To Believe Women Are Weaker Over Any Distance Is Nonsense

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- Paul Tonkinson

FOR SUCH a simple activity as ours, the running community is beset by vigorously debated divisions. To Strava or not to Strava? Decompression socks or anklets? Fully aware of my status as a cisgendered hetero normative white male, I hereby weigh in on the debate over whether women should run the same distance as men in cross-country.

I am a big fan of women. I’m born of a woman, am married to a woman and happily live and work among them. Many close friends are female and in terms of athletics I have never really seen a difference. My early running heroes were mostly women such as Rosa Mota, Grete Waitz, Zola Budd, Joan Benoit and Ingrid Kristiansen. I am regularly trounced in training and on race day by women of all ages.