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The Guardian
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
From TikTok to the track: Gen Z are driving running's third great boom
Hear that sound? It is the fingertaps of Gen Z scrolling through Instagram reels and TikToks. The pings of card readers as more stylish gear leaves the shelves. The drumbeat of cushioned soles on pavements up and down the country. But, most of all, it is the noise of the jaws of the smartest people in sport crashing to the floor. Because, suddenly and entirely unexpectedly, we are in the third great running boom, one that almost nobody saw coming and powered almost entirely by Gen Z, particularly women. 'You go back to the first boom in the 1970s and 80s and there was no real diversity: it was all thin, skinny, white guys in very tight shorts,' says Hugh Brasher, the event director of the London Marathon. The second boom? That, he says, came after Paula Radcliffe broke the world marathon record in 2003, leading to a big jump in women taking up running, before parkrun grew the numbers again. 'You look now and it really is all ethnicities and demographics,' Brasher says. 'This explosion – and it really is an explosion – has been brilliant to see. I wish that any of us could say we created it, like Netflix and Drive to Survive, or even saw it coming. But we didn't. It's been an organic explosion.' The numbers are staggering. More than 1.1 million have entered the ballot for the 2026 London Marathon – not only a world record but nearly double the figure from two years ago. Strikingly, for the first time, the male/female split is almost 50/50. The race is also getting younger: more than a third of UK entries are aged from 18 to 29 years old. So what is going on? Part of it is a happy confluence of circumstances. Running has always been cheap and accessible. Now it is also fashionable. But dig a little deeper, and there are some interesting things going on. Last month, for instance, Sport England found that while there were 349,000 more runners in England in 2024 compared to 2023 that rise was almost entirely fuelled by women. 'Part of the rise is because brands have cottoned on to the fact that women are willing to spend a lot of money on products that work better and look nicer,' says Lee Glandorf, a marketer who works with sports brands on their editorial strategy and writes a Substack on sport and fashion. 'Lululemon, in particular, led the way and did a lot of the work to make running fashionable. 'But I also know that for a long time, Hoka's internal motto was 'win with women'. They put a lot of energy into making running shoes fashionable and comfortable for women. They seeded a lot of influencers and they did a lot of messaging around soft wins, the idea it is OK to run slowly and that winning can be achieved in different ways.' While the traditional running world may sneer, Glandorf says influencers have played a significant part. 'This huge ecosystem of female creators definitely brings in younger women,' she says. 'Mostly they are not pro athletes. Instead the younger generation is being inspired by people who look like them or have a similar background.' There is one myth worth shattering, however. It was not the pandemic that led to the spike in running. That, says Brasher, only came in 2023. But Covid‑19 did play a part. 'We used to have to go into the office five days a week,' he says. And we socialised through work. A lot of that cohesion has gone and therefore it needs to be replaced. People want to be together in a community they enjoy and running has myriad diverse communities.' That is particularly true of Gen Z, which has been hit harder than most. Research also shows Gen Z drinks much less than previous generations and is more aware of mental health. 'The research is now showing that running is better than taking a pill to help with depression,' Brasher says. Sign up to The Recap The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend's action after newsletter promotion Another factor behind the boom is the explosion in a new breed of running clubs or 'crews', bringing people together in a more communal way. In the buildup to the London Marathon, the sports brand Tracksmith had up to 400 runners gather outside its shop for its Sunday morning long runs with pacers running between 6.45 minute- and 12-minute miles. 'The growth over the past two years has been crazy,' says Tracksmith's community leader, Amrit Ghatora. 'But there are so many crews now, from black trail runners to Asian running groups, so there really is something for everyone. If you come to a run club for the first time, it can be an intimidating experience. But we do everything to ensure that no one feels left out and it is a really enjoyable experience.' This latest running boom has not yet had an impact on elite track and field. Nick Pearson, who was formerly in charge of parkrun and now is chief executive of the talent agency Forte management, says that does not matter. 'There are some people who say this boom won't last, but I disagree. The direction of travel is upwards and you've still got some really significant pockets, particularly in some cultural female groups, that can be unlocked into running. 'And why would it go away? It's free. It's unbelievably accessible. It's cheap. Anyone can do it. And the super boost behind this latest boom is Gen Z. They socialise differently. They look for experiences differently and right now, we've just got this perfect storm going on.'
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
The first woman to complete the Boston Marathon is now 78 and runs most days. She shared 3 tips for getting fit at any age.
