history – Salty Running

More than Lipstick: How Avon Brought the Women’s Marathon to the Olympics

Posted by MapleAugust 23, 2016 18 Comments

Early last Sunday morning, we huddled around our computers and TVs to spectate the ultimate in women’s running: the 2016 Olympic Marathon. We watched amazing athletes from across the globe run 26.2 miles at paces many of us can’t even hold for one. The race culminated with a stunning finish, Kenyan Jemima Sumgong crushing Bahrain’s Eunice Kirwa with her finishing kick. In the team showings, for the first time ever, three members of Team USA finished in the top ten, the only nation other than Japan to have ever achieved that feat.

Watching these runners is awe inspiring, but, with this being the ninth Olympic women’s marathon, I’m reminded that it wasn’t so long ago that there wasn’t a women’s Olympic Marathon at all. In fact, not that long ago women couldn’t even enter any marathon. But thanks to the unlikely champion of women’s running, the makeup company Avon, women the world over run marathons, including the 133 world-class athletes who finished the 2016 Olympic Marathon in Rio. Read more >>

Read This Book Now! The Silence of Great Distance

Posted by SageOctober 6, 2015 4 Comments

I always sensed the silence as I ran amongst the towering redwood trees, the trails covered in lichen and fallen leaves, the softness of the morning light surrounding me while my legs fell one foot in front of the other. I was a neophyte in the late 1970s, running unencumbered, without pressure, only my dog and me on forested trails, yet there was a phenomenon brewing of which I was barely aware: high school, collegiate, and elite women athletes were running long, breaking barriers and stereotypes, creating a path for women runners to follow or from which to forge ahead.

It is in Frank Murphy’s book, The Silence of Great Distance: Women Running Long that I was able to go back in time and experience the dawn of competitive women’s running. In fact, if you’re a woman who loves to run and you haven’t read Silence yet, drop what you’re doing and get a copy now. It’s a must read and a great compliment book to Suzy Favor Hamilton’s, Fast Girl! Read more >>

The Flying Nun: Sr. Marion Irvine and the 1984 Olympic Trials

Posted by SageSeptember 17, 2015 9 Comments

Sister Marion in 1980. Image by © Roger Ressmeyer/CORBIS

When you think of the Olympic Trials, you probably don’t picture a fifty-something nun lining up on the starting line, yet in the first U.S. Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials in 1984, there was Sister Marion Irvine anxiously awaiting the gun in the crowd with Joan Benoit Samuelson and other younger – much younger – speedsters.

“There was the grey of the overcast skies and the hair of 54-year old Sister Marion Irvine.”

So wrote runner and author Jack Welch, describing the first American women competing in the marathon distance at the 1984 Olympic Trials in his popular book, When Running Was Young and So Were We.

I recently met with Marion, the Flying Nun to talk about becoming a runner in middle age and how she became the oldest participant, not only in the women’s marathon but also in ANY event at those Olympic Trials!

Running Past History

Posted by ChipotleFebruary 4, 2014 4 Comments

Freedom Riders — Running through Jackson, MS calls to mind the battles for Civil Rights fought by Americans who came before us. (img via elycefeliz on flickr)

I spent time in Jackson, MS a few months ago, there to run the Mississippi Blues half marathon. It was very, very hilly, but nonetheless I had a great race. Since my trip took me there to run, at first it had not occurred to me that to walk — much less run — downtown without incident was a victory.

Then, the Thursday before the race, I ran four miles through downtown Jackson, when I came upon a plaque and my heart stopped. I remembered history. I remembered the battles others fought so that I, a Southern woman of color, could run through the streets. Just think, a mere 50 years ago I may not have been able to run that half marathon. I may not have even been able to walk downtown! I certainly would not have been able to eat dinner at a table in a restaurant. That is a victory.

This is a tribute to those who came before me. Read more >>

Equal Pay For Women Athletes: Elite Prize Purses

Posted by PepperNovember 6, 2012 9 Comments

Equal Pay: The Radical Notion That Women Are P... — Equal Pay: The Radical Notion That Women Are People (Photo credit: Madison Guy)

It’s Election Day, and here at Salty Running we’re a binder full of opinionated spicy women! And this spicy lady would like to talk about equal pay. Now that the election is almost over though, I don’t want to get into the candidates’ opinions on equal pay for women in the work force, I want to talk about the dynamics of elite prize purses for professional running and triathlon.

My boyfriend and I were tracking a friend this weekend who raced Ironman Florida. We were chatting about the race and the elite fields as we waited with a bunch of my running gal pals (including Salty!) for tables at a local diner, when my boyfriend made me do a double take. He went from talking about the elite fields to an argument that the women should not have the same prize purse as the men in this event. What!?

5 Women Who Blazed the (Running) Trail

Posted by SassafrasAugust 10, 2012 1 Comment

The London Olympics have given us plenty of rising stars to watch in the years to come, both those who made the podium and those who came achingly close. Girls today have their pick of female athletes to idolize: Katie Ledecky, Jessica Ennis, Allyson Felix and, of course, Shalane Flanagan and Kara Goucher, just to name a few. And let’s not forget 19-year-old Sarah Attar, the first female Olympian to represent Saudi Arabia on the track. While the headlines from London have been dominated by the outstanding achievements of female athletes, it wasn’t so long ago that women weren’t allowed to participate in the Olympic Games! This week’s Friday 5 looks back at women who helped female runners get where we are today.