by Anne Hird, Ph.D.
Before I started running in 1974, the only female runner I knew of was Mary (Decker) Slaney, then a teenage phenomenon featured on ABC’s Wide World of Sports. High school teams for girls were just beginning to emerge, following the passage of Title IX, the federal legislation that mandated equal educational opportunities for girls and young women. Many schools satisfied this requirement by telling girls they could try out for the boys’ teams. The few girls who did venture into athletics were considered freaks. Only the girls who couldn’t make a cheerleading squad went out for a sports team. I was one of those girls.
I was once asked by a sports writer how I knew that girls weren’t supposed to run. I responded that there was no athletic clothing for women; we had to wear cutoff dungarees and men’s Fruit of the Loom t-shirts. The denim chafed and the hooks and wires on our everyday bras dug in as we ran along, but we kept at it. The excitement of achieving team goals, the individual sense of accomplishment with each mile run, and the camaraderie kept us going. Each season, these benefits all far outweighed the catcalls and criticism we encountered along the way. The experience also made us all better at what we are today: doctors, lawyers, nurses, government leaders, teachers, engineers, musicians, spouses, parents, and friends.
Young girls today have far more opportunities to participate in sports, yet we are still facing a childhood obesity crisis in the United States. In recent years, school sports, physical education classes, and even recess have been cut out of the school day, in order to direct limited time and dollars toward improving standardized test scores. At the end of the day, you may be the only female runner or walker your daughter, granddaughter, niece, or young neighbor sees. It doesn’t matter whether you are fast or slow, lean or struggling to lose weight, training for a marathon or just trying to run a mile without stopping—we all present possibilities to every young girl we pass on the run.
The next time you feel like cutting your run short, skipping a day or even quitting altogether, think of that young girl just around the corner. You’ll never know when your own running will prompt her to think, “Maybe I could do that, too.” And if you smile, she’ll know that you are enjoying a healthy activity that has become an important part of your life and might someday make it a part of hers, too.
