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California International MarathonWomenHave come a long way...19% in 1983; 40% in 2006; ? 2007! |
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Story #15 in a Series of 25 |
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 Fastest Course in the West! |
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by Cynci Calvin |
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Please note: A content list for these 25 stories and links to previous stories are posted at RunCIM.org. |
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Do you have a CIM story to tell, any vintage CIM photos, any comments about the 25 CIM stories? Email stories, photos (hi res jpegs) and comments to runcim@ncbb.net. |
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20-20 Hindsight Until the mid-1970s, a woman who ran distance was a rare bird indeed. Even on the track women were sparsely represented. Women’s sprint and middle distance races were added to the Olympics in 1928. Three women collapsed during the first 800-meter run, adding credence to the hypothesis that women’s health was jeopardized by distance running. As a result, no races for women beyond 200 meters were run at the Olympics until 1960, when the 800-meter was finally reinstated. The first Olympic women’s 1500-meter event wasn’t held until 1972. In 1971, amid the controversy about women’s frailty, the New York City Marathon admitted women as official runners and Boston added the division in 1972. Five women particpated in the NYC Marathon with Beth Bonner winning in 2:55. Nina Kuscsik topped the field of eight women at the 1972 Boston Marathon with a time of 3:10. The controversies raged on, and not until 1980 did the American College of Sports Medicine publish a statement that distance running posed no medical dangers "for the healthy, trained female athlete," and recommended that women should be allowed to compete at the same distances as men. Another 1972 landmark event was the passing of Title IX, a United States law that states: "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of gender, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance." Other factors contributing to the increased participation by women in distance running include the well-founded research about the benefits of cardiovascular exercise, the “women’s lib” movement, and the general running boom sparked by Olympic success stories of Frank Shorter and Bill Rodgers. In the early 80s, a successful campaign was launched to include a marathon for women at the 1984 Olympics. It was won by American Joan Benoit in a gutsy, sun-drenched effort. She became an instant role model/heroine and motivated untold thousands of women to start running. The CIM’s inaugural running in 1983 was on the cutting edge of this increase in women interested in running a marathon. |
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| 1984: Joan Benoit on her way to a Gold Medal at the first Women's Olympic Marathon.
Courtesy of time-to-run.com |
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Sally Edwards, CIM Co-founder, Entrepreneur, Women’s Sports Pioneer Sally graduated from UC Berkeley with degrees in exercise physiology and education and arrived in Sacramento in the mid 70s with the vision of establishing a sports-related community-based retail business. Already a competitive runner and successful in that new multi-sport activity called “triathlon,” she saw the potential for specialty shoe sales. She and her college roommate negotiated a $20,000 start-up loan, purchased a funky mail carrier van at a USPS auction, painted it bright yellow, stocked it with the meager selection of running shoes available at the time, and began selling these shoes at track meets and running events. When the postal van became inadequate to carry the ever-increasing number of shoes, Sally opened the doors of a store on J Street, Sacramento, and “Fleet Feet” became a popular hub for running activities. Sally, having seen firsthand the dismal support available to women runners, made improving this situation one of her missions. She taught “Beginning Running for Women” at the Learning Exchange, set up clinics, helped women find the right running shoe (even if it meant fitting them in men’s shoes!), and encouraged shoe and clothing companies to make products designed for women (remember the Nike Cortez? Dolphin shorts?). By 1982, with the first Women’s Olympic Marathon scheduled for 1984, the stage was set for Sally and John Mansoor to team up to establish the California International Marathon. From its inception, Sally insisted that 1) equal prize money be granted to women top finishers 2) there be separate finish lines for men and women. |
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| Sally helps with color commentary at the 1985 CIM. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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John Mansoor, CIM Co-founder, Coach, 2:18 Marathoner John made sure the inaugural CIM was a qualifying marathon (as it continues to be today) for the U.S. Men’s and Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials. In the 1983 CIM, 26 women met the Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials Standard of a sub-2:52 finish! The CIM, with its fast course, continues to be a very popular marathon trials qualifier. |
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| John continues to make the CIM the best it can be! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Sacramento Area Running Clubs The Sacramento area has a unique history that reveals its support of women’s running. Most notably was a track and cross country club for young girls called Will’s Spikettes*, established in the early 1960s by Coach Will Stephens. The club was based at Encina High School and under Will Stephen’s guidance until 1977, it won 18 different national team titles. Eight of his athletes won national titles and 12 were named to U.S. national teams. Will, at the time considered one of the best track and cross country coaches in the country, was inducted into the Golden West Invitational Hall of Fame in 1976. Among his top athletes were Olympians Evelyn Ashford, Kathy Hamilton and Kathy Weston. He also coached Marie Mulder, Kathy Hammond, Doris Brown, Carol Frederick, Tena Anex, Eileen Claugus, Mary Scangarella, and Heike Skaden. Eileen, Mary and Heike all went on to be active in local running clubs and are all CIM alums. In a recent interview, Sally Edwards expressed her gratitude to these local clubs for their early support of women’s running. Key among them were the clubs most involved with the founding of the CIM: Capital City Flyers (John Mansoor’s club), Fleet Feet Racing (Sally’s club), and the Buffalo Chips Running Club (CIM Board member Joan Reiss’ club). These were not strictly elitist organizations and they encouraged women (and men) of all abilities to join; their common denominator was a love for the sport. |
