Throughout my time as varsity distance runner, I heard numerous stories of female runners who produced fast times early in their career but, ultimately, were forced to give up the sport before reaching their full potential. Typically, the story goes something like this: a young girl with impressive endurance and natural talent produces fast times for her age before she hits puberty. Then puberty hits, her body changes, and for a period of time she can no longer hit the times she once could. In an attempt to run faster and fit the “ideal” body image of a distance runner, she will fall into a pattern of overtraining and under-eating. This will inevitably lead to mental and physical burnout, injury, and mental health issues. This training pattern is unsustainable, and many young females who go down this path have no choice but to give up the sport.  

I started running at twelve years old when I joined my middle school cross country team. Being from Prince Edward Island the smallest of Canada’s provinces, I was able to quickly find success in the sport and gained self-confidence that I never had before. In high school I was the provincial cross country champion each year and I represented team PEI at the 2017 Canada Games in track and field. I continued running in university, where I competed for the Dalhousie Tigers while pursuing my undergrad. Over the past decade, I have trained with and competed against female runners from across the country. My experiences have shown me how much of a positive aspect running can be in one’s life. However, I have also witnessed how unhealthy training environments and an ignorance towards female specific health issues can leave female runners feeling neglected and unhappy. There were times in my life where I valued my performances more than my own happiness and each time I failed to live up to my own expectations and the expectations of those around me, I was left feeling worthless. This mindset was not one that I always had, but one that developed after I was exposed to a culture that at times values short-term performance over long-term well-being. In more recent years, I have distanced myself from the narrative that my self-worth is based on the times I am capable of running right now. This change in perspective happened gradually and is largely a result of help from my former teammates who showed me that the most important aspects of the sport lie outside of team championships and individual performances. I am writing this now in the hopes that this may help shift the perspectives of other young female runners who can relate to some of the experiences I describe herein. I hope that by shedding light on the issues female varsity runners face, the Canadian running community will feel compelled to do more to protect and support them. 

The running careers of so many promising young female athletes should not have to end so abruptly, nor should these girls feel forced to sacrifice their health and happiness for fast times and team championships. Though many runners may not be willing to admit it, the culture in the sport is toxic at times, as training and winning take precedent over mental and physical well-being. Many varsity coaches preach a win at all costs mentality, in which athletes feel obligated to perform at their peak at all times, or risk being overlooked by their coach and replaced by someone faster. The alleged events that took place at the University of Guelph are an extreme example of how a coach’s win at all cost mentality threatens the mental and physical health of their athletes. The abusive behaviour of certain coaches often goes unnoticed because they are glorified and protected by systems and cultures that overlook personal wrongdoings in favour of institutional success. However, if certain issues within the sport are addressed, particularly those that pertain to the ethical treatment of female athletes, it is possible to improve the sport’s culture and build programs that promote the long-term development of athletes beyond their five years on a varsity team. 

As it is with most sports, the majority of varsity cross country and track coaches are men. A lack of female representation amongst coaches means that female teams are not provided with the support system they need. Many varsity training programs are unconsciously biased towards the male experience as male coaches are more likely to be ignorant to the specific issues that female runners face. For example, most training plans are designed to be one-size fits all, meaning that both male and female athletes are prescribed similar workouts and are expected to develop at the same rate and peak at the same time. From an outside perspective this may seem like the right thing to do, as both male and female athletes are being treated equally. However, training programs should not strive towards equal treatment, rather, aim for equity. Coaches should give more attention to the physiological and hormonal differences between men and women and what this means for training, recovery, and nutrition. 

It is not uncommon for female runners to lose their periods, which is a symptom of RED-S or Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport. RED-S is the result of a calorie deficit caused by overtraining and under-eating and can lead to injury, severe fatigue and burnout. Unfortunately, RED-S can very easily go unnoticed in female runners especially if coaches are not willing to have conversations with their female athletes about their periods. Both male and female athletes can suffer from RED-S; however, it most commonly occurs in female athletes. During my time in the sport I knew multiple female runners who did not have regular periods and yet, coaches did not openly discuss the associated risks with the team. 

Eating disorders are also incredibly prevalent among female runners. Sadly, many feel as though they must conform to the “ideal” runner’s body type, one that is often unattainably thin, in order to run fast. Coaches can contribute to this unhealthy mindset even if they do not weigh their athletes or support the idea that lighter runners will run faster. Making off-handed comments or insensitive jokes about weight, failing to recognize early signs of eating disorders and allowing athletes that show these signs to compete are just some of the ways varsity coaches can contribute to a toxic attitude towards eating amongst their athletes. Though most varsity coaches in Canada do not consciously support ideas that lead to eating disorders, all coaches, both male and female, must educate themselves about the warning signs of eating disorders and promote a team atmosphere where their athletes feel comfortable discussing eating in a positive way.

