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 lifetime. I was born in...
Eleanor Adams was IAU 100km World Champion in two consecutive years, 1990 at Duluth, USA and 1991 at the Del Passatore race in Italy.
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, placed second three...
In the 1980s British ultrarunner Eleanor Adams won the c1000km Sydney to Melbourne race three times.
At the New York Six Day Track Race in 1984, Eleanor Adams and Yiannis Kouros set new world bests for the event.
The story of the first Badwater ultra race in 1987 where two British runners and two American runners ran a 146-mile route from Badwater Basin to the summit of Mount Whitney.
Molly Schiot's book "Game Changers: the unsung heroines of sports history" is dedicated to "all the women who were forever told 'no'". It is replete with examples of women who followed their dreams and ambitions in sport despite prejudice, discrimination and...
On 3rd August 1980, 200 women from 27 countries lined up in Battersea Park in London to run a marathon: the third Avon International Marathon. Maureen Fitzpatrick was one of those women, excitedly waiting at the start and hoping to complete her first marathon at the...
On 29th May 1954 Diane Leather became the first woman to run a mile in less than 5 minutes, when she competed at the Midlands Women’s Amateur Athletic Association Championships at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium. Her time was 4 minutes and 59.6 seconds. Why is her record-breaking achievement far less well-known than Sir Roger Bannister’s sub-4 minute mile record, set 23 days earlier?