In most events in general, the longer the distance the race is then the number of women taking part is smaller. For example in a 5k race, the number of women may sometimes be just ahead of men while for the marathon distance, the number of men is usually much higher.
The graph below shows the very strong growth in the number of women taking part in the Dungarvan 10 mile road race...
Between 2010 and 2014, the percentage of women has gone from 28.5% to 40.9%. If the numbers were to continue to grow at that rate then parity would be reached around 2018.
The increasing number of women obviously has implications for the organisers. For example, women are generally smaller than men so the number of smaller dry-fit tops should be changing to change this. Looking at the comments left for the race then it would seem as if there is a higher number of large sizes at present.
Another important aspect is of course the prize structure. For most races, the percentage of the total prize fund allocated to women should at least match the percentage of women that make up the total field of runners.
For the 2014 race, 40.4% of the total prize fund was allocated to women which is slightly behind the 40.9% that turned up. Last year, women made up 38.2% of the field.
If the numbers of women continues to grow...and the strong growth as shown by the graph suggest that it might...then more prizes should be allocated to women. Perhaps adding in prizes for the top 8 instead of top 6 women might do the trick? This would bring the womens prize fund from 40.4% up to 42.6% which should cover any increase in numbers in 2015.
As to why there are more women running in 2014 as compared to 2010???
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