Many runners, including myself, consider running to be a part of our identity, and we hope to continue running well beyond our varsity careers. It is heartbreaking that so many young female runners grow to resent the sport because of the damage it can do to their mental and physical health. Some of the great friends and teammates I have gained during my time in the sport have stepped away from competitive running because it was no longer a positive aspect of their lives. These girls are incredibly dedicated and talented athletes who felt they had no choice but to push themselves to their breaking points both mentally and physically. In some cases, they pushed through injuries and suffered from untreated eating disorders while competing. This is a direct result of the lack of support given to female runners and the win at all costs mentality that is fostered in varsity sport. I believe I gained more from spending time with these girls and learning from them than I ever will from training and competition. If the toxic culture of varsity running is to ever be erased, programs must recognize that the value of our sport extends far beyond championships and personal bests. The most valuable aspects of competitive running are intangible and lie in the mental and physical health benefits of running itself as well as the relationships that are formed between teammates and competitors.

Moving forward, varsity running teams must actively try to resist the toxic culture that has developed in our sport and provide more support to female runners. Coaches must have open conversations with their female athletes about the prevalence of eating disorders and emphasize the importance of proper nutrition. There should also be more female representation among coaching staff as no one understands the female experience in competitive running more than those who have been through it. Female athletes should never feel pressure to over train to the point of irreparable injury or to lose weight to fit an “ideal” body type. Coaches must instil a team atmosphere in which their athletes feel supported and valued as opposed to neglected and expendable. It is time that varsity programs acknowledge their insensitivities, re-evaluate their priorities, and raise awareness for the unique issues that female runners face. 

Finally, perhaps most importantly, making the choice to leave the sport needs to be destigmatized. Many athletes continue to train and compete long after they have lost enjoyment in the sport, simply because they do not want to appear weak. Making the decision to leave varsity running for the sake of one’s mental and physical well-being should not be considered a weakness but rather, a strength. Choosing to give up something that no longer makes you happy demonstrates both courage and self-awareness and should be applauded, not stigmatized. The varsity running community needs to recognize that while competing and winning are important, there are many other aspects that bring value to our lives and these should no longer be sacrificed for the sake of short term success in the sport.

We asked iRun readers to vote on their favourite things of the year and no brand won more than Saucony.

With 63 out of 327 votes, Saucony is your iRun 2021 Brand of the Year.

Here is Reid Coolsaet’s review of the Endorphin Pro 2.

Third place: Brooks

There were other big awards in the 2021 iRun Golden Shoe Awards.

We also asked readers for their favourite winter shoe.

Receiving an unbelievable 60 votes is the Saucony Peregrine Ice.

Second place, with 20 votes, was the ASICS GTX.

Third place was the Nike Shield.

261 of 327 runners said that they bought their last pair of shoes at an independent running store.

BlackToe Running is your 2021 Best Canadian Shoe Retailer of the Year.

2021 was the year of virtual races. 260 of our respondents ran a virtual event—nearly 80%.

The top three virtual events of 2021, according to iRun Nation:

3. We Run the North

2. Canada Running Series 10K

1. The Boston Marathon (these Toronto-based athletes obviously ran the actual Boston Marathon; but the photograph still represents the joy of the event).

The 2021 Watch of the Year: Garmin

The 2021 App of the Year: Strava

We want to thank everyone who participated in the 2021 iRun Golden Shoe Awards. A few more take aways:

• Hoka One One was the biggest mover of the year. Not on our list in 2020, Hoka scored 36 votes for Shoe of the Year—just three less than Nike.
• COROS was also a big mover. Only 5 votes beneath Fitbit, COROS definitely is one to—pardon the pun—watch.

Happy holidays, everyone. Here’s to all of us finding new finish lines in the new year.

This past weekend was the 6th annual Run to Give YVR! This run was started in 2015 by Kate Gustafson, who wanted to find a way to bring Vancouver’s active and engaged running community together in support of marginalized women. She recruited Neasa Coll and Sabine Martz to help her put it together, and Run to Give was born. Now, every year a group of women runners come together to organize the event. Over the years Kim Doerkson, Kristina Jenei and Alyssa Cantarutti joined the organizing committee, and to date they have been able to raise over $35,000 for the Downtown East Side Women’s Centre. 

