 How do we get more women and more diversity on the start lines of ultra-distance trail races? It's a debate that has been going on for some time, but has increasingly become a hot topic. Recently I attended an event in London, organised by one of the race companies who are actively trying to do something to address the issue. Threshold Trail Series are the company responsible for well-known events, Race to the Stones and Race to the King, which had remarkably managed to achieve a 50-50 gender split on their start lines pre-pandemic. However, that parity has dropped away somewhat post-COVID. Now though, the company have launched a new initiative called Ultra 50-50, reading directly from their website Thresholds Say Ultra 50-50 endeavors to achieve gender parity and set new industry standards to inspire, empower and enable women to take part in events at the toughest end of the running distance spectrum. They have partnered with various groups to try and understand the challenges and address them head-on, and whilst at the launch event of Ultra 50-50, I took the opportunity to speak to some of those involved, starting with ultra-runner Sophie Power, founder of She Races. Sophie, tell me first of all a little bit about She Races. So, She Races, essentially, we're campaigning for gender equality in mass-partisan events. So, that can be your 5K race, that can be your multi-dipster and triathlon. But really, we believe that all women belong on start lines. We want to get more women on start lines to be more racist to give women a better experience when we're on these start lines, and really equally value our competition alongside the men's. OK, loads of people will know you from a particular photograph. And talking about She Races, talking about women in running, explain a bit about why people know your face. So, I was going to draft breastfeeding while running the UTMB, the 106 mile mountain race, with my three-month-old baby. And I was there because they wouldn't let me to further race because I'd been pregnant and I was very newly placed bottom. And I didn't want to lose my opportunity. I'd only lost my first place pregnant with my first son. So, I took part of the race. The Alexisburg, the amazing photographer, took a picture. It went viral around the world, and really highlighting a lot of the barriers that women face in running, but also in the need of new mothers to support us back to go after our goals. And then, about races themselves, there was no pregnancy policy. Why? You're stopping women getting back on those start lines, and racing, I should not have been racing with a three-month-old baby. So, I started campaigning for pregnancy deferrals in races which weren't standard. And then, actually, to set back, there are so many more barriers to women being on start lines. And when we're at races, we don't get the same experience of amending because races are designed through a male lens often. So, it's a lot of insight work to make to over 2,000 female athletes to run a track and cyclist. And to set a guideline for races are three things they can do to just make them more inclusive of women, to attract more women in the first place, with a better imagery and looking at the cut-offs and looking at the safety and looking at the logistics and then make it fair for us. Like, none of those male fit t-shirts anymore. We're sick of those. We like proper toilets. We like pure products in the toilet. Because on an ultra, your period can come on a week early. And you don't want to DNF because of your period. And then really like saying there's a male competition, a female competition and a male and a female winner. The winner is not the fastest across the line and really highlighting the female athletes. So, we can be inspired by those women and my daughters too and make sure she's inspired too. So, there's a lot of events you can do and it's really about supporting them to make a better environment for women. How do you think big race companies are doing with that? So, you mentioned pregnancy deferrals. There's been a lot of talk about sanitary products in aid stations, safety on the course, particularly women running alone at night. How well are race companies doing with that kind of stuff? Is there a lot of work to do? Some are brilliant. So, we have a shoe racer's accreditation. So, race is part of the guidelines. Essentially, just designing their race to make it great for women. So, those race differently and we have up to 50% kind of female participation in those start lines. There are some races that have a long way to go. Where it really is, you look at the imagery and it's kind of quite skinny men, which actually isn't very inclusive of all men because not all men look like that either. I certainly don't. And you've got the pregnancy policies, but also just not seeing women there, not looking at our toilet provision, not looking at the language around a race is often so offensive for women, saying, these are the tight cut-offs and if you missed a cut-off, you're out of the race. Whereas instead of saying, well, may the cut-offs as long as we can, this is the case you have to walk, run out to beat the cut-off. This is why it's that way. Making us believe we can finish it rather than putting a barrier saying, you have to be this fit to do it. So there's so much that races can do, but the tide is changing. I launched show faces June last year and now period products are obviously a normal thing at aid stations. They weren't last year, so it's like taking steps for pregnancy devourers. Women expect a yes when they ask. Women weren't asking a few years ago when I first took it to London, America and the U.N.B. It's changing step by step. The most important thing for women is we learn that we're entitled to that equal experience of races and empowering women to know that we deserve that and we should speak up. We should tell the racetrack to when things are high. A