Attitudes, motivation, and commitment of runners who do and do not participate in women-only road races

Abstract

Women-only road races are a recent trend in the niche sport of distance running in the USA, as there are currently over 200 women-only races taking place each year (Robbins, 2011). To date, no known research has explored the concept of women-only road races. Because of the growing popularity of these races, the purpose of this study is to understand runners' attitudes towards women-only races and to determine whether differences in motivation or commitment existed between those runners who have participated in such races and those who have not. Results indicated very few differences between the two groups in terms of demographics, motivation, and commitment, though the results of qualitative open-ended response questions revealed both marked similarities and differences between the two groups regarding their attitudes towards and perceptions of women-only races. Implications for race directors and marketers are included in the discussion section.