SheRaces open to transgender women

[AuntDympna]

And postpones two events - Surrey Hills and Shropshire Hills which were scheduled for June and July, due to the policy change.
So disappointing for women like me who were looking forward to an all-female event nearby. No, i don't want to travel to the Peak District to take part in a race which specifically will have men who call themselves women. I would rather go to a mixed sex event nearby, where the men will mostly agree that they are indeed men.
Why can't we have nice things?

Is this the one that was the subject of the backlash on Instagram? Have they caved in?

Yes

That’s awful, what a joke. Sorry you’ve got that to put up with. Has there been a campaign to stop the insanity?

Sadly because our politicians are ineffective and don’t care about women, it’s up to the individual governing body of a sport to ensure men don’t take part in women’s events / games.

I think Swimming and Hockey have good policies now. Football (dreadful FA), Athletics and others like yours need to sort it out. Currently unfair, the opposite of sports ethos.

Eg. England Hockey say ‘The new Trans and Non-Binary Participation Policy has been developed to ensure everyone can participate in the playing of hockey in a fair way. To enable this, England Hockey has created two categories of competition within hockey – a Female category and an Open category.’ This is a fair approach for all.

https://www.englandhockey.co.uk/media/news/update-on-trans-and-non-binary-participation-policy

Really gutted. Had just signed up including event insurance which hasn't been refunded.

Sad to see them cave to pressure

Exactly what I said to them Dympna

I'm actually really surprised this nonsense is still happening. I got the sense that the tide was turning

Just been on their Instagram. All the comments from the handmaidens are making me want to vomit.

@Wemaybebetterstrangers British Athletics (as UKA is now known) do not permit males to compete in the female category and this would not be permitted if these races were organised under UKA rules.

SheRuns is not affiliated to UKA and hence not bound by their rules.

Athletics (along with rugby, triathlon and cycling) has been the forefront of bringing some sanity back into sport (after trying all the alternatives…). But governing bodies have no statutory powers and cannot force race organisers to abide by their rules.

Ah I see. What a mess. If UKA don’t accept males (and they will have evidenced why, as per England Hockey), SheRuns look even more ridiculous.

I wonder how this has happened - how have the TRA’s got their way. It doesn’t make sense when UKA don’t accept males in female events, you’d think they’d be the standard to follow.

It appears to be an activist group called Queerrunnings who coordinated the bullying. Looks like they sent out a bat signal to all the trans activists and handmaidens.

I was considering doing one of their races.
But not now.

🤮

Vote with your feet.

All women should boycott this event, it's the only way. Hopefully they'll have a really poor turn out.

They won’t. Trail running prides itself on ‘inclusivity’ and the majority of runners either won’t be bothered either way, or will actively applaud the caving in. It’s the preferred endurance sport of the blue-haired and rainbow-lanyard wearing classes. Fell running thankfully follows UKA rules.

It's just ludicrous isn't it? When will the madness end?

I mean, calling it SheRun...they should at least change the name to TheyRun otherwise it makes absolutely no sense.

No no no, then you’d be invalidating the men who say they’re women. We can’t have that.

I exchanged DMs with the founder a while back about this (due to my running) and she was nervous about a backlash

Just seen the instagram post about it, lots of comments and quite mixed

Is SheRuns different from SheRaces through?

Does anyone know what SheRuns policy is?

Fell running is brilliant. So proud of the stance of the no-nonsense Fell running associations. Trail runners - feel free to jump ship to Fell racing. They tend to be really affordable too as its a rare sport that is still run by genuine enthusiasts rather than race organiser businesses.

I agree on all count, but it's not realistic if you live in the South/South East - nearest fell running to me is a 7 hour round trip drive. We just don't have the open terrain needed for fell running here and as you rightly point out, trail running seems to have been hijacked by commercial race promoters rather than clubs who tend to focus on cross country, which while also following UKA rules is much more of a competitive rather than participatory sport.

From now on it should always be referred to as They Run Formerly Known As She Runs.

Just to say SheRaces is not the same as She Runs or She Ultra, it's nothing to do with those organisations.

It's ridiculous though OP I agree

Sorry meant to tag you in - SheRuns is not the same as SheRaces

Not too surprising but very disappointing. I was giving serious thought to signing up for event but haven't been following events too much in last couple of months. Can't see the point of bothering with a 'female only' trail when it won't be. I read that the policy was to be that female born would get placed and anyone outside that category would be unranked, not sure how they phrased it. How on earth would they police that? I enjoy trail running and thought this would be a good way to step up the distance. Had assumed they would cater for dealing with period/ flooding on an event. Last endurance event I went to locked the toilets over night as the supplier cocked up emptying....the urinals were open. I had to bin tampons in the open bins and use wipes ( sorry tmi) so I really wanted my first venture into serious trails be woman orientated.

Thing is nobody will really care and think it's a fuss about nothing. Run faster etc...Share...