Females in Modern Day Sports
It is hard, at least for me, to accurately gage to what extent females like participating in sports or how good they could be, or should want to be, excelling in sports. I don’t think my mother ever played in any sport, and if she did, I just know she would have been terrible. Perhaps this is a cultural, era dependent, thing. Back in the ‘good ole days’, if a girl wanted to participate seriously in sports her parents would likely start worrying about that daughter. Males were to play sports and women stick to the kitchen, the laundry room, and the bedroom in the not so distant past. For the first 10 years of my mother’s life, women were not even allowed to vote. Today I think, by law, women’s sports must be given the same financial support given men’s sports.
Most of the stats in this musing come from articles in Outside magazine. Today women comprise 46 percent of outdoor sport persons. That surprises me too, I figured they would first get involved in indoor sports before heading out into the more rugged outdoor sports. It has always been assumed that males will always dominate sport performances because of their genes and the the presence of testosterone to build massive muscles. Plus, everyone kind of assumed that when it comes to endurance and physical toughness, men will always be far superior to females. Only recently have women been allowed in the military in combat roles. Maybe my mother, given a combat helmet, could have been a marine, but that’s a stretch for me outside her demeanor around the house when I was growing up. Smile.
So it comes as a surprise that women are starting now to compete seriously with men in the most brutal of endurance sports. Huh? Common sense dictates that a female entering the 106 mile Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc foot race would quit early on. Poor thing, just over her head in such a race. Well, some female named Rory Bosio in 2013 ran in this race, finished the course in 22 hours, 37 minutes—finishing 7th overall. I reckon there will always be some freaks of nature now and then, so case closed. Not exactly.
I thought Trump winning the Presidential election was the surprise of the century but Pam Reed won consecutive 135 mile Badwater Ultramarathons, Amelia Boone took second place at the World’s Toughest Mudder—a 24 hour race in which Pam covered 90 miles. She was 10 miles ahead of the third place finisher, also a female, and Lael Wilcox became the first women to win the Trans Am, a 4,300 mile cycling ‘sufferfest’ from Oregon to Virginia. She covered the route in 18 days. Maybe the trick is to name your daughter Rory or Lael. Whatever happened to Millicent, or Mary, or Elizabeth? Perhaps as soon as we can find a runner named Honschnivel, males can recapture the titles here.
So far it is true that females are only getting these big victories in the super long most difficult races, not the shorter distances like the typical 25 mile marathon. Imagine being married to Lael, having an argument and screaming: “Now you come back here, don’t make me run you down and pummel some sense into you.”
It is beginning to feel like the longer and more arduous the event, the better chance a female will win the contest. Another interesting fact (not an alternate fact straight from Trumpity Dumpty’s mouth) is that while all athletic records keep improving, the rate of improvement is much higher in women’s records than men’s records.
Limited, but recent studies seem to suggests that women are more resistant to muscle fatigue than men, that women have a greater number of fatigue resistant muscle fibers than men, and while women have smaller muscles, they don’t tire as quickly. All these years I thought this was only true for mouth muscles. Smile.
To pile it on here, some studies indicate in these long races that women are much better at pacing themselves. Rebecca Rusch, a long distance cyclist tells this story: “The guys are always asking why I start out so slowly, and so when she was passing a male toward the end of a race she asked him.”Why do you finish so slowly?”
None of this matters all that much to me personally. I walk long distances as a hobby, but from now on when I am miles from the parking lot, and encounter a lone female walking or jogging alone in a forest preserve, I will certainly refrain from the devilish question “Hey there sweetie, you do know the nearest parking lot is 4 miles away, heh-heh”. Be bad for my ego to get run-down and beaten up by some short shapely light weight female en route to her car 50 miles away.
Maybe we need a female President—am kind of tired of macho males engaging in endless invasions while addicted to wealth/power to the extent ‘enough is never enough’. Times sure do change, except so far Americans still prefer some macho Archie Bunker prototype for President. We went from a President who seemed never to find a group he didn’t try to protect and make their lives more pleasant, to a President who seems to have no group outside his own ’trophy’ wife and family that he genuinely likes, and is hell bent on teaching every minority group, of any ilk, a lesson or two. We will now see how all this works out.
Just before he died, Don Rickles told me since women are only gaining the upper hand in the most extreme endurance contests, it only proves that more and more women are becoming insane. Exercise and health is a very slippery connection. Neither of my parents ever undertook any kind of exercise regime in their lives, and ate whatever they felt like all their lives. My dad lived to be 89 and mother 97 or 98. I wonder what the life span will be of those who participate in these extreme endurance competitions? Actually, most of these extreme endurance events are fairly new. At 77 I have already completed my extreme endurance event as well as used up of my reservoir of endurance. My response to most challenges in life today are more like “Oh, to hell with it”.