The first woman officially ran the Boston Marathon in 1967, despite an official trying to stop her. Kathrine Switzer has dedicated her life to making running more accessible to women. She thinks anyone can get fit at any age and shared her tips for doing just that. Kathrine Switzer was the first woman to run the Boston Marathon as an official competitor, despite a race official trying to physically stop her. Since that day in 1967, she has dedicated her life to other women experiencing the same feeling of empowerment from running, regardless of their age or ability. In the run-up to the race, Switzer, at the time a 20-year-old journalism student at Syracuse University, trained with her college's cross-country team for a year (it was against collegiate rules for a woman to compete in the sport). She couldn't keep up with most of the men on the team, so the assistant coach, Arnie Briggs, began training with her separately as he recovered from a knee injury. "We got better and stronger," Switzer told Business Insider. "We got up to five miles and then seven and then 11. The guys on the cross country team wouldn't come out with us after 20 kilometers, but that's when I could keep up with them because they didn't have the endurance I had." On their runs, Switzer and Briggs discussed marathons — Briggs had run the Boston Marathon 15 times but didn't believe that a woman could run that far. "But then he said, 'Look, if any woman could, I would believe it was you. But you would have to prove it to me, and then I'd take you to Boston.' I said, 'Hot damn, you're on,'" Switzer said. They did a trial marathon and ended up running an extra five miles at the end because Switzer suspected the course was shorter than the required 26.2 miles and still had energy. She and Briggs paid the $2 entry fee and signed up for the 1967 Boston Marathon. (The entry fee was $250 for the 2025 race.) About two miles into the race, things went awry. The race manager pulled up in a bus and ran after Switzer. "He grabbed me by the shoulders and threw me back. He tried to pull off my number bib and screamed, 'Get the hell out of my race and give me those numbers,'" she said. When the official grabbed Switzer by the shirt, her boyfriend at the time, who was training to compete in hammer throw at the Olympics, charged at him and sent him flying off to the side of the road, she said. As she kept running, the press hounded her, asking if she was a suffragette and what she was trying to prove. "I wasn't trying to prove anything, I was just trying to run," she said. "But they stayed with me a long time and really hassled me, asking me, 'When are you going to quit?' Finally, I said, 'I'm going to finish this race on my hands and my knees if I have to.'" She did finish (and stayed upright). She said she felt empowered, and in 1972 organized the first women-only road race, which was 10-kilometer-long, and lobbied for the inclusion of a women's marathon event in the Olympics, which eventually happened in 1984. In 2024, she worked with Every Woman's Marathon to hold a women's-only marathon, which had 7,000 participants. Now 78, Switzer still runs six times a week, including one day where she focuses on 800-meter sprints and a day for a longer run that takes at least 1.5 hours. She ramps up her training when she's approaching a marathon. Switzer set her personal best at the 1975 Boston Marathon with a time of two hours and fifty-one minutes. It now takes her four to five hours, but it isn't about the time, she said. She's happy that she can run a marathon alongside other women, of every age, size, ethnicity, and religion, thanks to her efforts and those of other women who paved the way. "I believe you can start a fitness program at any age," she said, giving the example of a woman she knows who took up running at 72 and ran her first marathon at 81. Switzer shared her tips for getting fit, whether you can run for one minute or three hours. "Consistency is everything. You just need to keep running every day and build it up," she said. She started by running a mile a day around her garden at age 12 and gradually increased the number of laps over time. But it wasn't easy, she said. "I struggled through that summer, running that mile every single day. Pretty soon, this amazing sense of empowerment came over me," she said. "For some people, this process is going to be faster; for other people, it's going to be slower." Having a goal provides focus and will motivate you to "put the work in," Switzer said. Her motivation was to prove Briggs wrong and show that women could run marathons, but your goal doesn't have to be as big, she said. "There's going to be plenty of days when you don't want to go out," she said. She still has days when she doesn't want to run after almost 60 years of doing the sport. But having something to aim for means you're less likely to skip a workout. Switzer's final tip is to find a way to hold yourself accountable. You could get a training partner or keep a diary of your workouts, she said. "People should write their workout down every day because when you write it down, it keeps you honest," she said. "But a buddy is really a nice thing to have. I don't think I ever would have been a runner if it hadn't been for Arnie, my coach," she added. "And for a lot of women, safety is a really big factor. So run with other women — it also creates a really good community." Read the original article on Business Insider