lot of women just share the guidelines. So like, look, your race is great in all these aspects. Here are things you can do better. Look at the she-basers' guidelines. So that's what we're trying to do. Really just move the needle. When events are being planned and not being planned through a male lens and we're an article. You must look at data and if there's one thing that comes through from talking to women about races, about ultras, is there something particular that stands out that prevents women from standing on that start line? I mean, if you look at just the women doing exercise that's empty, it's time. I mean, three quarters of us say that we don't have enough time for it and I think for ultras, a lot of it is understanding that you don't need to be running 50 miles a week to do an auction having the confidence that actually if you're a busy mum on your feet all day, you could probably go and do a 50k race the next day because you probably get round an awful lot in that day. If you don't have your shoes on, feel yourself properly, you can do that. So I think that's the mindset shift that it's not marathon class, it's marathon minus minus. And if you can do a half marathon or you can do an ultra, it's very different. So I think that's the mindset kind of knowing that you don't have to train as hard as you would do for a marathon maybe to get a certain time to finish an ultra. You just have to keep walking towards the events that as long as you're moving forward they're going to let you keep going. There are no putters. I don't think that's what Greshaw is doing here. They're very inclusive of 50ks that they're just trying to get everyone to finish and I think when women know that you're being supported to get to the finish rather than you're being kind of prevented from getting there. We want to cut you off, we want to show this race as hard. That's what we need more races to do. Thank you very much Sophie, enjoy the rest of the evening. So what about diversity in running? How do we get more black and south Asian women running on the trails and lining up at the start of ultra distance races? I spoke first to Tash who founded a group called Black Girls Do Run. So Black Girls Do Run UK started in 2019 based on my experience as a runner I was running that for 20 years at a time and didn't see many black women at races and wanted to make a difference wanted to inspire more black women to run so they represented that elite level but regular black women when you didn't really see much of that. Okay, tell me a little bit about your personal running story Tash. So I started running in 1999 I ran in a treadmill just before that and one day decided to run outside and I found it really difficult to switch from treadmill to outside but I loved it. I loved the changing scenery just the air of my face and I entered a five-year race and I really loved that end goal training for some figure on a specific date for specific disorders and I fell in love with running and have not looked back. So tell me things hopefully are changing but why did you as a black woman suddenly fall in love with running? Because as you've said you go to races and you haven't seen people that look like you. Why did I fall in love with running? Why did you go running in the first place? Okay, so I became active at quite a young age from about 18, 19 and I decided to lead an active lifestyle because growing up my dad had diabetes and my mum has hypertension and I didn't want to contract those diseases because I was a quite profane in the black community and then running was the sport that I loved like I ran at school I didn't take it as seriously as I could because my friends didn't like running so I didn't get into it as much but I guess it was always there, always within me so running the treadmill was my favourite piece of equipment and then I just made that step to run outside and I just loved it I just loved running one foot in front of the other and I loved having races as a goal and running community is great So what has changed in the years that you've been running? Do you see more diversity on the start line these days? Definitely And why is that? Diversity has been an inclusive one because it proves that our black girls divided by their payday is emancipated from the Sunday every week doing the work to encourage smaller minority groups to run and just work here So what more do you guys or do we need to do to make that diversity more diverse? What do we need to do to make it better? A big thing is advertising so in the race information from the photos on the website include a more diverse range of people and then people look at your websites look at the Instagram page and see themselves and feel that that event is for them That's really important That's one message I've really got today is when you look at a start line or when you look at a website you need to see yourself there It's very interesting Tash, thank you so much I'll pass you on with things Specifically black women in running Are there any issues related to black women running in this country or around the world or in ultras or in 5Ks What would you say to black women about running? Give it a go Embrace it There's so much out there to encourage you there's parkfront there's cash to 5A There's lots of rich and running groups They may look intimidated on the outset but usually they're quite welcome and just be brave take a step and running changes lives and it will change your life Thank you Tash, thank you so much The world has recruited a team of women ultra 5050 challengers to help to inspire other women to take on a trail race or an ultra distance event Each of the challengers has their own unique story to tell from a cancer survivor taking on her very first running event to an experienced ultra runner coming back to the sport following pregnancy I spoke to one of the challengers I asked her why are you at the threshold 5050 