It’s International Women’s Day : Let’s Celebrate, Running Style
First of all, we think you are ALL amazing, whatever your achievements - big or small. But, we wanted to touch on some incredibly inspiring and truly remarkable moments for women in running.
We have come a long way from being disallowed entry to a race -
Rewind to April 1966 when Bobbi Gibb showed women everywhere they were capable of running much more than the 1.5 miles they were told they could by doctors of the time.
Gibb took on the Boston Marathon by hiding in the bushes at the race start and unoffically completing the 26.2 mile race.
Carving the way for Katherine Switzer who in 1967 followed suit. Though this time, officially collecting her race number, under the alias of ‘K.V Switzer’ , mid-race she famously resisted the attack of a race organiser trying to remove her from the route. Finishing in 4:20 , later setting her PB of 2:51 in 1975.
KV Switzer. AKA Katherine, breaking ground for women in men’s spaces- 1967.
It wasn’t until 1975 the UK lifted the ban on women running more than 6KM and ‘84 until the women’s marathon entered the olympics.
So you see, the stories I’m about to share with you are incredible feats for women; breaking records, smashing tables and raising the standard these historic women opened doors to.
Megan Keith’s powerful finish line sprint to take the record in Castellon.
Let’s start with the latest record breaker ; Megan Keith. From home soil, Inverness, Megan Keith has just in the past weeks clocked an insane 30:07 10km race in Castellon, Spain. Breaking the previous European record held by Eilish Mccolgan.
To put that into perspective the average person would take 29-35 minutes over 5km - they both smashed out double the distance in that time.
Both women have pushed groundbreaking women records in the UK, Europe and worldwide track and road racing. Mccolgan in 2025 raced her first London Marathon in 2:24:25 knocking 2 minutes off her mothers 1997 record of 2:26:52. Born into speed and resilience. An incredible athlete. And like all of us women, a force to be reckoned with.
Keely Hodgkinson’s moment of glory yielding the banner of all track athlete dreams.
Next up; Keely Hodgkinson , reigning olympic champion in the 800m followed up by the moments she rewrote history last month at the indoor athletics championships , smashing the 800m short track world record by nearly a second with *1 minute 54.87 seconds* . The record was previously set 23 years ago - the very same year Keely was born. Such an exciting time for women in track racing.
Let’s dive away from the tarmac and hit the trails now. Where you will find the Lake District’s Sarah Perry. Training among the fells for her next backyard ultra. For those who don’t know the Backyard Ultras format is fiendishly simple. Each athlete must complete a 4.167 mile lap (known as a 'yard') within an hour. They then repeat this every hour until failure. The race has no set end point - it only finishes when a single competitor remains, often days later.
Sarah Perry in 2025 completed 95 of those yards - a total distance of 395.83 miles. Becoming the last woman standing and 10th overall. A jaw-dropping female world record.
Holding many ‘fastest known times’ across ultra distances, outlasting all female (and most male) competitors, Sarah Perry - we bow to you !
Beyond medals, triumphs and records there are so many women doing wonders for the running community.
It would be difficult to name them all, but if you want to get involved in supporting something massive now would be a good time to mention that one woman (@esmee_ldn) is this year going to be attempting to become the first person to run to, and through, all UK cities. Hosting a 5KM social in each location, starting in Inverness on 27-06. Arriving in Aberdeen on 29-06. WE will be hoping to join for a leg of this journey and maybe you could too … check out her page and all the details here https://www.instagram.com/p/DUfulmpDb3p/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
A special shout out to our women owned brands Harrier, Maaree and Nixi Body who do a fantastic job creating more space for women to run and explore.
Whether you are walking, running, sprinting, jogging any mileage you are fulfilling what your ancestors could only have dreamed of achieving - or more likely the thought wouldn’t have crossed their mind - dare a woman run and not be home tending to the house. I can only imagine they would look on in awe at what you are achieving now. Here’s to all of us, cheers ladies !