Thoughts About Running
By Madeleine Cummings Get Rid of the Gap
The Sinister 7 Ultra is a breathtaking 100-mile race that sends runners up and down mountains in Crowsnest Pass, Alta. Some brave souls run the whole thing themselves, but most compete for male, female or mixed-gender relay teams. The first male and female soloists to cross the line win $1,000, plus other prizes. Teams also race for prize money, but only one team – the fastest overall – receives $1,000.
When my teammates and I caught wind of this prize structure, we were angry. We are all competitive women accustomed to passing guys on the trails, but we knew there was next to no chance of us beating every all-male and mixed-gender team out there on race day. A search of past race results confirmed our suspicions. For the past six years, an all-male team had clocked the fastest time.
A few weeks before the race, a couple of us emailed Brian Gallant, Sinister 7’s race director, to ask if he would consider adding a women’s team prize. Though he said he might consider making changes next year, he defended the current prize structure by saying the team cash prize was not assigned by gender and that it was “circumstantial that a male team has won the most in recent years.”
The gender pay gap continues to be a big problem in sport. According to John Walters in Newsweek, the pga awarded $320 million in prize money last year while the lpga gave out $61.6 million. Cycling, soccer and basketball are also notoriously inequitable. Footraces, on the other hand, tend to divide their prize purses equally between men and women. The top man and woman at the Boston Marathon each win $150,000. Victoria’s Times Colonist 10k, the Vancouver Sun Run and the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon are just a few of the big Canadian races that divide money equally between men and women.
Ultramarathons – and Sinister 7 isn’t the only one – have further to go.
Rory Bosio, a decorated American ultrarunner, encountered an inequitable prize money structure at the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc, which is one of the most prestigious trail races in the world. She won the race in 2013 and 2014, but was annoyed that the race awarded prizes to the top ten men but only the top five women. When she complained to the race director, she was told the women’s race was less competitive. Bosio eventually refused to race utmb again unless prize money was equally distributed.
“My main reason for wanting to see 10 women on stage during the awards is the message it sends to younger girls,” she told me. “The more we highlight the fact that women really excel at this sport the more women we will be attracted to it because they will see that it’s doable.” The race changed its ways and equalized the prizes for 2016. Sometimes, as at Sinister 7, the sexism behind prize money distribution is more subtle. Ellie Greenwood, perhaps Canada’s best ultramarathoner, spoke up in 2012 after the Indiana Trail 100 announced they would award $25,000 to anyone who broke the current North American-soil 100-mile record. After she and others on social media protested, the race added a prize for breaking the women’s 100-mile record.
According to Nikki Kimball, an American ultrarunner who has won the Western States 100 three times, unequal prize money is only part of the problem. During her ultrarunning career, which spans nearly 20 years, she’s seen women’s trail courses shortened, unequal compensation from sponsors, and male-centric media coverage. Prizes can also be unequal in value, even when they are offered to both winners. At one race, where the male winner walked away with a gift certificate, she got perfume and soap.
“It makes me feel, when any of that sexist stuff happens, that the race director doesn’t care about the women,” she said. “You don’t want to race knowing that the race director doesn’t really care.”
Like Bosio, Kimball now refuses to compete in any race that does not award equal prize money.
I suspect race directors aren’t clinging to sexist prize structures because they truly believe men deserve more money than women do. These inequities are just the last remnants of a distance running culture that excluded women for so many years.
Not everyone’s voice carries the same power as that of Rory Bosio, Nikki Kimball or Ellie Greenwood. But it’s worth encouraging races to award equal prizes, even if you don’t have a shot at winning a cent. If no one speaks up, race directors have no reason to change the status quo. Gallant told me I was the first person to complain about Sinister 7’s prize money structure.
After running for nearly 16 hours, our last runner crossed the finish line at Sinister 7, earning us the fastest female team title. When we filed onto the stage during the awards ceremony, the race director offered a last-minute cash concession: a $100 credit for each of us to next year’s race. We also won shoes from one of the race’s sponsors. The men’s team received their shoes plus the $1,000 prize. Since there were seven of us, we essentially earned 70 per cent of what the male winners did.
It wasn’t quite equal, but it was a start.