Overcoming Barriers to female participation in trail running: Race Director’s Blog

By Shane Ohly, Race Director for Ourea Events

I am not a female trail runner, but I do have female friends, family and colleagues, and I cringe when I listen to some of their trail running experiences. “Nice legs love!”. No one has ever shouted that at me when I’ve run past them, so why is it that an older male feels that is appropriate when being passed by a younger female. It’s attitudes like this that can be so detrimental to women looking to take part in our sport.

As the Race Director of the high-profile mountain and trail running events we organise, I feel a strong responsibility to effect change and demonstrate leadership. We are not the biggest organisation, far from it, but we have consistently prioritised excellence and high standards in all our endeavours as a business. As we celebrated international women’s day this week, I wanted to take the opportunity for a deep dive into some of the issues faced by female trail runners, and ask some hard questions about how Ourea Events are tackling them.

Let’s start with the gender composition of the Ourea Events team. We have 11 employees, six are female and five are male, and we are evenly split in terms of seniority, roles and responsibilities. You can see that, as an organisation, we are fairly well balanced in terms of gender representation. 

Our own statistics on the gender split of participants at our events between 2017 and 2023* include almost 20,000 runners, and show an average gender split of 70% male and 30% female for this 7-year period. However, this data demonstrates an increasing trend of female participation, with 2023 currently looking like it will be our most gender-balanced year yet, with a 57% male, 43% female split. Clearly this is a very encouraging trend.

* Events prior to 2017 are not included, and events occurring in 2023 are based on current entries i.e., the number of participants will increase throughout the year and this will likely alter the gender balance.

How does this compare to global trail running statistics?

The International Trail Running Association (ITRA) has 2.4 million athlete profiles, and if you consider active ITRA members (those who completed at least one race in the calendar year) 27.8% were female and 72.2% were male.

Looking closer to home in the UK, the Fell Running Association (FRA) has ~8,500 members, of which 23% are female. However, active participants differ from membership, which is made up of predominantly older male members. Please note that overall active participation figures are not presently available.

RunRepeat’s ’The State of Trail Running in 2022’ report includes data from the past 38 years (1984 to 2022) covering results from over 116,000 races in 127 countries. This shows that overall female participation has grown from 13% in 1997 to 46% in 2022.

However, according to their 2020 ’State of Ultra Running’ report, only 23% of ultra participants were female (albeit this number has been increasing steadily by about 3% each year since the 1990s). So perhaps there is a deeper trend of fewer female participants at ‘harder’ races?

This trend certainly seems reflected in our events; as the event gets ‘harder’, the gender balance becomes more skewed towards male participants. For example, in 2022:

• Salomon Glen Coe Skyline: 85% male, 15% female

• Montane Dragon’s Back Race: 82% male, 18% female

• Scarpa Great Lakeland 3Day: 54% male, 46% female

• Salomon Grey Mares 5k Trail race 42% male, 57% female

Our experience is that the more difficult a race is perceived to be, the fewer female participants we see, and this point is considered later on in this blog. 

There is some academic research into this topic. The 2021 paper ‘Enablers and barriers in ultra-running: a comparison of male and female ultra-runners’, highlights that “historical influences of traditional gender roles “still impacts opportunities for greater female participation” (see more here).

There is no doubt that wider societal attitudes and trends impact the experience and ability of females to take part in trail running.

For example, Running Industry Alliance ‘Myth Busying’ running survey researched for The Running Conference 2022 with Sporting Insights asked runners whether “Lack of time is the main reason why women take a break from running”. 39% of male runners assumed this was correct, but only 29% of female runners agreed with this statement. The survey also demonstrated that female runners were more likely to take a break from running because of low confidence (26% compared to 5% of males) and maternity responsibilities (17% compared to 5% for paternity responsibilities).  

Some factors inhibiting greater female participation are certainly within the control of a race organiser, and can therefore be quickly resolved. However, there are some barriers to entry that reflect wider entrenched views and assumptions about a women’s role in society, such as taking on the greater burden of childcare within many households. 

Before moving on, I would also like to acknowledge that transgender and non-binary trail runners are included within our participation statistics (less than 1%). While this blog is specific to female participation, I will commit to writing two further blogs on two important aspects of inclusivity later this year to cover 1) transgender and non-binary trail runners and 2) participation by Black, Asian and ethnic minority trail runners.

In this blog, I’ve decided to review the SheRACES guidelines and compare them to the policy we have at Ourea Events. I would encourage participants and organisers alike to review this guidance and ask how the race they are planning to do or organise measures up.  

