Ultramarathon Daily News | Tue, July 6

Run Spirited: From grief and obesity to a 200 mile win.

BBC: She set out on a 630 mile trek around England but made it three miles until she had to be rescued. These stories are becoming more and more common.

Next to the steeple, I consider the 400m hurdles to be about the toughest event in track and field. I guess I didn’t think a Norwegian guy named Karsten would set the WR. Huh.

Past HURT champ Jason Loutitt passed away recently. Not sure of any details. More on his running here.

iRunFar: Alex Nichols’ lessons from Western States 2021.

Honest question. Please help me out with this: How are we supposed to increase female and BIPOC involvement in MUT running when articles like this are posted regularly?

Toni Reavis writes about the Sha’carri Richardson case with an even tone and clear head.

Sage Canaday’s first trail run since his pulmonary embolism last month. Nice to see him healthy!

Short news day. What did I miss?

7 Responses to "Ultramarathon Daily News | Tue, July 6"

Julie Pierce says:

July 6, 2021 at 7:07 am

The problem for women isn’t articles that highlight the dangers inherent to running alone (primarily because of men), it’s the actual dangers themselves that are the problem. Get serious about keeping women safe (good luck with that) and maybe our participation numbers will increase. I’m not optimistic; female humans have dealt with this for millennia. Nothing is going to change.

Reply
1. eric schranz says:
  
  July 6, 2021 at 7:14 am
  
  I totally get that. There are some terrible people out there and problems certainly do exist.
  But also, how do we balance putting this problems into appropriate context with wanting to increase participation?
  
  Reply
Paul says:

July 6, 2021 at 10:14 am

I (a white man) use articles like this to think about ways I may be unknowingly discouraging female and BIPOC participation and then making changes so I stop doing those things.

I’ll take it at face value that your question is honest. One way to increase participation would be for those that have a platform, such as yourself, to not dismiss these articles as overwrought or isolated incidents, and use your platform to encourage others to self-reflect and make changes.

Reply
KS Petty says:

July 6, 2021 at 11:53 am

The article’s title specifies that “These Women Say Trails Aren’t Safe For Everyone.” If your goal is to increase participation, you can continue to do so with a wide enough perspective to also include the acknowledgement that what these women are saying is relevant to those efforts. Look no further than Megan Flanagan’s words in the piece: “We really have to be intentional about building space for these conversations. It’s not enough to say you welcome women or people of color. You need to be intentional about your invitations.”

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Julie Pierce says:

July 6, 2021 at 11:56 am

I’ll turn that question around: How do we make sure women can safely train and race? (I won’t bore you with the list of times I’ve been harassed or assaulted while running. And a recent high-profile case demonstrated that even during big-name races women aren’t free from being assaulted.) Participation will naturally increase when we can train and race without worrying about our personal security. We LOVE the trails! We LOVE racing! What can men do to help us safely get out there?

Reply
1. eric schranz says:
  
  July 6, 2021 at 4:29 pm
  
  How do we make sure women can safely train and race? I honestly don’t know what measures or steps could be taken short of carrying a sidearm and eliminating the threat.
  
  Assaulting people is already against the law and the 1A protects speech, so not sure what else we could do, legally speaking. I don’t harass people and throughout my 35 year running career, have never personally experienced it, though I’m sure it happens. I’ve got no faith in signage or public messaging and unfortunately some creeps are driven to act this way in total disregard of existing laws or social norms. If you’ve got ideas, please share them so we can help solve this.
  
  In the mean time, I fear we’ll see a drop in female/BIPOC participation if the message from large publications is “trail running is full of racist and sexist assholes.”
  
  Honestly trying to help with this.
  
  Reply
Nicole Whiting says:

July 7, 2021 at 7:58 am

I don’t think acknowledgement of the issues women runners (or runners to be) face is condemning the existing community of trail runners. Anecdotally, and the article backs this up, the issue isn’t just problems with other runners, it’s the whole world of folks driving/etc by that see someone they perceive as vulnerable and/or out of place.

Re what can be done, some ideas would be to: 1) do an assessment of the current experiences of women trail runners and runners-to-be, and find out the issues and barriers they face to getting out on the trails, 2) convene groups like the Runner’s Alliance and Strong Runner Chicks to discuss & address these issues. These groups could hold events like the Trail Running Women Summit to broadly open the discussion and also highlight specific solutions from experienced women runners. 3) Someone could be the change and represent women runners’ concerns within trail associations, or found groups to

Finally, 4) someone could write an article (https://tinyurl.com/u26rrvw5) in a major trail running publication to bring awareness to these issues and groups, and spark further discussion and change.

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