I wrote this - published in an earlier edition of Arrive - because it is of an interest and because I run ultra distance races attracting women to race against the clock alongside men:
I felt with the current charged atmosphere as demonstrated on another post, it would be worth while airing it again:
Women and ultra-challenge endurance sports
I wrote this piece mostly because I’ve often wondered why far more men than women participate in extreme athletic activities, so the first premise for this article is to ask the question, why do more men than women participate in ultra-distance activities? You might say that this states the obvious, and that women cyclists have interests and motivation that differ from those of male cyclists and that it is unlikely that addressing these issues will in some way encourage more women to participate in ultra-cycling or indeed ultra-challenges in any sporting endeavor.
The second premise is that this article is not intended to provide answers but mainly to pose the questions that need answers.
As far as I know, apart from the accepted and well known and documented anatomical variations between the two main genders (there seems to be more variations added every day) racing on a bicycle is pretty much the same whether the cyclist is male or female.
My analyses was confined to activities where there was no prize money, the participants engaged voluntarily and paid their own expenses, therefore, no organized sports such as golf or tennis or such were included, nor were activities such as school or college sports.
Looking at the recent results for one 24 Hour ultra-racing event - Bessies Creek - for example, it shows that more men raced than women – 80% to 20% - and that on the whole, men raced the longer distances or times than women.
In the 3,000 mile Race Across America’s roster for the 2016 race, out of a total 248 racers in teams and solo categories, only 21 racers were women. In the sister event the 880 mile Race Across the West, out of 68 racers, only 5 are women.
But this doesn’t necessarily mean that if women do race they are less likely to finish. In the 2015 edition of the RAAM, out of five females that started in the solo category, only three raced to the end – so 60%, and for the men, out of thirty six starters, half finished – so 50%. For the 2015 RAW, three women started and two finished, for the men, eighteen started but only five finished. However, we still see fewer women than men entering these extra distance races. For RAAM we had 36 male starts and 5 women starts; In the RAW, the figures were 18 male starts and three women starts. These races were of the same length for both male and female although women were allowed extra time to complete.
These statistics do not only apply to cycling, we see similar results in other endurance activities.
As chronicled by the American Elizabeth Hawley, residing in Katmandu for the past 65 years and the doyen of Everest chroniclers, of the total successful ascents of Mount Everest, out of 6,871 summits as of February 2014, only four hundred and ten were made by women. As she has said: “There are no pioneering women on Everest, they need to be pioneers in other places”. In other words, she feels that women are probably best suited to succeed in other endeavors than climbing mountains.
Of the 3,841 successful English Channel swims to date, 63.5% were by men and 36.5% by women. There are no records of the total number of attempts or the unsuccessful attempts by either sex.
In the 2014 edition of Marathon Des Sables, the 156 miles six marathon distance race run across the Sahara Desert in Morocco, 925 men completed with 814 finishing the grueling event, and 184 women ran with 159 completing. Of note is that in 2008, Touda Didi was the first Moroccan woman to win the event.
Similar figures contend in other sporting activities such as the Appellation Trail, rowing across the Atlantic and sailing around the world.
The latest figures I have received on the Appalachian Trail is that between the years 1937-2016 on a self-reporting basis, there were 12,795 thru hikers of whom 2,861 were women either solo or in groups. For section hikers again on a self -reporting basis for the same span of years, there were 2,997 total of whom 720 were women. However, the number of women undertaking the trek is rising. In 1992 16% of the thru hikers were women but by 2012 that number had increased to 21%,. So there is a glimmer of hope that women are catching on to the pleasures of absolute pain – at least in the hiking category of ultra-sporting activities.
Something similar is evident in the Boston Marathon where out of 27,491 runners in a recent event, 14,877 were men but 12,610 were women. So is the fact that running a marathon – although strenuous - is a relatively short endurance activity that attracts so many women?
But on the whole, women just don’t engage in these types of endurance activities to the same extent as men, so the question is why?
If it is simply a case of unsurmountable physical obstacles then why should women try to compete? So, accepting that in general it is simply a case that women will never be able to race as far as men, what are women to do?
I think to answer this question it is necessary to look at the psyche involved. If it is a given that ultra-challenging events are predominately raced by men, does this imply that women are just not as motivated as men to accept the physical and or mental stresses required? Maybe women don’t want to get on a bike and ride 24 hours or longer (not many sane people of either sex actually do), maybe women accept that they have no psychological desire to do this to satisfy any kind of challenge, maybe women are just satisfied with being women and don’t need to make out they are as strong – or as risk taking – as men.
If a female racer wants to participate in an endurance race they generally do so competing in their own categories, much in the same way as age categories for both sexes. But if the races contain both men and women, women are in actuality racing against men as well as other women on the same course at the same time, so does this give a negative aspect to the race for women?
Being passed by another racer in any kind of race is intimidating and demoralizing enough, but in a mixed sex race and if the women racer is being passed by a male racer, what impact does that have on the women’s psyche?
For example, a 60 year old racer of either sex would not expect to be able to compete with a 20 year old of the same sex, assuming both are in good physical condition, but for a woman to be blown away by a male racer that has to be demoralizing. Therefore would it not be better for a woman not to have to compete with men in the same race?
A study by Dr. Salvatore J. Tirrito, cardiovascular disease specialist in Tucson states: “Studies show that women utilize less glycogen and more fat than men in long, lower-intensity exercise. This makes the female athlete particularly well suited for, and may potentially provide an advantage over men in endurance events”.
Therefore it suggests there is no general physical impediment to women undertaking endurance activities, could then the issue be one of the historical social environment where women were never expected nor encouraged to pursue the same activities – physical or intellectual - as men? Perhaps women in general don’t feel strenuous activities are expected of them. Although it would be correct to add, that neither do the vast majority of men in our sedentary, physically unexacting lives. Consider the number of people of either gender who actually participate in any kind of sporting endeavor – couch quarterbacking not included. At one time in our society people walked everywhere and were a lot healthier for it, now there are far fewer pedestrians going down my street than there are cars and trucks.
So, why do we see fewer women riding ultra- distances, or climbing mountains or hiking trails or doing the myriad other activities requiring endurance, courage, fortitude and downright grit? Perhaps it is because they have yet to appreciate the extraordinary pleasure of acute physical pain to be found in endurance events as a means of achieving the euphoria of absolute success.
Having said that, I doubt there is anything quite like the same physical exultation of giving birth – which if left to men to experience this same trauma would have led to the end of human kind at the outset – which proves beyond doubt that women are just as capable if not much more so than men to overcome brute suffering and going on to live and fight another day. So they could, so why not?
All in all, I proffer the truth that women can do whatever it is they want to do, they just have to decide that they want to do it.
Kenneth Jessett.
AKA: Charlie Polecat