The DEWC is an amazing organization that exclusively serves women and their children. They provide many of the necessities to their clients, including hot meals, clothing, toiletries, a mailing address, internet access and secure toilets and showers. Most importantly, they are a safe and welcoming refuge from the street. Their meal program, which serves over 500 meals daily, is completely donor-funded and relies on the support of the community. The centre also assists women with immediate and crisis needs so that they can improve their health, family, employment and housing situations. They offer long term  support, education and advocacy. 

Every year, Vancouver’s running clubs come together and meet on a Sunday morning in December to run as a group in support of the incredible work the DEWC does. Runners are encouraged to donate what they can and everything is donated to the Centre. The event is untimed and the route is always the same almost-but-not-quite 8km on Vancouver’s seawall. Everyone from the speediest runners to toddlers and dogs are welcome. 

In 2020, the event had to be paused due to restrictions on large gatherings, so when Run to Give restarted in 2021 the fundraising goal was increased. The DEWC has faced more of a need than ever, and we would like to be able to support them as much as possible. As of today, the donation tally is at $4,075—and our dream would be to get to $7,500. For the DEWC, $5 means they can give a woman a hot meal, safe space and a day’s access to support services. 

If you would like to help support the DEWC, you can donate through the Run to Give YVR page, which will also generate a tax receipt for you. If you’re local to Vancouver, the Centre also has a mini wish list of things they need, and they always appreciate the gift of volunteer time. 

We are so grateful to the Vancouver Running Community for coming together every year and being as enthusiastic, engaged and generous as they are! 

Michelle Baird, pictured above, racing, is a police officer and an ultramarathon runner and she read the iRun story on Amanda Richardson with shock. “That has to be a one in a million experience,” she said, about Richardson’s trip to the track with her girlfriends to celebrate her fortieth birthday and being struck, while on a run, in the face. 

Reading the story, like a lot of runners and readers, Baird felt outrage. But she also has an important message, given her years in law enforcement, to share: “That’s not happening every day.” 

It’s a message comforting to hear and, given the highly-charged atmosphere of our times, important to remember.

Running by and large is safe, Baird says, and she says there are easy tips for runners to follow while out on a run: 

• Wear bright clothing 

• Cross at crosswalks and stop lights 

• If you’re running alone, make sure someone knows where you’re going and how long you’re going for 

• Bring your phone If something spooks you, leave 

In the wintertime, Baird stops running the trails near her home in Ottawa and instead hits the sidewalks and streets. “With the cold weather, our phones tend to die much sooner than they normally would, so it’s important to let someone know where you are,” Baird adds. She says the most important thing is to run where it’s lit. And, if heaven forbid, you do find yourself in a situation like Richardson, and you’re running with a group and it’s light and you have your phones, if you see a situation developing—even potentially—it’s better to be safe than sorry. 

“If anything is making you feel uncomfortable, a gut feeling is enough to make you react,” says Baird, who recommends either running in a different direction if spotting something unusual or else just taking out your phone. “Sometimes, just the appearance of a phone can deter.”  

The holidays can be a tough time for a lot of people, Baird adds, and she says that COVID has been hard on people. Remember compassion. Remember empathy. The majority of calls she receives in Ottawa are for mental health issues. “You never know,” she says, “Who’s suffering from what.”

This holiday, run with a group, run where it’s lit, and always bring your phone. Make sure someone knows where you are and when you’ll be back and, if the worst thing happens and you are attacked, try and take down whatever details you can and immediately call the police. 

Those details might go towards the would-be assailant being captured before he or she can strike again.

Amanda Richardson had big fortieth birthday plans: forty laps with her run crew near her home in Toronto on the track near her house to begin her day. However, her morning run was disrupted when a man approached, early in the morning onto the track, and smacked her in the face as she ran. The man retreated into nearby bushes before the police arrived and Richardson, wiping the blood from her nose, continued her laps to finish celebrating her birthday. Richardson spoke to iRun’s Ben Kaplan about her ordeal, and how she’s using her experience as a teachable moment. 

iRun: What happened on the morning of your fortieth birthday? 

Amanda Richardson: My husband took me down to the track to meet the girls. He stayed until it was light out and then left for five minutes to go get our boys. My group were all wearing bright lights and the track was busy—there were people walking their dogs, we were doing all the things. 

iRun: And then what happened? 

AR: We get to the track, it’s 6am. We begin running around the track in our bright colours and ticking off the laps. At around 7, halfway through, the sun started to come up and there’s this beautiful purple and pink sky, so my husband is going to leave to go get the kids, they were just up the street.

iRun: So he takes off and the group keeps running as the sun comes up over the track. 

