Links

Links – Runners over 50

If you’d like to read more about the experiences of other women runners over 50 have a look at my list of blogs from around the world.

The Tough Girl podcast from Sarah Williams features thoughtful interviews with female adventurers of all kinds, including several women over 50. There are interviews with Audrey McIntosh, Nicky Spinks and Miriam Diaz Gilbert who feature on my blog lists, and with Nikki Love who I’ve interviewed.

Dr Juliet McGrattan is a former GP who is passionate about using exercise for health and well-being and wants to get as many people up out of their chairs as possible and experiencing the joy and benefits that exercise brings. In her work Juliet is involved in promoting good health through physical activity. Her website includes information on health topics for active people, advice on keeping fit and well during perimenopause and menopause and interviews with active women from a variety of sports. She interviewed me in January 2019.

Becoming Elli is a US-based podcast and blog set up by two women, Chris Brown and Jill McCauslin, who became fit in their fifties through running and lifting weights. They cover fitness, food and health and wellbeing and aim to encourage women over 50 to stay fit and become strong as they age. They chose the name Elli because she was the Norse goddess of old age who defeated Thor in a wrestling match.

Dr Stacy Sims is an exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist who focuses on exercise nutrition and performance for women. She has recently turned her attention to the nutrition and exercise needs of women during perimenopause and beyond. Her blog features posts on these topics. 

Marathon Talk was a weekly podcast all about distance running  (not just marathons) which ran for 12 years until January 2022.  The episodes are still available on podcast platforms. The archives include some great interviews with older women runners, including Joyce Smith – first female winner of the London Marathon (February 2014), Libby James (March 2013), Kathrine Switzer (April 2012) and Sister Madonna Buder (April 2011). Marathontalk was revived in 2022 with Abbott World Marathon Majors sponsorship.

henpicked.net aims to share the wisdom of women with a wide range of articles of interest to women over 40. The Health section features articles on exercising, including a couple of articles I wrote about running and cycling.

Running 101 was set up in 2019 by sport and exercise science graduate Matthew. It includes running tips, training advice and reviews of kit, books and blogs.

Links – Women’s Running History

The Athletics Museum, a virtual museum of English athletics, has an exhibition on the Women’s Amateur Athletic Association. The WAAA governed English women’s athletics from 1922 to 1991 when it merged with the men’s AAA. The WAAA was influential in the development of women’s athletics in the UK and internationally.

The Scottish Athletics website features a series of articles about the Scottish Women’s Amateur Athletic Association which was formed in 1930.

The Scottish Distance Running History website covers Scottish athletics in the twentieth century and has an A-Z of Scottish female athletes and longer profiles of several distance runners, including Dale Greig and Leslie Watson.

Athlos is a website dedicated to making rare athletics books available free of charge online. The athletics history section of the website has three articles covering the development women’s athletics from classical times to 2012.

Playing Pasts is the online magazine for sports and leisure history. It has an athletics section which includes several articles on Nineteenth Century foot races and pedestrianism. I’ve written two articles for Playing Pasts: one about Scottish marathon runner Dale Greig and the other about the rule change in 1975 which allowed women in the UK to run long-distance races.

The Museum of World Athletics (MOWA) is an interactive virtual museum curated by World Athletics. You can view, and read about, many of the artefacts in their heritage collection, such as Fanny Blankers-Koen’s identity card from the 1948 London Olympic Games and Diane Leather’s running spikes. The website also features short articles commemorating historical milestones in athletics.

Women’s Running Stories is a podcast hosted by US-based long-distance runner Cherie Turner. It features documentary-style stories about female marathon and ultramarathon runners. The first season focused on women who’ve run the Comrades Ultramarathon in South Africa. Episodes include interviews with women who are running now and with women who were amongst the first to run the race.

Starting Line 1928 is an oral history project which documents the stories of the pioneers of American women’s distance running in their own voices. The website features podcast interviews and articles about each of the women interviewed.

If  you are interested in running shoes, the Marathon Shoe History website has a list of the shoes worn by women who set the marathon record. The author also posts regularly on Instagram (@marathonshoenrd) featuring images of shoes worn by elite athletes at particular races with historical details of the athletes and the races.

Ultrarunning History is a website authored by ultrarunner and independent sports historian Davy Crockett from Utah, USA.  It features dozens of historical articles mainly, but not exclusively, focused on North American ultrarunning and pedestrianism. There are podcast versions of many of the articles. Ruth Anderson, Sandra Brown, Sandra Kiddy and Marcy Schwam are some of the female ultrarunners featured. In 2020, the website became the host of the American Ultrarunning Hall of Fame.

Australian Ultramarathon History is a website authored by Australian ultrarunner Phil Essam. It covers Australian pedestrianism and ultrarunning from the 1800s to 2010. There are many newspaper cuttings and results clippings for a huge range of races and events, as well as articles and race reports.