SheRACES acknowledges that their guidelines are just that, and that every race has its own unique character. Therefore, some comparisons are straightforward and simple to be compliant with. However, some provoke more considered thought, and where we have deviated from these, I will explain the reasoning behind this. 

Our assertion that we will not compromise the event’s logistical and safety plan may seem like an excuse not to provide a more equitable exception to an individual's circumstances, but please trust us when we say that the operational and safety planning for each event is detailed and considered. 

As a race organiser, the principle that we use to guide our approach is to preference equity when considering barriers to entry, but ensure equality when we consider the fundamental challenge of all participants having the same time to complete the same course with the same rules.  

I would also like to emphasise that each of these policies is evolving and if you think we could do better, please do get in touch with us and discuss your concerns. We are open-minded and keen to hear the opinions of the wider trail running community. Supporting greater female participation in our wonderful sport is of the utmost priority to us.

Let's get started!

Level the start line

Creating a level start line refers to actions that can be taken long before a race happens to ensure greater gender equality.

Inclusive imagery

According to a UNESCO report, 40% of all sports participants are women, yet women’s sports receive only around 4% of all sports media coverage.

This bias is something we are acutely aware of and have attempted to address in our own marketing.

We are in the fortunate position that our Marketing team is fronted by two women, who have seen this issue first hand. We will always strive to ensure that our marketing imagery is as inclusive as possible, from posts on social media, images used in our marketing emails, and the website imagery.

I hope that this is clearly visible to anyone browsing through our website that we have tried to be as representative as possible, including imagery of the back markers as well as the frontrunners. This really is at the forefront of our minds in all of our marketing, and we are very keen to assure women that there is indeed space for them at our events.
 

Race overviews

You might have noted in the Sporting Insights survey quoted earlier that 26% of female runners were more likely to take a break from running because of low confidence, compared to 5% of males. This corresponds with our anecdotal experience at events (particularly the hard events like the Dragon’s Back Race®) where we see overconfident male runners who have overestimated their experience and ability.

I believe that there is a wider challenge of numerous events overinflating their difficulty. How often have you seen the words, ‘toughest, hardest, extreme’ to describe races?

On a global index, races like the Dragon’s Back Race® are genuinely ‘tough’ and the Glen Coe Skyline is ‘dangerous’. It is important that these races are described accurately without the risk of being criticised for hyperbole.  

However, it is also important that we are not using unnecessarily exaggerated language that could alienate women looking to participate. We have in the past used the tagline ‘the world’s toughest mountain race’ to describe the Dragon’s Back Race, for example. However, this is something we are moving away from using in our marketing in order to be more inclusive. 

Ourea Events is famed for organising challenges that are genuinely tough. Deliberately so. For an experience to change your life, it has to take you somewhere you haven’t been before. It has to find places within you which you didn’t know existed. This is the challenge offered by our expedition races, and a similar ethos lies behind our races like the Glen Coe Skyline and Ben Nevis Ultra.

Tough doesn’t mean impossible though. Far from it. With encouragement, training and the right approach, most capable female runners will be able to complete our events. This is what we are keen to communicate with the shift in language we are using to describe our events.

We do provide detailed information on our race websites describing the nature of the challenge very clearly, accurately, and fairly. This will always include detailed route information, race maps, and clear advice about cut-offs and timings. Additionally, we are increasingly providing guidance articles, how-to explainers and free-to-attend webinars to assist everyone in making an informed decision about entering and to help maximise their chances of having a successful and enjoyable experience.

We also partner with organisations like RAW Adventure, Trail running Scotland and Girls on Hills to provide course recce days and women's-only training days.

Ourea Events Policy: Race Descriptions

To accurately and fairly describe each race using the appropriate language to describe the course and the nature of the challenge in a gender-neutral manner.

Course Closure and Cut-Offs Times

Each year we have difficult conversations with both male and female runners who feel that our Cut-Off and Course Closure Times are unfair.

First and foremost, Cut-Off and Course Closure Times are for everyone’s safety. The Cut-Off times are based on the final Course Closure Time, and we work backwards through the course based on data from thousands of runners over many years to calculate these times. The Course Closure Time is based on logistical and safety constraints. For example, ensuring event staff have sufficient rest, and reducing the possibility of participants being on consequential terrain in the dark when accidents are more likely.

All our Cut-Off times are based on average pacing throughout the race, so they are not biased against any runner taking a steady ‘here-to-complete’ approach. Quite the opposite: they encourage a measured and consistent approach. Guidance Times are also provided at our expedition races, so participants always have a sense of their progress against the Cut-Off and Course Closure Times later in the day. 