AR: And the group has sort of split up into smaller groups, and the faster girls in the front noticed a guy sort of coming towards the track. We assumed, from a distance, he was a runner coming to join us. All throughout the morning people came and went. So when they saw this other person, we figured he was coming to say hello. 

iRun: Which clearly he wasn’t. 

AR: He wasn’t. This person came and stood on the track and from a distance, he seemed to be dressed like everyone else: a hat, jacket. Well, from 100-metres I saw this person in the middle of the track and as I got closer, I was trying to make out who it was. I got close, within a few feet, and realized I couldn’t quite tell who he was and then he just moved towards us and opened hand straight armed hit me straight across the face. 

iRun: Oh my God, a runner’s worst nightmare. 

AR: He was mumbling and literally swiped me with an open hand and hit me straight across the face. He didn’t say anything specific or anything that made any sense. He wasn’t loud or aggressive and then as quickly as he was there and put his hand on my face, I turned away and the girls all faced me to see if I was OK. He went off in the bushes and the girls all called the police. 

iRun: He ran away? 

AR: He just went off into the bushes. A girl took off in his direction to see where he went and we looked north and south, but he just disappeared back into nowhere. 

iRun: Were you OK?          

AR: He slapped me across the face to the point that it stopped me and turned my head. I don’t think I’ve ever been hit in the face before and I knew that my nose was bleeding, and my face was hot and tingling. But the main feeling was that I was so mad. How could this person come into my space and think he can stop me doing what I was doing? 

iRun: It’s scary. 

AR: I had a bleeding nose, but my teeth were all there and I didn’t want to stop. I wasn’t going to go to the hospital and I was in shock but I wanted completion. I walked the rest of that lap, maybe 100 metres, and then picked back up my run. I had no intention whatsoever of not finishing. 

iRun: I just find that extraordinary. So many times runners find excuses to quit and you had a bonafide excuse and defied circumstances out of your control.  

AR: It made me incensed. Like, no way I’m stopping. I’ll finish this 100% despite you doing that to me. I’ll finish so any runner, any person anywhere, knows that if they want to do something in a public space that’s normal and positive and acceptable behavior, will not be stopped by someone else. No way.  

iRun: Do we know anything about who this guy was? 

AR: It seems like someone mentally unwell. It wasn’t a robbery and he didn’t seem under the influence. He didn’t seem to be uneasy on his feet or malicious in the sense that he was there to hurt me. He just took one swipe and then walked away back into his own world. It didn’t seem motivated by anything except what was happening in his head. 

iRun: It could have been so much worse. 

AR: The truth is that he’s in a much worse spot than I am. 

iRun: A fortieth birthday you clearly won’t soon forget. 

AR: None of us will forget it. I had all these women come down to the track, in the cold and the dark, and one of my girlfriends brought 40 balloons to tie around my waist, and it was just a great way to start the day. I’m glad no one else got hurt.  

iRun: Tell me about how you picked back up your run. 

AR: I was going to finish the run because, for me, it was about the support, love and friendship of the community of people I surround myself with, my running community. And it was a testament to courage and feeling tired and sick of feeling targeted, as a woman, and I just started running again and it brought front and centre about all the bullshit we have to go through that needs to be changed. 

iRun: Are there takeaways from your ordeal that you can share? 

AR: Be careful. Take other people with you. Run where its light and there’s other people. But don’t be afraid. Be smart. But not scared. 

iRun: And that’s what went through your mind as you began taking down those last 20 laps? 

AR: I was processing it. My teeth were still there. My nose wasn’t broken. I was just going to keep running. How dare this person do this to me, no way.  

iRun: Where do you go from here? 

AR: Our running group is called ChixRunthe6ix and it’s open to everybody and this Sunday at 6pm we’re hosting a Take Back the Track friendship run for our whole community. People can log on virtually or come join us at Riverdale Park East, which is where all of this began. 

iRun: Good for you. Reframe a negative experience as an experience to be empowered. 

AR: Our running community started with a group of friends during the pandemic, just to make running accessible to all women. And now we’re all about 100% reenforcing that women can and should run, and we’re reaching out to everyone, everywhere, and telling them: run with us, join in, do something for yourself and others, let’s all be part of positive change. 

iRun: A great story with a great ending, thanks so much for your time. 

AR: I’m fine, but maybe the next person won’t be. And we have to say, ‘No, this is bullshit.’ We all need to be part of the story. We all need to run for change. 

To learn more about #TakeBacktheTrack, please follow @chixrunthe6ix on Instagram.