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 Adams (now Robinson)...
Women’s endurance running history articles
Women’s marathon history – 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 lifetime. I was born in...
IAU 100km World Champion Eleanor Adams Robinson
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’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, placed second three...
Three wins at the Westfield Sydney to Melbourne race
sAt 10.30 am on 27th April 1983, the New South Wales Premier fired the starter’s gun on a race that was to make a national hero of its winner and create one of the most famous Australian ultramarathons, the Westfield Sydney to Melbourne race. Eleven men lined up in...
New York Six Day Race 1984
At the New York Six Day Track Race in 1984, Eleanor Adams and Yiannis Kouros set new world bests for the event.
The first Badwater ultra race
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.
The unsung heroines
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...
The Avon International London Marathon, a first-hand account
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...