We have often been asked, ‘Why don’t you just start an hour earlier?’ Well, the same reason as before AND local communities often dislike early starts and the inevitable disruption this causes to the residents. We must carefully consider the feelings of the local community if we want to be invited back to most venues.

We have also been asked if we could offer an earlier start to female participants so that they have a better chance of completing the course. Notwithstanding the various logistical and safety considerations I have already mentioned, I feel that both male and female runners are entitled to the same opportunity to complete the course.

We do acknowledge that on races like the Glen Coe Skyline, more women are cut off than men. However, to extend the Course Closure Time would result in some participants still being on Aonach Eagach after nightfall. This is something that we as Race Organisers have decided not to risk, as the ridge is extremely exposed and requires good scrambling skills to tackle, all of which is much easier in daylight.

Having reviewed our course Cut-Off and Course Closure Times many times (and always after each event), I can honestly say that they are stretched to the maximum possible time frame based on the current logistical and safety considerations. As a race organiser, I want the greatest possible number of people to experience as much of the courses as they can and have a fantastic, life-affirming experience. There is no benefit to me from making Cut-Off and Course Closure Times any harder than necessary.

Our races that generate the most adverse comments about Cut-Off and Course Closure Times already start early and finish late. We can’t do much more, within the context of the event logistical and safety plan. These races are hard regardless of gender. 

Ourea Events Policy: Course Closure and Cut-Offs Times

Not to make courses artificially more difficult than necessary because of harsh Cut-Off and Course Closure Times. Cut-Off and Course Closure Times are driven by logistical and safety planning factors.

Planning 

For all our events, we provide detailed information on the event websites. This includes logistical information about how to get to the event, bag drop facilities, kit and more. This is supported by our social media community groups, where participants or anyone interested in the event can ask questions. 

We invite a mix of male and female participants to provide quotes, reviews and anecdotes about their experience at our events. If you look at our participant blogs and testimonials, you will see that we feature a range of female participants, with a view to inspiring other women to take on the challenge.

Our regular webinars always prominently feature female participants, and we are excited for our upcoming women’s focus webinar (sign up for this is now open HERE), which we hope will inspire more women who are unsure whether a big expedition race is for them.

We also offer telephone and chat support during office hours allowing women to contact the office for one-to-one advice and help. You can contact us here.

Fair deferral policies

We already provide an industry-leading pregnancy deferral policy, which is described below, and I would encourage fellow Race Directors to adopt a similar approach.

In my opinion, deciding to offer a progressive pregnancy deferral policy is the easy bit, as this decision does not impact event operations (albeit there is a financial cost). More nuanced decisions are needed when women wish to participate in our events while pregnant or breastfeeding, and we discuss breastfeeding in more detail below.

Females in the early stages of pregnancy (without medical complications) should present few, if any, concerns to race organisers if they wish to participate. However, any decisions about participation during pregnancy are considered by our Medical Director taking a risk-based approach. For example, a female who is 8 weeks pregnant with no known complications may be considered low risk to enter the Glen Coe Skyline, whereas a woman who is 8 weeks pregnant with an underlying health condition may be considered high risk to enter the Cape Wrath Ultra, particularly due to its remoteness. In all cases, we would encourage anyone who is pregnant to speak directly with our Medical Director so that an individual plan can be agreed.

Ourea Events Policy: Pregnancy Deferral

Our pregnancy deferral policy allows pregnant females to defer their entry for three years. There are three steps to follow: 

1. Submit a Pregnancy Deferral request in writing via the event website contact page any time after entry and up to one day prior to race day.

2. Provide written confirmation of the pregnancy signed by a doctor, registered midwife, or another medical professional such as a Maternity Certificate (MAT B1).

3. Women who obtain a Pregnancy Deferral will be granted automatic entry into any one of the next three races after the initial deferred race. They will not have to pay any additional entry fee should the price of a race entry increase during this time.

Active selection

We do not currently have any races with ballot entries, but some of our races do sell out very quickly (within hours). We will keep an open mind to any active selection criteria in the future with the potential for setting aside a percentage of entries for female participants to encourage greater female participation.

Equal the experience

We want to make sure all our participants have the best possible experience on our races regardless of gender. These are the measures we will be undertaking to make sure that women’s experiences are also taken into account while planning the logistics of our races.

Toilets and changing facilities

Different events have access to different facilities depending on their location. For example, we hire the Leven Centre (community sports centre) in Kinlochleven for Skyline Scotland which provides access to male and female changing rooms, showers and toilets.

