Triathlete Magazine - December 2006

CHECKING IN ANALYSIS
Women
on the rise
By T..JJ.. Murrphy

Like the crack of a whip, the 1980s triathlon explosion followed the 1970s running boom. As far as the whip goes, it seems fair to say the spirit that drove one drove the other: a desire to be fit and a desire to be tested. Just as the marathon was the driving force behind the running boom, the Ironman has become the driving force behind multisport. The wind that set sail to the flagship triathlon events has helped spring numerous other distances of running and triathlon into the mass arena. In running, everything from 5Ks to half-marathons, and in triathlon everything from sprints, Olympic-distance races and half-Ironmans (not to mention XTERRAs, duathlons and so on).

An overview of the trajectories of road running and triathlon suggests similar forces influence these two mass-participation endurance sports. Long ago, major marathons began adding shorter-distance races to their weekend schedules—8Ks, kids’ races. The same has happened in multisport, and the phrase “triathlon festival” is becoming far more commonplace. Timberman, Wildflower and Chicago, for example, all can be referred to as “triathlon weekends.” Going to Wildflower could mean you’re doing the long-course race, the Olympic-distance race, and/or the mountain-bike event. Another pattern that started with running and filtered into multisport was the advent of the charity-fundraiser training pro-

gram: the Leukemia Society’s Team in Training program first started gaining steam by transforming couch potatoes into runners with the marathon. Now it’s common to see TNT uniforms blanketing triathlons across the country.

With all of this in mind, you can be confident that examining a snapshot of the road-racing world will give you a premonition of what to expect in triathlon. And what noticeable trend is occurring in road racing that we might soon see impacting triathlons? The answer: more and more women.

Here’s the snapshot: In 1976, out of the 1,175 entrants entered in the Marine Corps Marathon in its inaugural year, 40 were women. Race organizers report the Washington, D.C.-based race now draws 30,000 runners of which approximately 47 percent are women. Numbers at this year’s Boston Marathon showed that within the 18- to- 39 age category more women entered the race than men: 5,089 women to 4,969 men—an event that requires a time-based qualification. On the West Coast, the Rock ‘N’ Roll Marathon in San Diego, in its relative youth as a major marathon in this country, is yielding fields with approximately 60 percent women.

Steven Karpas is the race-develop-ment director for the Chevron Houston Marathon. “Right now, of the runners that come to our event—which includes the marathon, half-marathon and 5K— it pans out to be 50-50 between men and women,” Karpas says. “Four years ago, the ratio was 70 percent men versus 30 percent women. I firmly believe that in a few years our marathon will have more female runners than male runners. I think this can be traced back to the addition of our half-marathon race four years ago. It has allowed new runners—especially women—to get a start in the sport. Last year, our half-marathon field was 55 percent women out of the 8,600 entered.”

Laura Wright reports the same thing is happening at the Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minn. “We have seen an increase in participation of women in the marathon, especially from 1995 to 2005,” she says. “With the addition of the half-marathon and 5K, the total amount of women participating in our race weekend is now 59 percent. In 1977, when our race started, 12 percent of the field was women.” Wright adds that since 1999 at the

companion races of the Grandma’s Marathon—the Garry Bjorklund Half-Marathon and the William A. Irvin 5K—the number of women entered in both races has been greater than the number of men. “I feel that adding more distance options to our event has helped increase the amount of female participation,” she says.

Another dynamic at work in running has been the Team-in-Training factor. According to Andrea Greif, a spokeswoman for TNT, 76 percent of all TNT runners are women, and 73 percent of participants for all TNT events—which includes running, walking, cycling and triathlon—are women.

Race directors suggest elements like the shorter-distance companion races and programs like Team-in-Training are offering a stepping-stone approach into the longer events that are appealing to women. Greif reports that a TNT survey of participants likes the social nature of their program. “They are attracted by the opportunity to have fun as part of a team and to meet people, make new friends and to have the group support while tackling the physical challenge. They are also attracted to the cause; it makes them feel good to be raising money to support a worthy mission.”

Consider triathlon in 2007, with race-loaded weekends becoming prevalent—not to mention the success of the Ironman’s 70. 3 series and the success of TNT in multisport—should we expect to see an equalization of men and women’s participation numbers in multisport? USAT’s Tim Yount says we’re already seeing it. “We are not at a 50-50 break right now, but the percentages are shifting rapidly,” he says. “What was an 80-20 split about five years ago is now roughly a 70-30 men-to-women ratio. I would guess that in a year or so we’ll be looking at 67-33 and by 2010 more than likely 60-40. The positive thing is that we are seeing a 55-45 split on some of our national age-group teams—Team USA—and participation at some of our national championships. At our youth nationals this year, we actually had more girls compete than boys.”

Women weren’t part of the first Ironman, held in 1978. The first Olympic marathon for women wasn’t held until 1984, because for decades women were viewed as too fragile for endurance racing (a perplexing fact considering the state of endurance sports today). The times are a-changing.