MARATHON WOMEN

We’ve all heard of Kathrine Switzer and know how her pioneering ambition changed the course of history for women in running – but she wasn’t alone. Throughout the 60s and 70s there were many exceptional athletes who broke the mould and had a massive impact on outdated rules. Let’s hear it for the rulebreakers

Words: Katie Holmes

Running is the favourite sport of British women, with around three million of us running regularly. Every weekend, tens of thousands of us rock up at races of various distances from 5K parkruns to gruelling ultramarathons, and knowing how popular running has become, it’s hard to conceive that, not long ago, we weren’t allowed to compete in races over four miles. Imagine being told that running might harm your reproductive health, and imagine being told you can’t run in the same races as men? That was the situation for women in the UK until 1975 when the Women’s Amateur Athletic Association changed its competition rules and allowed women to run distances up to the marathon. Until then, there were very few road races for women, whereas men were able to race all distances, including ultras.

Change only came about because women knew they could do more and took action to prove it. These are the stories of four women who broke the rules in the UK in the 60s and 70s, challenged race officials and public opinion, and showed what women could do.

DALE GREIG

A lone runner on Scotland's roads

On a sunny Saturday afternoon in May 1964, a young Scottish woman lined up to run a marathon at Ryde on the Isle of Wight, the sole woman in a field of 67 men. Dale Greig was to become the first woman to run a marathon in under 3 hours and 30 minutes.

The club that organised the race, Ryde Harriers, knew that they were breaking the Amateur Athletic Association’s rules by letting a woman run in their race. They tried to get around this by making Dale start four minutes ahead of the men and made sure she was followed by an ambulance in case she collapsed.

In the event, 19 of the men failed to finish the notoriously hilly course but Dale crossed the line in 3 hours 27 minutes 25 seconds in 35th place. Her time was later recognised as a world best by the IAAF (now World Athletics) but it was to be 38 years until another British woman, Paula Radcliffe, would set the world record.

The energy to dance

A local paper reported Dale as saying: “I felt sorry for the men I kept passing in the closing stages – they looked embarrassed. A couple who had given up and were sitting at the roadside, struggled to their feet when they saw me pass.” The paper also reported that she went to the athletes’ dance that evening and stayed until midnight. Dale clearly wasn’t exhausted from running a marathon.

The story was picked up by the national press as a novelty item, but not everyone approved. Two days after the race, the Daily Express quoted Marea Hartman of the Women’s AAA: “We have no races over four-anda-half miles. It’s felt these distances are too much for women. ... As for women running against men – No. The discrepancy in ability is too great.”