Is it legal to have women's only half-marathons?

Isn't the marathon essentially a whites only event? I mean smaller marathons, not those that will draw an African contingent.

Look around at any road race and I bet you will see few non-whites (depends on where you categorize Hispanics I guess).

Isn't there a website detailing things white people like?

Because women would like to run a race without jackasses like you hitting on them

gesser wrote:

Indeeeed wrote:

There was a kind of funny article in the NYT about guys who go around winning "women only" races, because I think legally they aren't allowed to restrict men, they just theme it for women(?)

Ha, found it:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704652104575494281497754618.html?KEYWORDS=disney+half+marathon

I mean I get the sentiment...but I don't get the need for a "women's only" race in the first place.

there are lots of women only races, example the tufts 10k in boston.

Yes, but what bothers me is that the NYRR in its team competition series this year is planning to have more races for women than men, with one all women's race (Mini 10k) and no all men's races (usually they include the Father's Day race, which is not in the series this year).

nerp wrote:

I think thats a little bit different situation. I don't think I have ever seen a one-gender track meet.

I've been to a number of men only track meets hosted by colleges.

girls run shorter in college xc... is that fair? they run 5k when we run 5 miles...

that's because women are bad at the metric system.

Really??? wrote:

I don't think i've ever seen a mens' only race.

Fukuoka and Lake Biwa come to mind.

Katherine Switzer runs Boston, in violation of Men-only rules, is seen as hero, builds life long career.

A man running one of these women's only races would be vilified.

And that discrepancy bothers me.

A good example that comes to mind is the Tufts 10K

That "bothers you," does it? I assume you're joking.

I'm bothered by anyone who is bothered by this.

Sure, she was seen as a hero many years ago, when women weren't allowed to compete in "major" races at all. Now women and men both have "major" races in which to run, and they are given fairly equal opportunity to compete in them. Now a man running a non-championship women's race wouldn't be villified - he would just be a bit laughed at, as per the NYTimes article. (And really, I think he would only be laughed at if he was gunning to win the race. ) Similarly, I don't think that a woman who jumped into a men's only race today would be harolded to any great extent.

supply and demand wrote:

I don't think that a woman who jumped into a men's only race today would be harolded to any great extent.

I don't know, I think she would probably be mauded.

In a typical race, unless there is a really fast woman in the field, the top men are racing only against other men. There really is no reason for a men's only race because it would be alot like a typical race. For the women it can make a big difference though because the first women would actually be first and not 12th.

Stevens got your tongue wrote:

supply and demand wrote:

I don't think that a woman who jumped into a men's only race today would be harolded to any great extent.

I don't know, I think she would probably be mauded.

Nicely done. Thanks for the morning laugh.

jjjjjj wrote:

(usually they include the Father's Day race, which is not in the series this year).

Look again. The father's day race is a mens point race this year, again. Women can run that one but no team points for them.

I don't mind women having their own races IF the same rules that apply to men in college apply to women in road racing. It is completely unfair that women have the opportunity to win more prize money at road races than men. If women are going to have women's only events offering prize money that isn't available to men, then obviously the solution should be to mandate a reduction (relative to men) of women's prize money at events that are attended by both genders.

If any gender should be getting more prize money, it should be the men, as their fields are substantially deeper at most races.