Ultra Women

Lily Canter is a freelance running, fitness and adventure travel journalist in the UK writing for The Guardian, Runner’s World, and Women’s Health. She is an England Athletics running coach and the founder of a women-only club, Great Bowden Runners. She competes in ultra-marathons.Emma Wilkinson is an award-winning freelance journalist in the UK specialising in medicine, science and health. She has written for the Sunday Times, BBC, BMJ and Lancet, among others. She lives in northern England and runs up big hills for fun.

• Foreword — Frames Ultra Women within endurance science and social change, previewing themes of representation, physiology, psychology, and policy while honouring pioneers and outlining commitments to evidence, inclusive storytelling, and actionable practice.Definitions — Clarifies sex and gender distinctions, defines ultra sport as efforts exceeding six hours across disciplines, establishes consistent terminology, scope, and measurement choices guiding analyses of participation, performance, equity, and policy.1. The Awakening — Opens with Jasmin Paris’s Spine Race victory, leveraging preparation, sleep deprivation, navigation to beat men, challenging assumptions on endurance, gender while introducing questions, evidence, and stories developed across Ultra Women.2. History Makers — Reconstructs histories of women’s endurance—pedestrianism, alpinism, cycling, swimming—spotlighting Emma Sharp, Ada Anderson, Lizzie Le Blond, Gertrude Ederle, and others, exposing sabotage, disbelief, exclusion, and highlighting spectacle, resourcefulness, persistence, outright victories.3. Marathon Effort — Traces women’s contested entry to marathoning, from Stamata Revithi and the 1928 backlash to Bobbi Gibb, Kathrine Switzer, and Olympic inclusion, revealing medicalised myths, administrative barriers, resistance, and progressive normalisation.4. Going the Distance — Profiles ultra pioneers Eleanor Robinson, Wendy Dodds, Helene Whitaker, Ann Trason, and others, examining Spartathlon, Badwater, mountain rounds, and stage races to show preparation, navigation, pacing, and persistence redefining success.5. Vicarious Absence — Analyses women’s underrepresentation in coverage, commentary, and sponsorship, centring Corrine Malcolm’s UTMB experience, documenting pay, visibility, and authorship gaps, and proposing accountability, funding, and storytelling interventions to normalise equitable broadcasting.6. Invisible Starting Line — Examines schooling, gender norms, safety, cost, caregiving, and time scarcity shaping who reaches start lines, synthesising data and research to recommend design, outreach, and policy creating pathways visible and accessible.7. Sex Matters — Uses Courtney Dauwalter’s unprecedented Western States–Hardrock–UTMB triple to interrogate sex differences in ultra performance, interpreting physiology, adaptation, and participation context while evaluating claims that performance gaps diminish over extreme distances.8. Mind the Data Gap — Investigates evidence blind spots affecting women in endurance science and journalism, assessing sampling frames, instrumentation, reporting, and algorithms, and proposing registries, protocols, and community science infrastructures strengthening validity and accountability.9. Evolutionary Advantage — Evaluates evolutionary hypotheses for female advantages, integrating physiology and life history theory, distinguishing speculation from testable predictions, and exploring implications for metabolism, thermoregulation, energetics, and training adaptations while avoiding determinism.10. Fatigue Resistance — Synthesises mechanisms of central and peripheral fatigue over prolonged efforts, examining sex differences in neuromuscular function, substrate use, and thermoregulation, and translating findings into monitoring, training, and race management strategies.11. Fat Gains — Explores fat metabolism, body composition, and performance, addressing substrate flexibility, gastrointestinal issues, hydration, and relative energy deficiency; recommends fuelling and messaging that prioritise health, diversity, long-term development, and longevity.12. Tough Mothers — Examines pregnancy and postpartum in ultra sport, reviewing physiology, safety, policies, experiences; outlines training adjustments, return to run frameworks, breastfeeding logistics, event accommodations, and supportive cultures centring autonomy and consent.13. Who Needs sleep? — Analyses sleep loss before and during competition, covering circadian biology, naps, caffeine, hallucinations, and judgment; proposes preparation, in-race risk management, and post-race recovery protocols tailored to environments and individual responsiveness.14. The Pacing Game — Interrogates pacing across durations and terrains, comparing even and negative strategies; integrates decision science, navigation, nutrition, sleep, and crew dynamics to optimise outcomes, reduce attrition, and adapt to environmental contingencies.15. Mental Myths — Debunks myths of grit, pain tolerance, and willpower by translating evidence on motivation, emotion regulation, identity, and social support into practical interventions, literacy, and stigma reduction for athletes and coaches.16. Sticking It Out — Explores attrition and perseverance across training blocks and races, integrating behavioural economics, habit formation, self-regulation, and social networks to identify protective factors and structures sustaining engagement, resilience, and completion.17. Older and Faster — Examines ageing trajectories among women ultrarunners, addressing recovery, strength, bone health, menopause, and injury risk; highlights coaching adaptations and categories valuing masters excellence, leadership, and longevity across highly competitive settings.18. Barriers to Entry — Identifies structural obstacles limiting access to endurance—costs, safety, geography, transport, childcare, equipment, gatekeeping—and evaluates interventions across clubs, events, brands, and policy to reduce friction, redistribute resources, and build inclusive pipelines.19. Train Like a Girl — Translates evidence into training architectures responsive to female physiology across life stages, detailing periodisation, intensity distribution, strength, plyometrics, recovery, monitoring, collaboration; emphasises autonomy, adaptation, and planning across seasons and races.20. Unstoppable — Profiles exemplary athletes, teams, and programs achieving breakthrough performances across disciplines, extracting principles regarding environment, coaching, support systems, and athlete agency while honouring contextual nuance, success definitions, and ethical responsibility.Our manifesto for change — Sets out commitments and policy proposals advancing equity, safety, inclusion, research, representation, specifying targets, accountability mechanisms, and partnerships linking athletes, organisers, sponsors, educators, media to transform endurance cultures and systems.Notes — Documents sources, methods, and clarifications supporting arguments and case studies, detailing inclusion criteria, data handling, and limitations; directs readers to appendices, repositories, and readings enabling transparency, verification, and responsible reuse.Keywords — methods, sources, inclusion criteria, data handling, limitations, appendices, repositories, citations, transparency, verification, reuse, documentationAcknowledgements — Expresses gratitude to athletes, collaborators, reviewers, mentors, families, and funders; acknowledges institutional support and land stewardship, honouring communities whose expertise, labour, and generosity shaped research access, stories, and book completion.

