POWER
RON LARIVIERE
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irsten Fleming was at a Running USA conference two years ago when it first occurred to her. The executive director of the Scotiabank Calgary Marathon was attending an all-female panel when the moderators asked every race director in the room to stand up. The moderators then asked participants to sit down if their team was composed of less than 20 per cent women. Then 50 per cent. And so on. The point of the exercise was to highlight how men still dominate the industry. But Fleming noticed something intriguing when it was over. “I looked around the room and it was actually Canadian race directors that were still standing,” she says. The country is flush with female race directors and women in top race leadership positions. Ladies run the show or help to do so at several major road races across the country, from Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, and Saskatoon to Toronto, Hamilton and rural Nova Scotia. Fleming’s team has five women and one man. “I have never known anything else besides my female team,” says Fleming. But it wasn’t always this way. When Cory Freedman directed her first race for the YMCA in 1989, there were few other women in her position. “At the beginning there were so few of us we became fast friends with each other,” the 52-year-old says. The longtime triathlete and runner now has her own event management company called MAX VO2, which puts on the Toronto Women’s Run Series and the Sporting Life 10K. “Over the years what I’ve seen is that more and more women are the race directors as the sport continues to grow,” she says. In 2005, Mary Wittenberg made history as the first female director of a major international marathon when she was named president and chief executive of the New York Road Runners. Even three years later, when Susan Marsh started working in the industry, the marketing director at Run Ottawa still wasn’t aware of a lot of other women in positions like hers. And the 48-year-old, who has a background in competitive sports, wants to see more. “Running stats prove that women are leading the charge, so it would be great to have more women in leadership roles, it could make a difference.” The trend follows the huge influx of women in running over the past couple of decades, but Freedman also thinks it has to do with how races have changed. Organizing one used to be simpler. You blocked off a road, added pylons and printed out some shirts. Men traditionally took on these logistics-heavy jobs. But a race is now an experience. Handling one also includes marketing, fundraising, enrolling volunteers, bringing on sponsors, juggling staff, general relationship-building — all skills that Freedman thinks women possess in spades. “I think as the business has expanded, the roles and the expertise
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To serve and protect: Anna Lewis is the new race director of the 123-year-old Around the Bay Road Race in Hamilton.
THESE WOMEN ARE ALREADY AT THE TOP OF THEIR GAME.
needed to lead the races has grown, and a lot of the time, it’s the women who are doing all of that.” Freedman says many of these women cut their teeth in fundraising, marketing and event planning and have the right kinds of skills. “I also feel that women understand and appreciate the various reasons why someone wants to participate in a race, volunteer, fundraise or sponsor a race.” Anna Lewis is one. The new director of the 123-year-old Around the Bay in Hamilton took over from Mike Zajczenko last year after he’d run the show for nearly 20 years. She previously worked as the director of special events and community partnerships at the St. Joseph’s Healthcare Foundation, which is the race’s charity partner. The 42-year-old had worked closely with the race organizers for more than a decade and started running because of Around the Bay. “So it was a really good fit because I shared the same goals and vision,” she says. Michelle Kempton, who organizes the Maritime Race Weekend, thinks many of the women in these positions are well-suited to such a demanding gig because they were already working their butts off in previous careers. “These women are already at the top of their game,” she says. Kempton, 43, created her pirate-themed
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