3 Dec 2023 | Women's marathon history |
Stephen Lane’s book “Long Run to Glory” is timely. The Paris 2024 Olympic Games will mark the fortieth anniversary of the first women’s marathon at the Olympics. The race was held at the Los Angeles games on 5th August 1984, 88 years after the first men’s Olympic...
1 Nov 2023 | Running after fifty |
On Monday 1st May 2023 ultrarunning adventurer Nikki Love embarked on an epic 4000km run across Australia, realising a long-held dream. When she set off from Cottesloe Beach in Perth, Nikki could not know that she could make it to the finish at Bondi Beach in Sydney....
30 Sep 2023 | Women's ultrarunning history |
In January I had the pleasure of meeting British ultrarunner Sophie Power for the first time. I attended her talk about the She Races campaign at the National Running Show in Birmingham and introduced myself afterwards. Sophie mentioned that she was planning to...
1 Aug 2023 | Women's ultrarunning history |
This is the second in a series of posts about the development of women’s six day races from 1981 onwards. In 1981, Marcy Schwam of the USA became the first woman to compete in a six day race since the revival of the format in 1980. Her “new era” record of 384...
6 Jun 2023 | Women's ultrarunning history |
The history of women’s six day ultra races has been overshadowed by the focus on the men’s record. The impetus for writing this series of posts came from interviewing Eleanor Robinson and Lorna Richey Michael (interview to be published soon) about their involvement in...
7 Apr 2023 | Women's ultrarunning history |
This week marks 100 years since the remarkable Mothers’ Marathon and I’d like to invite you to take a moment to reflect on the astounding achievement of five exceptional women: Lily Groom; Rose Firmager; Alice Sunderland; Ada May Edwards and Margaret Oliver. I am...
4 Apr 2023 | Women's ultrarunning history |
Women’s participation in road running in the UK has grown considerably in the past 15 years and it is not uncommon for women to make up over 40% of finishers in road races. Yet in ultrarunning, women’s participation is much lower, perhaps around 30%, but this varies...
2 Mar 2023 | General running history |
The Notts 10 mile road race is said to be the oldest road race in Nottinghamshire and is one of the oldest in the East Midlands. But last year its future was in doubt, after Notts AC, who had organised the race for 50 years, decided to discontinue it. As the Notts 10...
10 Dec 2022 | Women's marathon history |
The official programme for the inaugural London Marathon in 1981 described Leslie Watson as “the Queen of the Roads”. Her prolific racing led to her becoming the public face of the women’s marathon in the UK. Watson had run over 40 marathons in six years. She had...
2 Nov 2022 | Women's endurance running history, Women's marathon history |
In October I was invited onto the Runner’s World UK podcast to talk about “five women who changed running forever”. It’s a great topic for a sports historian, but also quite difficult to choose just five. As Runner’s World magazine is...
