In the first few weeks of 2019 there has been some big waves in the Trail Running female community. Jasmine Paris won the 268 mile spine race in an outstanding time of 83 hours, which is the fastest person in history, ever. She is a mother, she is ordinary yet completley extraordinary. She is showing us that as women there are no barriers to our capabilities and we just have to have the confidence to give things ago. Also this week within Maverick there was the launch of the 'Leading ladies in Trail' film. An amazing film that speaks so many truths about what the trails mean to us as runners, but also that although sport hasn't always been easy, within the Maverick community there is equality and inclusion like we have previously never known.
Secondly in the first few weeks of this year there has been a big trend of a 10 year throw back. Lots of rather goofy images have been flooding social media from the wonderful year of 2009, however I am going to take you back another 10 years to the year of 1999. Spice girls were ruling the airwaves, the Fresh Prince was gracing the screens and nothing was cooler than skirts over jeans. The year is 1999, I am 7 and in an english class we were presented with the following task; 'a martian called 'Mel' is travelling to earth, when Mel gets to earth, Mel has to decide whether to live life as a boy or a girl. You must write a letter to convince Mel whether to be a boy or a girl'. I will share with you what I wrote and ever so elegantly you will see how this wonderful throwback of an innocent 7 year old is heavily entwined with the current show of female dominance in our sport of trail running.
1999 - 7 Year Old E - Class 3P - (Picture shows original)
Dear Mel,
I really think you should be a boy.
I think you should be a boy because they have much more fun than girls.
Here I have 8 good reasons why to be a boy.
1 - They don't have the trouble of putting on tights. They either wear trousers, socks, shorts, or T-shirts. They never wear tights.
2 - They are much better at sport. They don't even have females in football teams like Manchester United, Southampton, Chelsea or Liverpool.
3 - They are much stronger than girls. They can wrestle, lift things and protect themselves.
4 - They have pockets. Because in dresses you don't have pockets and these are helpful for sweets, toys and things like that.
5 - They don't have to do the cooking, so when they get in they can just say 'where's tea?'.
6 - There's not much pressure on how they look, so they don't have to spend so much time at the dressing table.
7 - In sport boys get more prize money than girls.
8 - Boys are faster than girls so they can win races like the Marathon.
I hope these 8 good reasons have convinced you to be a boy.
Your Sincerley.
Elyse
Well. If you are anything like me for the first time of reading that, one half of me was chuckling away at the thought of young E struggling putting on school tights. Also the issue of pockets is real, I know I would have been infuriated that there were no pockets to store sweets. Whilst the other half was so terribly sad for this young E. Sport was clearly really important to me back then but it seemed like it was a dead end. There were so few female role models in sport back then and the few there were were given virtually no exposure, support or attention.
1999 was a time when young girls believed that boys really were better than girls, that they were stronger, they were faster and they were given the opportunity to be more successful. 1999 was a time when young girls were already aware that how they look was more important than what they were achieving and that life was going to treat them unfairly for no other reason than the gender they were born.
So here we are in 2019. Women are winning races and making headlines in their own right. Women are be supported by brands not because they are 'ladies' but because they are athletes and they are 50% of the market, so it makes sense to give them equal exposure. So much as changed in the past 20 years for ladies in sport and I'm feeling very proud to be part of a sport that is inclusive to all. I am blesses to be part of Maverick where there is a 50:50 split at races which is something that hasn't even been achieved by the big marathons like London or New York yet.
Running with the team at Maverick is a privilege. I've been running with them now for 3 and a half years and every race it is a joy to be in the middle of a sporting world where being a woman isn't second best. The ladies and the men are all treated equally and we are all given the same opportunities. We are lucky to have Inov-8 on board as our title sponsor and they treat us with complete equality. What this means is that they have designed kit for women, and with nearly as much choice as there is for the men. In times gone past running brands designed full wardrobes of male kit and then branded it with a pink flower and called it 'female fit'. No no, that is not ok! But thank goodness Inov-8 have kit designed for the shape of us wonderful ladies and made it to move inline with the way we move.
It's important to not get carried away an not be naive here, there is still so much more than can be changed. On a day to day basis a lot of great achievements by ladies go under the radar. Mens sport still gets hours of exposure every week, whilst ladies sport barely get a fraction of the attention. The majority of clothing companies and trainer companies still make items based around male sizing and movements and the 'adjust' it to try and it fit a lady. Results of races always default to the male lists and don't get me started on the concept of being 'chicked', no self respecting man should ever use such terminology.
Gradually we are getting more visible, and whilst we have always had a voice, 2019 is a time where there are more channels than ever for us to use it and make a difference. There are still a lot of ladies that don't have the self belief that they can do the big races and believe that when it does to sport it is very much a mans world. But the more role models we have the more we start to believe that actually WE CAN.
See you on the trails soon.
E