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| Image owned by Fylde Coast Running |
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25/03/15 - A few weeks ago, I wrote the following blog about the percentage of women at races and after looking at the numbers of local races that I know well I suggested that further research was needed. On Facebook today I came across a post from Liverpool Spring 10k that brought the this blog back to the forefront for me because their current entry numbers consist of 55% women. Now, the race is still around six weeks away so there is still time for these numbers to change but the race last year also had slightly more women than men at 50.4%. The race was not included in my original analysis because I tried to stick with races that I knew but it's certainly one to watch. I have added to 2014 race to the table below.
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I used to be a data analyst in a former life, before I got ill and ended up with Judge Judy and the dog as my only day time companions. When I was at the Liverpool Rock n Roll press conference earlier in the week and heard the stats regarding how many women they got at their races last year I felt that niggle that makes me want to know more, to see the numbers. It used to take me a few hours to do this type of stuff, gather data, try to understand what it means. Now it takes forever just to do the easy stuff. I've been working on it since Monday and I have some data now, the meaning part we'll have to see.
Firstly, Liverpool RnR's numbers for 2014 break down into the following:
- Marathon - 28.7% women
- Half marathon - 57.8% women
I've only been racing for just over a year but that many women in the half marathon seemed pretty impressive to me. I wanted to know if this was duplicated in any other races. I looked at quite a few but I stuck to races that I had done or knew of (I ran 39 races last year so It's not like I didn't have many to choose from) so that I'd know the basics of the race, how much it costs, the route, what goodies you get, the way in which the race is advertised and so on plus I knew where the results were (I have links to them in my spreadsheet).
The first one I looked at was Port Sunlight, I'd just ran it so it was a good place to start. 54.4% of the 5k runners were women. I thought it might be a fluke and so I checked last year which was even higher, 57.8%. The 10k was less, just under 43%. Of the 22 races I looked at, the top 7 all had a longer distance race on the same day that had a much lower percentage of women. Does that mean that when women are given the option they will go for the shorter distance? All races that scored over 45% had pretty decent medals and all but one gave finishers free t-shirts but the goods were the same if not better for the longer distances so that can't be the only variable.
So what about route? Is that an issue, does that play a role? The Liverpool half and the Liverpool Rock n Roll half both use virtually the same route around Liverpool (which I love because it's my pb course) but Liverpool half was 36.6% women compared to the Rock n Roll race which got 57.8%. It can't be down to the organisers or publicity either, BTR who organisers the Liverpool Half also put on Port Sunlight and Wirral 10K which are both in our top 5 and are not targeted to women any differently than Liverpool Half as far as I can tell. So what attracts women to one and not the other? It can't just be the 'fun' element to the Rock n Roll idea of races because Mad Dog 10k, which has won multiple awards and certainly brands itself as fun still gets almost 7% more men than women.
I included a parkrun in the mix, but only my local one which was 44% women last Saturday. I'd love to know the breakdown of men and women at parkrun overall because it's entire ethos is running for all and is certainly marketed as an inclusive running event so it would be interesting to know if it still gets more men. I couldn't find these figures anywhere so I couldn't include them.
So, I'm still not entirely sure what this means. Other than races with multiple events will have more women in the shorter distances, I'm not really sure what I've learnt. The races I looked at are included below. I'd like to look at more club rather than corporate races because the ones on the list at the moment, Birchwood 10k and Warrington 10k, clearly have a lot less women but most club race results don't include gender positions so you'd have to literally count every woman. It will also be interesting to see if each race gets the same gender split this year. There's no answer yet but results so far have been interesting.
| Men | Women | Total | % Men | % Women | |
| 2014 Port Sunlight 5k | 105 | 144 | 249 | 42.17% | 57.83% |
| 2015 Port Sunlight 5k | 154 | 184 | 338 | 45.56% | 54.44% |
| 2014 Liverpool RnR Half | 1650 | 1871 | 3521 | 46.86% | 53.14% |
| 2014 EHM 10k | 188 | 201 | 389 | 48.33% | 51.67% |
| 2014 Liverpool S 10k 2014 Wirral 10k |
1296 476 |
1316 433 |
2612 909 |
49.62% 52.37% |
50.38% 47.63% |
| 2014 Milton Keynes Half | 876 | 733 | 1609 | 54.44% | 45.56% |
| 2014 Chester Metric | 259 | 216 | 475 | 54.53% | 45.47% |
| 28/02/15 Warrington Parkrun | 121 | 96 | 217 | 55.76% | 44.24% |
| 2014 Mad Dog 10 | 1017 | 771 | 1788 | 56.88% | 43.12% |
| 2015 Port Sunlight 10k | 582 | 438 | 1020 | 57.06% | 42.94% |
| 2014 Trail Half Marathon Wales | 227 | 163 | 390 | 58.21% | 41.79% |
| 2014 Port Sunlight 10k | 722 | 495 | 1217 | 59.33% | 40.67% |
| 2014 Warrington 10k | 223 | 139 | 362 | 61.60% | 38.40% |
| 2014 Rhyl 10 | 286 | 176 | 462 | 61.90% | 38.10% |
| 2014 EHM Half | 1290 | 773 | 2063 | 62.53% | 37.47% |
| 2014 Wirral Half | 757 | 444 | 1201 | 63.03% | 36.97% |
| 2014 Wilmslow Half | 2474 | 1436 | 3910 | 63.27% | 36.73% |
| 2014 Liverpool Half | 4240 | 2445 | 6685 | 63.43% | 36.57% |
| 2014 Buff Winter Trail Half | 216 | 113 | 329 | 65.65% | 34.35% |
| 2014 Stafford half | 1389 | 723 | 2112 | 65.77% | 34.23% |
| 2014 Birchwood 10k | 596 | 305 | 901 | 66.15% | 33.85% |
| 2014 Conwy Half | 1571 | 794 | 2365 | 66.43% | 33.57% |
| 2014 Whitley 10k | 250 | 108 | 358 | 69.83% | 30.17% |
| 2014 Chester marathon | 1764 | 726 | 2490 | 70.84% | 29.16% |
| 2014 Linverpool RnR Marathon | 1658 | 668 | 2326 | 71.28% | 28.72% |
| 2014 Milton Keynes Marathon | 1524 | 583 | 2107 | 72.33% | 27.67% |
| 2014 North Wales Half | 311 | 117 | 428 | 72.66% | 27.34% |
| 2014 Trail Marathon Wales | 234 | 73 | 307 | 76.22% | 23.78% |
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