Did you hear about the 3 women who beat some men?

Way, way back, it was thought that a woman's primary purpose was to reproduce children. It was thought that people only had a certain amount of energy in life and that if a woman used her energy by running or doing other sport she would have less to give to making babies. It would appear that this belief was still around in the 60s because women were banned from road races in the USA. It would appear that the UK weren't keen either, although we had seen Violet Piercy run as an official entrant way back in the Polytechnic Marathon in 1926.

Julia was not the only woman who had the audacity to run amongst the men in the Manchester road race. She was joined by Chris McKenzie (who actually ran faster than Julia but didn't want to cross the finish line and in so doing violate the rules) and Dianne Lechausse. The girls started the race a good way behind the men so that they could claim to just be out for a run, but they passed some of the men. The headline in the New York Times read, 3 Women Beat Some Men in Run; Girls Unofficially in 5-Mile Road Race Won by Kelley.

Fifty years on we now have women such as Lizzy Hawker beating all the men in the race. Lizzy won the 24 hour race outright at the Commonwealth Championships in Llandudno in September. Thank goodness for runners like Julia Chase-Brand and her counterparts for helping our progress.

Good luck and have a great run on 24th Julia!