Described as ‘the world’s most accessible sport,’ long-distance running dates back to ancient times, with male runners competing against one another in feats of stamina and endurance.
Notice how I said ‘male runners’… you see, in the ancient Greek Olympics, which many believe to be the birth of the national competitive sport, women weren’t allowed to take part, and it would be centuries before that would be the case.
Married women weren’t even allowed to watch the Olympics back in Ancient Greece. By 1928, women were given the green light to run competitively at the Amsterdam Olympics. However, this was quickly reversed when women passed out at the end of the races (we see this as just going all out, however, back then, they thought women were incapable).
From footage later found in the 1970s, only one woman fell and was back up again in seconds. Nevertheless, women were again banned from track and field events until the 1960s.
However, this didn’t stop women from running. In the UK, Violet Percy was the first woman to be recorded as running a marathon distance in 1926. Bobbi (Roberta) Gibb hijacked the Boston Marathon in 1966, famously running with her hood up for most of the event until security guards tried to pull her off the course. She completed it anyway. The following year Kathrine Switzer famously registered and ran the Boston Marathon under “KV Switzer” and again completed the marathon course.
Women who ran were still frowned upon, with many living pioneers from that period describing men who would push them off trails during races and spectators throwing things at them. This animosity continued until the 1980s, when women began genuinely making their mark.
“There exists no conclusive scientific or medical evidence that long-distance running is contraindicated for the healthy, trained female athlete. The ACSM recommends that females be allowed to compete at the national and international level in the same distances in which their male counterparts compete.”
– 1980 ACSM Position Statement on women’s distance running.
In 1984, the inaugural women’s marathon took place at the Los Angeles Olympics, with American athlete Joan Benoit Samuelson claiming first place and a gold medal. The race included her sealing the first place position just four miles into the race, changing the face of long-distance running forever.
(Credit: David Miller for UTMB)
Nowadays, we have a little more freedom, with women breaking barriers and, in some cases, outperforming men. But what about ultramarathons?
When Eleanor Adams (now Robinson) took part in the first Spartathlon, a 245km race from Athens to Sparta in 1983, she was relatively new to Ultrarunning. Nevertheless, she had already established herself as one of the world’s best female ultrarunners, setting world bests for 30 miles, 50km and 40 miles.
Adams was the only woman in the race, supported by her husband, who met her at various points along the route.
“The difficulty I had in being accepted into the race [was] because the whole ethos of this race was based on a military event. The organisers were very much against having a female competitor, and it was only due to the intervention of the male ultrarunners that I was allowed to compete. So I didn’t know until the very last minute that I was going to be going to Greece, so I did no specific preparation for this event.”
Luckily for us, women nowadays continue to break barriers, with more women opting to run ultra-distances than ever before. A study performed by Run Repeat analysed over 5 million race finishers and showed that female participation in ultra-events rose 9% between 1996 and 2018.
The same study showed that while men may outpace women on shorter distances like 5km, the gap between female and male winners closes as the distance extends, with women outrunning men once they cross the 195-mile mark.
Some scientists believe this could be a physiological factor. Men tend to have larger, leaner muscles, bigger hearts and greater aerobic capacity than women. This means that over shorter distances, these physical advantages mean they can run faster.
However, once distance increases, speed and strength become less important. Dr Nicholas Tiller, an ultra-marathon runner and senior lecturer in applied physiology at Sheffield Hallam University, told the BBC:
“One of the reasons why women tend to be able to compete with men and sometimes outperform them is that the greater maximal capacities exhibited by men aren’t as important in an ultra-endurance event.”
This is becoming apparent today as more women take first place in ultramarathons, and we are greeted with some of the most impressive female ultrarunners.
Jasmine Paris made history in January 2019 by becoming the first woman to win the brutal 268-mile Montane Spine Race, crossing the finish line in 83 hours, 12 minutes and 23 seconds.
Jasmine had given birth just 14 months previously, breaking all previous course records by an astonishing 12 hours. She had beaten 136 other competitors, 125 of them being men, slept for only seven hours and pumped milk for her young daughter along the route.
You can’t talk about female ultra runners without mentioning the famous Courtney Dauwalter, who has made a name for herself in the world of ultrarunning, despite only going professional in 2017.
The former high school teacher has won several races outright, including the Moab 240 in 2017, where she finished 10 hours ahead of her nearest challenger. Dauwalter’s most outstanding achievement was winning the Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc in 2021.
Camille Herron is the first and only athlete to win all three of the road IAU World Championships (50km, 100km and 24 hours). She also won the 2017 Comrades Marathon and holds the Guinness World Record for the fastest marathon in a superhero costume.
It isn’t hard to admit that women have surpassed the expectations set upon them when they were ‘allowed’ to begin running competitively in the 1960s. It is an exciting time for women to be ultra-running, and only time will tell what female capabilities truly are and what lies ahead.
Article by Emily Yarwood, Ultrarunner Magazine
This article used the blog RunYoung50 during research. Head over to them to learn more about this topic and more!