event today I am here looking for a brand new challenge I'm here looking for personal throne and I'm here to be a representation for South Asia women Tell me what organisations you're involved in So I work for the outrunners and I head up on the women's side and what we are doing is working with black and brown women who are not into running or not into fitness and what we are doing is using movement to encourage them to get into running OK, by the end of the program Why is it that black and brown women don't stand on that start line as much as skinny white men OK, so there's a number of factors to consider First of all we need to look at representation Why? Why? There's not enough brown and black women out of it on the courses Luckily this year, the last couple of years there's been new representations but we need more But why? It's more to do with baby cultural reasons Are we breaking barriers with women? We're breaking barriers We need to break the initial barrier for them to get into running If they're not into running, you'll never see them at the start line It's important that they break personal barriers before we get them into the start line Are they just thinking about some of the things that have been said this evening Are they historical barriers as well like from parents that Asian women just don't go running That's not what Asian girls do I think it's more to do with Because we don't see it we don't consider it, we don't think about it It's more to do with no one stopping us from doing it It's just more to do with we don't see it So we never think about it We never ever thought about it to do something like that Another thing is also representation By that I mean brand marketing Why is it that enough brands are not using us as representation? Because we don't see it out there on the forefront that also has an impact on why is it that we don't have many out there And that's something else I'm trying to work on And us being a representation me being out there on Ultra Hopefully we'll encourage so many other South Asians to be out there I'm going to bring them with me as well next year I wish, I got to take that Thank you so much No worries, thank you Finally I grabbed James from the Running Channel to ask what his thoughts are on the 50-50 initiative So we're at the Other End Channel always keen to get as many runners into running and like obviously trying to get more people into ultra running no matter the gender it's such a key thing of getting more women into running feeling like ultra running is a space that they can actually get involved in and hearing all the panel talks is exactly what we at the Running Channel encourage as well so it was really amazing to hear all these inspiring women talk about the barriers that running and ultra running have but also the ways that those barriers can be overcome is just incredible Can you explain a bit about because it's not 50K and 50 miles is it what's this 50-50 business all about? Yeah, so obviously threshold is one of the one of the best in terms of 50-50 gender split so 50% men, 50% women so they used to have 50-50 pre-COVID but post-COVID they are basically every other running space and realised is that women's taking up running events has slipped from pre-COVID to post-COVID so this is a point of realising that there is this challenge of trying to encourage women back into trail running, ultra running and running in general so this event and what they are going to try and do going forward is to get back to that 50-50 split What can we do to help women or to encourage women to stand on that start line? Yeah, I mean the main thing is we've had so many communication at the Running Channel we've just done a huge campaign about women's safety in running and the main thing is just be better Ask questions if you are not sure what to do with a race if you are running behind a female runner during a race or during any kind of training run make sure you are not running so close behind they can be frightened, chat or play the whole point of why the running community is amazing is because we are a community so anything you can do that you think might be intimidating while you are on a run passing a woman to a post-COVID when you are overtaken just give everyone more space everyone more respect and the running community will be better both or And you touched a little bit about what the Running Channel is doing so where does the Running Channel stand on this issue? What are you doing to address it? Yeah so we just literally a connection conference campaign was how running could be safer for everyone but primarily women so we did a women's only relay race along Hadrian's Wall where we had some incredibly inspiring female runners taking on this amazing event and we hosted a panel similar to tonight we actually had Sophie Power as part of our relay race as well who was here tonight but it's just trying to spread the word of how difficult it can be for female runners to get into running and to be in running and showing that there are ways to feel safer either through the community or through the tact that you can run with but there are so many ways to get over these barriers that exist for women more than men Cheers James, thank you very much Now I will be on the start line of the Race to the Stones 2024 if you are a female runner looking to step up to ultra-distance races you can be absolutely sure that the Threshold Trail series has got your back they're making a real effort to help you feel more confident about getting to and standing on that start line and they will be making absolutely sure that you are welcomed and you are well looked after when you get there so if you have been inspired by some of the women you've seen talking here today then please do subscribe to the channel click here to watch my amazing wife running 100 miles, thank you so much for watching and we'll see you on the start line next time, bye bye