bloggers over 50. I noticed that all three of them run ultra distance races. Alene Nitzky, from Colorado USA, has been running ultras since 1991 and has run the Badwater 135 race twice. Carolin...
Diane Leather and the 5 minute mile
Sir Roger Bannister's death on 3rd of March 2018 was widely reported in the UK and around the world. Bannister's achievement of being the first man to run a mile in less than 4 minutes led to global fame and he was held in the highest esteem in the...
“Jeffing” the Yorkshire Marathon
This is the story of how I got to the starting line of my first marathon and what happened on the day. Getting ready for the Plusnet Yorkshire Marathon on Sunday 9th October 2016 I thought about the interview I had done with Sandy Poole in January...
Running towards the menopause
Today (18th October) is World Menopause Day. I've spent quite a bit of time on Twitter participating in an awareness raising campaign organised by Henpicked, a network for women over 40, using the hashtag #HotFlashMob. It's probably the first time...
The first London Marathon
On a sunny day in August 1980 200 women from 27 countries lined up in Battersea Park in London to run a marathon. It was the first time the city's streets had ever been closed for a race. It was the 3rd August. Two days before the men's marathon...