30 Oct 2026 | Women's marathon history |
British women’s marathon record – context The British women’s marathon record progression begins with Violet Piercy’s time of 4:25 in an unofficial run in 1936. It ends with Paula Radcliffe’s 2:15:25 in 2003. For most of the twentieth...
10 Dec 2022 | Women's marathon history |
The official programme for the inaugural London Marathon in 1981 described Leslie Watson as “the Queen of the Roads”. Her prolific racing led to her becoming the public face of the women’s marathon in the UK. Watson had run over 40 marathons in six years. She had...
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...
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 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...