We have also been providing women-only portable toilets at all of our overnight camps for many years. We provide a selection of menstrual products in these toilets. The SheRACES guidelines highlight the use of female-only toilets by male participants, which has helped us improve our policy in this area to make sure participants respect that designated toilets are female only.

We also provide portable toilets at all our events in the start/finish area, and increasingly at Support Points as well, especially at events like Skyline Scotland with large numbers of participants. However, at some remote support point locations and/or when there are overall low numbers of participants, we have provided one unisex toilet at these remote support point locations.

Ourea Events Policy: toilet and changing facilities

• If we provide more than one portable toilet, then we will always provide a female-only toilet.

• We will always provide an appropriate pro-rata number of women-only portable toilets at all our overnight camps and start/finish locations.

• Female-only toilets will be clearly labelled as such, and we shall update our Universal Event Rules to specifically highlight that the use of female-only facilities by male participants is not allowed.

• Whenever we provide female-only toilets or a unisex toilet, we will also provide a selection of free-to-use menstrual products.

Safety

As mentioned earlier, our office team is gender-balanced, and we want to see this balance in the wider Event Team also. We specifically recruit a balance of genders, ages and experience for the Event Team because experience shows that these ‘balanced’ teams are more effective and happier throughout an event.

Whilst we select Event Team members based primarily on merit (experience, qualifications and competency), there is an element of positive discrimination, as when choosing between two potential Event Team members we will preference a specific gender when all other factors are more or less equal. The view is to achieve an overall gender balance within the Event Team, and this usually preferences female applicants.

It is worth mentioning that Ourea Events provides a credit equal to the value of race entry when someone volunteers to join our Event Team, so the fact that there is some positive discrimination for female volunteers will likely lead to increased opportunities for female participation. 

All Event Team members are given a briefing and provided with a copy of our Standard Operating Procedures. Our Event Team briefing before each event always covers sexism and inappropriate behaviour and comments. Historically, we have taken strong and decisive action against inappropriate behaviour, including dismissal of Event Team members and banning their attendance at future events.

Moving onto course safety. We take the safety of all our participants incredibly seriously and have a robust system for monitoring participants’ progress through a race and responding to emergency incidents (have a read of this best practice blog for an insight)

It is routine to provide GPS trackers to our participants on more challenging, longer and remote races. Our professional ‘Race Control’ team monitor these constantly throughout an event, and the GPS Trackers have an emergency SOS button to allow a participant to summon immediate help.

We carry out comprehensive course risk assessments and, where appropriate, these risk assessments specifically include dangers such as participants adversely interacting with offenders on the course and intruders at our overnight venues.

This risk assessment specifically reviews the risk to female and lone female participants. Whilst we have identified a few locations where buddy-up of runners might be appropriate under certain circumstances, and have a plan for enacting this, it has never been necessary, usually because the participants have naturally buddied up anyway and/or the participants have passed through an area of concern during daylight hours. What I would ask female readers to take away from this paragraph is that we have a real focus on these risks already.

When entering our events, all participants must agree to our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy. The Privacy Policy includes the following clause:  

 Publication of results: Participation in an event will cause the creation of a result. Results are published publicly and may include information such as a disqualification, retirement, or penalties awarded against you. Results are a historical record of your participation in an event and are contextual to the other participants and therefore it is not possible to remove someone from the results on the basis that they do not want this information shared publicly. If you do not want to be in the results, do not enter the event.

We added this clause to the Privacy Policy some years ago because we were aware of a participant threatening another race organiser with legal action because they did not want a DNF associated with their name. The only people who have ever asked us to be removed from the results are male runners who feel that they have underperformed or been disqualified. If any participant, male or female, has a genuine personal security concern we would encourage them to contact us in advance so that we can ensure that the event is safe for them. As an example, we have had special forces soldiers participate in our events who do not wish to be filmed or photographed. 

The SheRACES guidelines highlight the importance of trail etiquette that ensures female participants feel comfortable whilst taking part in trail running events. We do not currently provide any advice to participants about trail etiquette, but we will change this.

Ourea Events Policy: Safety

In writing this blog, I’ve realised that our policy on sexism, inappropriate comments, touching, and behaviour is not written into Standard Operating Procedures provided to the Event Team. We shall remedy this at the earliest opportunity. Our policy is to take a zero-tolerance approach to this kind of behaviour. 

Etiquette

We will provide advice to all runners about appropriate trail etiquette through the race websites, briefings and pre-event information. This will include:

• Guidance on urination. Anyone needing a wee at the start or on the trail must make all reasonable endeavours not to expose themselves to other participants. In particular for male runners, just stepping off the trail when there other participants in close proximity is not acceptable.

