Episode 91: The 20 Percent with Sonia Steely and Becca Jones

Becca Jones and Sonia Steely, both badass trail runners, are special guests on this podcast conversation about women in trail and ultra running, or more specifically, why there aren’t more women.

You have seen it. 25k and 50k usually have a pretty even turnout, in fact, some races even have more ladies lining up to run than the fellas. It seems that the number of runners that identify as female starts to decrease as the terrain gets more rugged, the miles get longer, and the aid more sparse. Most 100-mile mountain races have on average 20% of the field identifying as female including the ever-popular and famous Western States Endurance Run.

Policy or procedure changes can help. Building equity. Race Directors encouraging women to participate and race. Thoughtful lotteries. Recognizing female winners. Equal representation from media to sponsorships. Child care at races. The ways we can grow our sport are both complex and obvious and there are many excellent examples of this community doing the right things to increase female turnout.

The limiting factor is much more personal and individual.

We have heard of all sorts of reasons from ladies on why they aren’t racing for those buckles and in this podcast episode, we discuss a few of them. It could be fear of being alone in the woods at night, fear of men, fear of what happens when things get awful hard. We've heard about the guilt of training, the guilt of using family funds for running, or just a lack of time. We've heard all this and so much more.

Sonia, Becca, and Jess are the 20% that line up at these races. They are here to say they’ve saved a spot for you alongside them. We want you to feel encouraged and safe. We want you to know it’s not easy for us either.

The 20% are recruiting.