Ultra Women: The Trailblazers Defying Sexism in Sport

"Yes, it’s an interesting book, this one. It looks sort of flimsy, like a PhD paper you might pull out of a university library. It doesn’t scream at you: ‘This will be a rollicking great read!’ But it really is. One of the quotes on the front says: “Phenomenal!” And it is phenomenal, because the women in it are phenomenal. If you know about women in sport, and understand the trials and tribulations of being a woman in sport, you might not be so surprised. But I think the majority of readers will be absolutely blown away by what women can achieve in the most gruelling races like ultra marathons. This has been going on for well over a century: women have found that they can beat men over very, very long distances. The more gruelling and longer the race, the better they do. If it requires very little sleep, women tend to be better able to cope than men. There are stories of women doing these incredibly, incredibly onerous runs while breastfeeding. It’s just phenomenal what women can achieve. “Readers will be absolutely blown away by what women can achieve in the most gruelling races” There are two truths that seem contradictory in this book. One is that, anecdotally, it seems women are better than men over a certain distance. But, two: the science just isn’t there yet. There isn’t enough scientific investigation to support that argument, so we can’t be absolutely sure. We can guess why it might be the case: fat reserves, what a woman’s body goes through when it goes through child birth, and so on. But there just isn’t enough known about the physiology and biology of women. So we don’t get the big hurrah conclusion, the eureka moment you would like from a book like this. But I don’t think that necessarily detracts from the book, because you are introduced to a succession of female protagonists who are all magnificent. For me, they are mainly magnificent for their matter of factness. They have a few babies, they start running because they need the money to feed these babies, they read about a race and the little pot of gold you get if you win it, and they think: ‘Well, you know, I could do that.’ Of course, there were often men who concluded they couldn’t possibly have done it, but there are far more women than I realised who have competed in and succeeded in these incredible ultra-marathon races and left men in their wake."