2 Nov 2022 | Popular articles, 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...
30 Sep 2022 | Women's ultrarunning history |
When Eleanor Adams (now Robinson) took part in the first Spartathlon, a 245km race from Athens to Sparta, in September 1983, she was relatively new to ultrarunning. She had run her first ultramarathon, a 12 hour track race, in July the previous year. She had competed...
31 Aug 2022 | Women's endurance running history |
When Marea Hartman died in 1994, she had been involved in the governance and administration of women’s athletics in England for nearly 60 years. One of her colleagues on the Women’s Amateur Athletic Association (WAAA), Vera Searle, regarded her as...
1 Aug 2022 | Women's marathon history |
On 16th January 2022, Keira D’Amato broke the long-standing USA national women’s marathon record when she won the Houston Marathon in 2:19:12. She beat the previous record set by Deena Kastor in 2006 in the London Marathon by 24 seconds. On the same day at...
2 Jul 2022 | Popular articles, Women's endurance running history |
2022 marks the Centenary of the Women’s Amateur Athletic Assocation (WAAA). The WAAA was formed in 1922 to meet a growing demand for organised competition for women in England. The 1920s were an exciting time for women’s athletics as international...
2 Jun 2022 | General running history, Popular articles |
The marathon boom really got going in the early 1980s in the UK. The 1980s were a boom time for running magazines too, fed by the surge in popular interest in road running. New titles sprang up that catered for a new type of runner, the non-elite distance runner or...
11 Apr 2022 | Women's marathon history |
The 1970s were an important decade in the history of women’s marathon running in the UK and internationally. For most of the twentieth century, women were prohibited from running long distance races and it was only in the 1970s that countries began to lift the...
20 Mar 2022 | Running after fifty |
**Guest post** I met Anne Dockery at the British Masters Athletics Federation Championships in August 2021 where we raced each other in the 1500m (she was faster than me). I had a great chat with her afterwards and was delighted when she agreed to write a guest post...
27 Feb 2022 | Women's ultrarunning history |
The Nanango 1000 Mile Track Race was the perfect way for Eleanor Robinson to mark her 50th birthday. When Robinson turned 50 in November 1997, she had been an ultrarunner for 16 years. She was a 24 Hour World Champion, 100k World Champion twice and had probably set...
27 Feb 2022 | Women's ultrarunning history |
The 1998 Nanango 1000 Mile Track Race was held from 11th to 26th March and had a 15-day cutoff. The race hosted the inaugural International Association of Ultrarunners 1000 Mile World Championship. Read an account of the race here. Competitors There were 16...
