Stand among the throngs of runners at any race in the United States, and you'll be surrounded by women. Indeed, according to Running USA's State of the Sport report, 56 percent of all U.S. race finishers in 2012 were female.
Outside of North America, however, the scene changes. While women's running has made big strides, especially in parts of Europe and South America, racing remains largely a men's sport globally. Worldwide statistics are hard to come by, but in Spain, for example, in 2013, women made up only 13 to 18 percent of the field in the country's three largest half-marathons (compared with 60 percent in the same distance in the United States). And female participants made up only eight to nine percent of the field in three big-city Spanish marathons.
Kathrine Switzer hopes to remedy that. The American women's running pioneer has a new mission: to bolster female participation in road races throughout the world. And if history is any indication, Switzer is just the woman for the job.
Back in 1967, when women were outliers in the then-fringe sport of distance running, Switzer famously challenged the Boston Marathon's all-male tradition. She registered as K.V. Switzer, pinned on number 261, and lined up at the start. After race director Jock Semple tried to yank her off the course at mile two, photographs of the scuffle made headlines, and in an instant, Switzer became the poster girl for women's running. "By the end of the race, I knew I was going to work for change for women," she says.
Over the next few years, she pushed for women's inclusion in road racing. In 1972, she created the Avon International Women's Running Circuit, a 400-event series in 27 countries that lobbied the International Olympic Committee to add a women's marathon to the 1984 Olympic Games. Her advocacy work continued as she took on a career as a television sports commentator, wrote three books, and then launched a second Avon women's series that ran from 1998 to 2004.
Switzer now wants to help advance an international women's running boom with a new race series and network of women's running clubs called 261 Fearless (a nod to her 1967 Boston bib). "Women all over the world contacted me to say they wore 261 when they ran, or that 261 made them feel fearless in the face of adversity," says Switzer, who splits her time between Wellington, New Zealand, and the Hudson Valley in New York. "I knew it was serious when I learned of a woman who had 261 tattooed on her ankle. I'm building on that concept. At 67, I didn't think I had another revolution in me, but, hey, whaddaya know?"
And so on March 30, Switzer will launch 261 Fearless with a marathon and 10-K in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. Over a 10-year span, Switzer hopes to hold 261 races (marathons and shorter distances) worldwide to rally women to the road and fill a void in countries and regions where women's races don't exist.
"In Europe, it's hard to find both genders entering road races," says Jose Luis Carrera, president of Madrid-based Sports Marketing Management, who is working with Switzer on the 261 series. "And when you go to countries with strong cultural traditions or where access to information is limited, it is easy to see that women do not have the same opportunities as men."
The need for women's races struck home for Carrera when he noted a discrepancy between the popularity of women's recreational running in Spain and women's racing. "You can go to a park and find equal numbers of men and women running, but at a race the demographics are different," he says.
Switzer is confident the 261 series will follow the build-it-and-they-will-come success of other women's events, such as the Carrera de la Mujer, a 2-K to 12-K women's event in Bogota, Colombia, which draws more than 15,000 female participants. A women's circuit can dismantle barriers by breaking down taboos and demonstrating what women are capable of, she says.
"As many women as men race short distances in Sweden, but the big challenge is taking the step to the marathon," says Sofia Hedstrom, an editor with Runner's World Sweden. "Only 25 percent of the field were women at the 2012 Stockholm Marathon. Men take it for granted that they can do it, but I get lots of e-mails from women who question themselves. A women's marathon here could help change that."
Switzer wants her races to embody a fun, welcoming spirit to appeal to recreational runners. "I think many women don't want to put a performance pressure on themselves; they want to enjoy running," says Edith Zuschmann, an Austrian sports journalist who is working with Switzer to create Club 261 (the running network component of the Fearless movement). The idea is that club members will meet weekly to run with other locals, and online forums will give them the opportunity to interact with 261 Fearless communities worldwide. There are currently three—in New Zealand, Austria, and Canada (Vancouver).
"Running is about changing lives," Switzer says. "Most of us feel significant or powerful through running, and people who have never had a sense of it suddenly gain it. If we can connect as women, we might help others find the courage to better their lives."
