Grasmere Sports Highlights 40 Years of Women’s Equality in Iconic Fell Race

The 2024 Senior Guides race at Grasmere Lakeland Sports and Show will this year mark the 40th year of women’s participation in the iconic fell race, at an event that has been running since the mid 19th century.

The first time women were allowed to tackle the tough 294-metre ascent up Butter Crag, and the rather fast descent back down, was in 1984, when the winner was Lord Lonsdale’s daughter, Caroline Lowther.  That was the first year in which women not only showed their capacity to tackle the gradient but also all the obstacles, such as wall, boulders, rocks, bracken and fence, enroute to the finish line.

Prior to that, this traditional Cumbrian countryside hill race had been the domain of only the men.  In the 1890s, the star was Tom Conchie. By the 1950s, Bill Teasdale was dominating the blue ribbon event in the fell running programme at Grasmere.  After that era came one in which Fred Reeves and Tommy Sedgwick battled it out and shared the spoils between them in the years 1969 to 1979, in what became a compelling personal contest to behold.

But this was also the time in which women’s sporting heroes, such as Billy Jean King in the world of tennis, began to campaign for equality in sport, even staging a Battle of the Sexes tennis match to highlight how women’s sporting prowess should be taken seriously.  By 1984, it was time to grant women their wish to compete on equal terms.

Over the past 40 years, there have been many women recording times better than male competitors and their participation has made the race far more exciting for all spectators.  The Senior Guides race now follows the format of all other races, in which both boys and girls aged under 17 compete against each other in various age categories.

The current women’s record in the Senior Guides race is held by Victoria Wilkinson and was set in 2017.  It stands at 15 minutes and 5 seconds and has so far eluded any other woman competitor.  So too has the men’s record, set by Fred Reeves way back in 1978 and standing at 12 minutes and 21 seconds.

Current Senior Guides race title holder for the women’s event, 18-year-old Charlotte Rawstron, only graduated from the under-17s last year and achieved a time of 16 minutes and three seconds in her first ever Senior Guides race.  She came home as the first woman, in 26th place overall, in which 157 finished. She has just recorded a podcast that talks about her athletics career to date and was surprised to learn that women have only been able to compete in this race for 40 years.

Charlotte says: “There's not that much of a gap between the front of us and the front of the men's race now. And to hear that women have only been able to do it for the past 40 years is amazing.”

As the 40th anniversary of the race approaches, Charlotte, who has competed for England internationally, at a youth level and who runs for Skyrac in Yorkshire, will be training hard as usual but believes it would take a near perfect performance to beat Victoria Wilkinson’s record.  

She also feels the weather conditions would need to be favourable.  At this relatively early stage in her running career, she does not feel she could be scooping the £500 available to the person who could set a new women’s record (with the same prize also available in the men’s race) but it is something she could perhaps work towards in future years.

As she says, the race is always a bit of an unknown quantity, as absolutely anyone can enter it and entry can be on the day, up to 15 minutes before the race.  Any woman, from anywhere in the country or world, now has the opportunity to make their mark in a race that was not available for entry before 1984.  Any woman could be lifting the lovely Wakefield Rose Bowl trophy with its lion head adornments, with this trophy having been donated by the Wakefield family – one with a rich sporting heritage and whose members included Lord Wakefield, a renowned Rugby Union international and captain of England.

Anyone wondering what goes into this race, on the part of those keen to take the title, can listen to Charlotte’s explanation of her training regime and commitment to athletics, by listening to the podcast at https://bit.ly/3WBAWD1

Notably, Charlotte says that Tommy Sedgwick – one of the iconic male fell runners who did not compete against women in his day – has been one of her main inspirations, having encouraged her running since she was a young teenager and always stopping to have a word with her.

Tommy is the Bellman at Grasmere Lakeland Sports and Show, so sure to be able to track her progress this year, before he officially closes the show shortly after the big race.  Whether it is Charlotte over the line first, or another fine female athlete, the important thing is that women are competing on a level playing field now, despite that being on a rather steep and unforgiving fell, on which, as Charlotte says, there is no let-up when ascending and little chance of ‘braking’ when descending.

Watch the Senior Guides race for yourself at Grasmere Lakeland Sports and Show, on Sunday August 25, and understand what it means to be a part of the spectacle and fitting conclusion to a wonderful, traditional countryside day out, appreciated by competitors and non-competing families alike.  Buy tickets at www.grasmeresports.com

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Editors notes

Grasmere Lakeland Sports and Show is an iconic event taking place in the heart of the English Lake District on the August Bank Holiday weekend. Its long historic roots date back to 1868 and it is renowned for its fell running, hound trails and Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling competitions, as well as being a fantastic family day out.