Why do women sometimes manage to beat men in ultramarathon races? Why does the gender performance gap begin to shrink with longer distances? Spoiler alert: we don’t know for sure. But Ultra Women is as close as we’re getting for now: a meticulous and occasionally startling study of how modern sport is still shaped by a male perspective, from media coverage to bra design to scientific research. Most of all, though, it’s a celebration of female bodies, female pioneers and female endurance. – Jonathan Liew, Guardian Sports Book of the YearThis absorbing book, shortlisted for the 2025 William Hill sports book of the year, combines history, reportage, science and polemic. Most enjoyable of all are the mini-biographies of endurance athletes, such as the British fell-running champion Jasmin Paris, who can “push on and endure” like few others. – Jason Cowley. Sports Books of the Year, The TimesFor a long time, I’ve wanted to understand why women are having such success in ultra distances and this book did a superb job of explaining it all. It was a joy to read from start to finish, beautifully written and incredibly engaging. A masterful work that will challenge your views on the physical capabilities of all women. The must-read sports book of 2025. – Sue Anstiss, author of Game On: The Unstoppable Rise of Women's Sport Phenomenal. The first time these iconic stories have been brought together in one book, really helping us to understand the history of women’s endurance sport and what it means about the strength of women and our ability to do incredible things despite the barriers that have been put in our way – Sophie Power, ultrarunner Ultra Women is an important and timely re-examination of the role and performance of women in endurance sport, through history, through science and through some incredible and inspiring stories. I was gripped, amazed – and most importantly – enlightened. – Adharanand Finn, author of Running with the Kenyans This is the book we’ve been waiting for. A timely acknowledgement of the challenges faced by women in the world of ultra events and a celebration of their trailblazing, record-breaking successes. It will change your perspective on what endurance means. – Helen Mort, runner and author, A Line Above the Sky A fascinating exploration of female ultra-distance sporting achievement – and a fitting tribute to those pioneers who blazed a trail for us all to follow. Jasmin Paris, ultrarunner A triumph! A page-turning tribute to female ultra-runners everywhere. Move over Born to Run – this insight into the world of the world's toughest races and the incredible women who run them is spine-tingling stuff. Lisa Jackson, author Your Pace or Mine? A fascinating look at the stories and science of female endurance….celebratory and inspirational. I’m signing up for my next ultra right now! – Jackie Kabler, author and book club founder A nuanced look at a complex topic, showing that there is nothing that can predict what an individual is capable of in ultras. Our potential is not defined by our sex – as many ultra women have shown in recent years. – John Kelly, multiple Barkley Marathons finisher A captivating insight into a fascinating subject which celebrates the exceptional power of female endurance. – Damian Hall, Spine Race winner, ultra marathon coach and author of We Can't Run Away From This