Memorial race aims to boost calibre of women's running
runnersweb
Published: Sunday, June 10, 2007
When organizer Ken Parker scanned the latest list of entries for his
event on June 23, he thought he had a problem on his hands.
There, among the many women registered for Emilie's Run, was a name
that appeared to belong to a man.
"I was wondering if there would be a challenge," Parker says.
The Emilie Mondor Memorial five-kilometre race is for women only.
Now,
Parker was wondering if a man was trying to slip into the race, the
way Katherine Switzer once challenged the men-only rule at the Boston
Marathon. Was someone about to claim discrimination against men? No.
The name belonged to a young boy who was participating in the one-
kilometre fun run that follows Emilie's Run. That event is open to
both girls and boys.
Emilie's Run is still all women, the way Parker wants it. Parker, who
coaches the Ottawa Athletic Club Racing Team, launched the race last
year to create a celebration of women's running and a competitive
environment for elite women.
Parker wanted a race where women led from start to finish, where a
woman won the race outright instead of being the top woman in a race
won by a man.
"The women actually finish first," says Terry McKinty of Somersault
Promotions, which runs the event for Parker. "They don't have to be
picked out of a crowd of men." For Parker, it's not just the glory of
crossing the finish line, but also the responsibility of leading a
race.
"In a race with men," Parker says, "the women don't have the
responsibility of setting the pace. This changes the dynamic. They
have to set the pace themselves." In last year's inaugural race, the
pace set by the lead women was blistering. Thirty-five of the 202
women finished in under 20 minutes. To give you an idea of how fast a
field that was, 3,691 women finished the 5k run on Ottawa Race
Weekend, but only 18 of them did it in less than 20 minutes.
Parker is hoping to double the number of entrants this year and
increase the number of sub-20-minute finishers to 50. Nicole
Stevenson, last year's winner in a time of 16:28, will try to defend
her title, and the next six finishers will also be back.
"Nicole told me she wants to get in the habit of winning this event,"
Parker says.
To show runners they are serious about the event, organizers had the
course certified this year, increased the prize money to $5,000 and
added timing mats at every kilometre so finishers can study their
split times after the race.
Much of this is at Parker's initiative and, since he's the sponsor of
the event, his expense. It's all part of his effort to attract more
top-flight runners and boost the calibre of women's running in
Canada.
"If they compete in an environment with other fast runners," Parker
says, "they'll all get faster." The event is not just for elite
runners, though. "It's a forum for women who want to run fast,"
Parker
says, "but it's a race for every woman." Emilie's Run was renamed
this
year in memory of Emilie Mondor, the former Olympian who once held
the
Canadian record in the 5K at a staggering 14:59. Mondor had moved to
Ottawa to train with Parker and was planning to run her first
marathon
in New York in November. She was killed in a single-car accident in
September.
In her memory, the elite female runners in the New York City Marathon
all wore black ribbons during that race.
"That's how highly she was thought of," Parker says. "She'd never
even
run a marathon." Mondor intended to run the women-only 5K last June,
but withdrew because of an injury.
To Parker, Mondor was an inspiring figure for other female runners
who
wanted to increase their speed.
When Emilie trained with our group, they saw how fast this
woman was, how fast a woman could run," he says. "It spurred them
on."
For Parker, a 5K race is the perfect distance because it allows elite
runners to run fast, and it also serves as an entry-level race for
newer runners. So the organizers welcome all women runners to the
event, which begins at 9 a.m. June 23 at the Canadian Aviation
Museum.
As for accusations of discrimination, it's not that men aren't
welcome, they just aren't allowed to run.
"One of the advantages of a women's event is you can get the men to
do
the volunteer work because they're not racing," Parker says.