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...
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...
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...
21 Feb 2021 | Women's ultrarunning history |
An ultramarathon in a shopping mall In 1984, Peter Goodsell of the Road Runners Club1 hit upon the idea of staging a 24-hour race in a shopping centre. The Central Milton Keynes shopping centre, which had opened in 1979, was the longest shopping mall in the world. The...