• Information regarding inappropriate comments and behaviour.

• Guidance about close passing. Running closely behind a female participant and passing close by them is not acceptable. All participants should give each other sufficient personal space as limited by the width of a trail, and if approaching another runner from behind, they should hail them in advance of catching up with them.  

Finally, on the matter of safety, I hope that it is clear from the description above of how we currently operate, which includes specific measures and risk assessing for female participants.

T-shirts that fit

We are 100% in agreement and have always tried to offer male and female sizing, with a few exceptions, which occurred when we were let down by a supplier very late in the day.

We generally don’t give out free T-shirts, with the exception of our two expedition races.

For most events, we offer T-shirts as an optional extra and we also enable participants to plant a tree instead (with Trees Not Tees) or plant a tree and get a t-shirt.

Ourea Events Policy: T-Shirts

All event kit and merchandise will be offered with the option of female-specific sizing, avoiding unisex sizes which undoubtably will be too large for many female runners. Any future kit guidance videos or articles will be produced from both a male and female perspective.

Unisex high vis vests might be one of the few unisex items we would provide that is not gender sized, but in all other circumstances, we will endeavour to make sure there are female and male sizes available.

Breastfeeding athletes

We will absolutely endeavour to support females who wish to breastfeed at our events as far as event rules, logistics and safety will allow.

All our events have carefully considered rules that provide the framework to deliver the event safely. For example, during our multi-day events, participants are not allowed to accept outside support from friends or family. If a female participant wanted to breastfeed at support points and/or overnight camps during the event, we would absolutely allow someone to bring the baby to these locations to facilitate this. However, that person would not be allowed to provide any additional support (not related to breastfeeding) that may give a participant an advantage.

We also have Cut-Offs and Course Closure Times, which apply universally and are designed to keep everyone safe (including our staff and volunteers). We would not be able to provide exceptions for a breastfeeding participant, and they would need to consider their ability to complete the event with this in mind.

We would encourage breastfeeding females to contact us at the earliest opportunity so that we can consider how to accommodate their breastfeeding needs within the event's logistical and safety plan.

Ourea Events Policy: Breastfeeding

We will accommodate specific breastfeeding requirements so long as they do not compromise the event's logistical and safety plan, and do not provide any additional support to the breastfeeding participant.

Respect our competition

Equal coverage

When it comes to our race coverage, we will always endeavour to make sure that we cover the men’s and the women’s field equally. This includes our daily race update videos, our daily race blogs and the race photography.

For results, we will display male and female results separately, side by side where systems allow, making it clearer to see the women’s podium.

We also always make an effort to invite top female athletes to our events, in order to attract greater competition.

Ourea Events Policy: Equal coverage

On our ultra-running multi-day events, starts are usually staggered on all but the first day, whereas at Skyline Scotland® they are exciting, closely-watched and highly-photographed moments. To make our start lines, and the resulting photography, more gender equal, we will look to invite female athletes to the front of the field. This couldn’t be more relevant than for the Salomon Ring of Steall Skyrace™ where elite men and women come to race as part of the Golden Trail National Series. We believe that this will give great value to, and really showcase, the female race and experience.

Room to Race

This is certainly something that we will look into. This is perhaps less relevant to our expedition races, where on most days, runners generally can choose their start time.

Ourea Events Policy: Room to race

Where this may be more relevant, is the more fast-paced starts of our races such as the Glen Coe Skyline and Ring of Steall. As mentioned above, we are hoping to improve this by inviting more elite female athletes to participate in these races, increasing visibility at the start line.

Equal Prize Money

Ourea Events Policy: Equal prize money

We offer equal podium spots and prizes to male and female participants in all events. On any occasion that prize money is offered, this is equal in both male and female categories.

Conclusion

As you can see, the SheRaces guidelines are an incredibly thorough look at everything that can be done to level the playing field at trail running and ultra-running events. Taking the time to go through these guidelines in detail has certainly been thought-provoking.

It is encouraging to see how many of the points in the guidelines are things that we are already doing, for example, with our female-only toilets and our pregnancy deferral policy. However, it has also given me food for thought on the areas we can improve, for example by introducing advice on race etiquette, to ensure women feel comfortable and safe at our races.  

As a Race Organiser, I feel like it is my duty to do everything in my power to make our events an inclusive space for women. I would once more, like to emphasise that we will look to continue growing and improving in this area, and as with everything, your feedback will help us shape this.

I sincerely hope that we can look forward to a brighter future for women’s participation in our sport.