Women Runners in the News
Things have changed for women runners!
There are a couple of recent articles about women runners of note that are delightful in their juxtaposition, in what they say about women’s running.
First off was a New York Times article about women’s running pioneer Dr. Julia Chase-Brand.
On Thanksgiving Day, Dr. Julia Chase-Brand, 69, plans to run a 4.75-mile race in Manchester, Conn., where the presence of women will be plentiful and unremarkable. Fifty years ago, when she and two other women ran there the first time, it was a widely publicized act of civil disobedience that became a pioneering moment in female distance running in the United States.
Not only was she pushing against the AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) prohibitions against women competing in road races, she was fast. Starting a block behind the rest of the runners (to avoid race officials), she still managed a 33:40 for that run.
The story is well worth the read.
The second article is from today’s Bee. This piece profiles local trail running superstar Jennifer Pfeifer.
The focus of the article is about a runner making a transition from fast road running to fast trail running.
Pfeifer was injured in training up for a road marathon last year. Then,
Pfeifer returned to racing last January by winning the vertically challenging Pacifica 50K. She followed that with victories at the Jed Smith 50K in Sacramento, the (Mount) Diablo Trails 50K, the Silver State 50K in Reno, the Auburn 50K and the Run on the Sly 50K in Pollock Pines. She also placed third last April in the American River 50 Mile race, one of the nation’s most competitive.
In the article, the Bee’s Sam McManis writes about the challenges of making the switch back and forth between trail and road racing. He collected quotes from a few elites who have been successful in this.
Nowhere does he talk about the special challenges that face this “girl” who runs insanely long race, very fast. I think Dr. Julia Chase-Brand would find that to be quite a pleasing development.