I can still remember the early charge down Academy Street. Running nearly flat out, with no idea how fast or how far we were going. And loving every second of it.
It’s strange to think one of my earliest running memories isn’t on the track or cross-country, but the Echo Women’s Mini Marathon in Cork. I was only 14 when a few of us from Ballymore Cobh AC signed up to run, purely for the fun and adventure of it all.
It was September 1984, and the event had already been running for two years, starting on Academy Street in Cork city centre, the former home of the Echo and Irish Examiner, the first race sponsors. The Women’s Mini Marathon had also just started up in Dublin, and these were among the first dedicated women’s sporting events in this country.
Both these 10km races drew some inspiration from the first women’s mini marathon in New York in 1972, which apparently was named after the miniskirt to reflect women’s liberation. And some people still believed women could not run the full marathon distance.
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I had run a few cross-country races before that, but not a lot, and my first Irish championships was under-16 the following summer. But there was no sense or fear this thing might be too long, and some of the girls running with me that day were even younger than me.
This approach is a lot more common now, women travelling to a running event together. For us, it was just coming up on the train from Cobh, that was still a big day out for us at the time. None of our parents would have come. There was someone from the club there, but we were more or less on our own.
We were just back to school, and it was the perfect adventure for young girls and women at Ballymore Cobh.
I remember we’d all gathered to do some warm-up exercises, down a laneway off Academy Street, then quickly lined up before the starting gun was fired, and everyone sprinted off like we were crazy, into Patrick Street, and then out into Washington Street.
So this introduction to running was for me much more of a social thing, way more than anything competitive. Even my first few cross-country and track races were more of a social thing, and the mini marathon was just an extension of that. I still have the clipping at home somewhere, and I finished ninth, in 35:52, which also seems a bit mad when I think about it now.
But we weren’t afraid of the distance. We just wanted to be a part of the biggest event in town, lining up with so many like-minded women, challenging themselves to run 10km around the streets of Cork, with the chance to get our photo and name in the paper the next day.
This was also a time when very few people, and particularly women, were seen out running. There were always a few, but you knew them all by name, the routes they ran, and most people probably raised their eyes and shook their heads wondering what this running lark was all about.
I was reminded of all this, and of how far women’s running has come in the over 40 years since, when arriving in Nagoya this week, for the 2026 Women’s Marathon. About a two-hour train ride southwest of Tokyo, the Nagoya Women’s Marathon is now the largest all-women’s marathon in the world, with close to 20,000 women expected to take part this Sunday.
It’s also staged as part of International Women’s Day, another reminder of the important role that any sporting event can play in women’s lives, as well as being a celebration of all that.
The Women’s Mini Marathon in Dublin, set again for the June bank holiday weekend, is now the biggest all-women’s event of its kind in the world, with close to 30,000 set to take part again this year.
International Women’s Day has also grown into International Women’s Sport Week, and these women’s sporting events are constantly growing. I was doing a parkrun in Melbourne a few weeks ago, and one of the women called my name as we ran past. I later got a message, she was Irish, and she wanted to meet for a coffee.
So we met the day after, and she’d just started a new running club in Melbourne, with lots of other Irish women. It was mostly a social outlet, but also with all the benefits of exercise, and getting outdoors.
Which is also why I think back on the Echo Women’s Mini Marathon with such fond memories. I always have a special place in my heart for women-only races, because they were just a little bit different. The energy was always there, but on a different level, like we were all in this together. And even though most of us probably didn’t realise it at the time, we were the start of something new and exciting.
It’s become safer for women to meet and run in groups, and so there are all levels of running groups popping up for the smallest of reasons. And its more about the adventures and working together for a common goal that sets them apart.
Within these social running groups, there will always be a few very talented runners in there. To make that breakthrough out of the social part, you do have to be a little bit different, start focusing a bit more on the running. Ava Crean also took to marathon running last year purely for the enjoyment of it, and she’s already the Irish women’s marathon champion, at age 19.
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No matter how early I go running in the morning, it always amazes me to see so many runners already out before me. And that’s all over the world. I’ve never seen so many people out running, and it is primarily women, and they’re also driving up the marathon running interest all over the world.
In those early years, I don’t think anyone realised the true mental health benefits from running. You meet different people who join different running or sporting groups now, and word spreads fast, because they soon realise those health benefits. Many of those will be running for the exact same reasons as I was in Cork all those years ago.
