Women Marathoners
Camaraderie, Sense of Achievement Found On the Road
September 30, 2008
By Elizabeth Heubeck
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Sixty-two-year-old Marge Burley is used to being called crazy. She hears it from friends and family members when they learn she’s participating in another “ultra-run,” like the 2003 Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run in California. Or when, during a triathlon, she pulls herself out of the water dripping wet after the 2.4-mile swim and must sit on a milk crate to tie her running shoes before heading off for the 112-mile bike portion of the race.
Though the slipped vertebrae in her back prevents her from bending over independently, Burley shrugs off the comments and the near-constant back pain that plagues her while she runs, and keeps on going.
Burley, who lives in the West Baltimore neighborhood of Hunting Ridge, didn’t run her first marathon until she was 41. She was in her late 20s before she even got her first taste of formal exercise. Watching her father lose one of his legs to arterial sclerosis (hardening of the arteries) motivated her to get moving.
She made time between shuttling her children back and forth to swim practice. When they got in the pool to swim laps, she did too. Soon after she helped form the Maryland Masters, one of about 500 adult teams affiliated with United States Masters Swimming (USMS). Then came running. Initially, she did five- or six-mile jaunts. Soon, she had ramped up to 70 miles per week to prepare for the 1987 Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C. Now, at an age when most active women turn to low-impact activities like walking and yoga, Burley continues to charge ahead with an aggressive running schedule sprinkled with long-distance races.
“It feels great. I still get emotional when I cross the finish line,” she says.
In the past few decades, countless women like Burley have tested their physical and mental limits in marathons and other long-distance races. It will happen again on Oct. 11, 2008, when thousands of women runners jockey for position at the eighth annual Baltimore Marathon.
But women haven’t always been part of the marathon pack. In 1967, an official attempted to oust runner Kathrine Switzer from the Boston Marathon — an event then considered a man’s race. By 2007, women made up 40 percent of the Boston Marathon field. In 1970, the first New York Marathon, only men crossed the finish line. By the mid ’90s, the number of female participants had ballooned to about 6,000 women —more than one-fifth of total participants — with most completing the race. Today, women make up more than half of all runners in our nation’s road races, according to Runner’s World magazine.
As the number of females crossing marathon finish lines swells, so do legions of women marathoners who consider themselves novices and non-elite athletes. Sure, plenty of them were college athletes and have long regarded fitness as an integral part of their lives. But in many cases, such as Burley’s, the commitment to physical activity came later in life. As for childhood athletes-turned-marathoners, many have exchanged their competitive zeal of their college days for camaraderie.
Consider Riderwood resident Allison Woodward, 42. This personal trainer and group exercise instructor at Meadow Mill Athletic Club, pre-school gym teacher and mother of four was involved in team sports from age 5 through college. Upon graduating, she recalls feeling a “huge void.” It wasn’t so much the competition she missed, but rather the constant companionship of a team of like-minded females. “In college, I spent four hours a day with women, playing sports,” she says.
When Woodward began training for marathons, she rediscovered the joy of close female friendships. While the ties have proven just as strong the second time around, the subjects she and her fellow women friends now hold dear differ.
“I run with a lot of moms. We help each other with problems we’re having with our kids. Conversing about life as I run, I’ve found out that there are so many people in the same place as myself,” says Woodward.
Having spent the last decade raising four children, she’s steeped solidly in the trenches of motherhood.
“For me, it’s not really about my time in the race. It’s more about the journey — what I’ve learned from other people, and how I’ve helped them,” Woodward says.
The camaraderie found while pounding the pavement in a long-distance event comes as an unexpected perk for some female runners. Such was the case with Phoenix resident Toni-Jean Lisa, 43. After training solo for the 1998 Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C., her first and only marathon to date, the health care consultant and mother of two found herself engaged in an impromptu 26.2-mile conversation during the race.
“I met another female at the starting point, and we ended up running and chatting the whole time. It wasn’t competitive at all,” Lisa says.
While the majority of women marathoners don’t pit their times against those of other female competitors, completing the grueling event means winning an internal battle.
“You suffer. It’s all mental, pushing yourself,” Burley says.
The mental battle ends when marathoners cross the finish line, but the sense of achievement is long-lived.
“I didn’t go to college. I got married right out of high school and was stuck at home. I look back and think ‘Wow, I was something, or nothing,’” reflects Burley with a self-deprecating chuckle. Now, she’s an accomplished long-distance runner.
The Under Armour Baltimore Running Festival takes place October 11 and includes a marathon, half-marathon, team relay, 5K race and kids’ fun run. For more information, visit www.thebaltimoremarathon.com.
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