1 Feb 2026 | Women's ultrarunning history |
Very early in the morning on Sunday 13 April 2025, something extraordinary happened at the Crawley K2 arena. Sarah Webster, competing in her first 24-hour race, crossed the timing mat of the floodlit 400-metre athletics track for the 403rd time. It was just after 2...
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...
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...
28 Sep 2020 | Women's endurance running history, Women's ultrarunning history |
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...
29 May 2020 | Women's endurance running history, Women's ultrarunning history |
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 take part in this new...