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| Joan Reiss on her way to a 2:59:34 finish at the 1984 CIM. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Capital City Flyer Heike Skaden at the 1984 CIM. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| John Mansoor provided coaching for the Flyers women and later he married the club’s top woman runner, Heike. When George Parrott joined the Buffalo Chips Running Club in the late 1970s, he initiated a coaching program for women only! His first group of speedy ladies were nicknamed “George’s Angels,” and included Joan Reiss, Eileen Claugus, and Christine Iwahashi. Fleet Feet Racing, with Sally at the helm, outreached to women runners throughout the area via clinics and other special events. By the early 80s, two new Fleet Feet stores were established, one in Roseville and one in Fair Oaks. They continued Sally's initial Fleet Feet model of interacting with their customers. The Capitol City Flyers disbanded in the late 1980s, but Fleet Feet and the Buffalo Chips continue to grow. New clubs have surfaced, including the River City Rebels, Golden Valley Harriers, Golden West Athletics, and Rocklin Running and Racing. All are well represented each year at the CIM. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Fleet Feet Racing women at the 2007 Susan B. Anthony Women's 5K. Photo courtesy of Doug Thurston | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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CIM Women Stars: a World Record Holder and the Flying Nun Helen Klein made global news when she achieved a marathon World Best time for women 80 and over at the 2002 CIM with her 4:31:32 finish. She continues to compete and has set new single year marathon records in 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006. Her emergence as a world-class age division runner began when she decided to kick the smoking habit at age 55. She now holds 12 spots in CIM top ten finish times for age groups ranging from 65 to 80+. She and her husband Norm were co-Technical Race Directors of the CIM in the mid-90s. Watch for her at the 2007 CIM where she hopes to set a record for women 85 and over. Read more about her and see her huge list of accomplishments in the excellent biography posted on the Road Runner's Club of America Web site; she was a guest speaker at the RRCA's 2007 Convention. |
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| Sister Marion Irvine, at age 54, put the CIM on the map of women’s running when her 2:51:01 finish time at the inaugural CIM qualified her for the 1984 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. She is to this day the oldest woman to have achieved this standard. Her unique story about her love affair with running and her clandestine attempts to pursue this passion are both humorous and poignant. Like so many who start running, she had a goal to become healthier, stop smoking and lose weight, but this was not easy considering the constraints of her calling. She resided at Dominican Convent College in San Rafael, California, where she taught grammar school. She would “borrow” shorts and shoes from the gymnasium lost and found and sneak out for workouts that began with brief walk/jogs. As her goals were achieved, her true running talent surfaced, she “went public.” | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Sister Marion Irvine at the 1983 CIM. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| She has since become a role model to all. Sister Marion continues to live in San Rafael, is a member of the Tamalpa Running Club and continues to support her sport as a highly regarded motivational speaker. She is also a human rights crusader, serving in the position of promoter of social justice for the Dominican Sisters. Catch up with her and her busy schedule by reading this May, 2007 article published in the Marin Independent Journal. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Sister Marion Irvine (above) at the DSE 40th Anniversary Run, 5/7/2006 (Photo courtesy of Brightwoo Fotos) and working on a Habitat for Humanity project (right). (Photo courtesy of Dominican Sisters of San Rafael.) | Photos above courtesy of Dominican Sisters of San Rafael. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Oprah Factor There can be no question that Oprah Winfrey’s goal to train for, run and finish the 1995 Marine Corps Marathon (4:29:15) was a huge wake-up call to TV-watching, coach potato ladies who might not have otherwise ever considered running a marathon. Here this attractive, dynamic, and clearly not a “runner type” woman (she topped out at 275 pounds in 1992) spent months on national TV describing the ups and downs of her training, teaching her audience that exercise is a great way to control weight, and culminating it all with the drama of her marathon finish on her 40th birthday, weighing 150 pounds. “If Oprah can do it, I can do it,” has since become a common phrase among women who decide to train for a marathon. |
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Cause-based Organizations In the early 90s, charitable organizations surfaced with a “win-win” concept that contributed heavily to the increased growth of women’s running, and the CIM is no exception. These organizations receive charitable contributions in exchange for coaching, group runs, and other incentives to train to complete a marathon. Add a cause as an incentive to finish a marathon, and people, especially women, who would otherwise never consider running a marathon, have the motivation to train and finish. The CIM is proud to do its part by providing the venue for these groups to achieve their goals. A list of these charitable organizations with links to their Web sites is posted on the marathon training page at runcim.org |
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| Women with the most CIM Finishes
Learn more about women's running and the CIM from those who know! Visit the Women's Many Time CIM Finishers' "In Their Own Words" Page. Interviews and stories will be added as they become available. If anyone else has a perspective on women's running and the CIM, please send us your story! 20 times: Christine Iwahashi 19 times: Carol Dellinger 19 times: Sandra Hatcher 17 times: Sally Monical 16 times: Po Adams 11 times: Theresa McCourt (with a unique perspective - she ran 9 CIMs in a row 1984 - 1991, ran 1993, and then took a break and returned to run 2006. |
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