Rulebreakers and Ghost Runners

Author: Katie Holmes

United Kingdom, Great Britain | c 1960 to c 1970 | c 1970 to c 1980 | c 1980 to c 1990 | Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000 | Social & cultural history | Gender studies: women | Pressure groups & lobbying | History of sport | Marathon & cross-country running

Published on 13^th August 2026 by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (Bloomsbury Sport) in the United Kingdom.

Hardback | 288 pages
234mm x 153mm | 0g

The incredible untold stories of the British women who broke the rules and pioneered female running todayDid you know that until April 1975 women in the UK were banned from marathons and all races longer than four miles? Back in the 1960s, women started to break the rules and ‘crash’ men’s road races, challenging discrimination and showing that they were perfectly capable of running marathons – or even further. Sports historian Katie Holmes shares the untold stories of these female pioneers. From the early days of organised athletics in the 1920s, to the social change, feminism and jogging craze of the 1970s and the marathon boom of the early 1980s, these inspirational women broke the rules, broke records and broke barriers.

There’s Violet Piercy who ran in a men’s marathon in 1936, decades before it was allowed; Scottish athlete Dale Greig who ignored the rules to compete in the 1964 Isle of Wight marathon; and ‘Queen of the Roads’ Leslie Watson who successfully challenged the exclusion of women from Britain’s most famous ultramarathon.

This is a fascinating, inspiring account of how British women asserted their right to run long distance and changed the landscape of running for good.