Interview with Jackie Gallagher:  How Can We Get Female Distance Runners To Achieve Their Potential At The Senior Level?

 As a writer, you sometimes wonder if people read what you write.  So it was heartening toread the comments to the article "Commonwealth Games:  Where Are Our Elite Females?" (http://www.runnerstribe.com/article/post/show/id/784-Commonwealth-Games-Where-Are-Our-Elite-Females-), which confirmed there are others who care about the subject of promoting the women in our sport.

I loved the suggestion of keeping the forum going, and have decided to go to the experts - elite women who understand running, know what they wish that they could have done differently, and are willing to pass this information on in the hope of helping others. I decided to start with a two-time world title-winning triathlete and 2002 Commonwealth games marathon bronze medallist Jackie Fairweather(nee Gallagher).

Fairweather is a former head coach of the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) Triathlon program, and now a Senior Sports Consultant for the Australian Sports Commission, specialising in high performance.  That might be her day job, but she is still a competitive runner, winning the Commonwealth 100km Championships last September in 7:41:23, and is currently in marathon training for the upcoming M7 Marathon. She is passionate about supporting both men and women in the sport, and has great insights into what does and doesn't work.

RT:  Why do you think that we have so few elite female distance runners in Australia now?

JF:  I don’t actually think the number/depth of elite female distance runners has changed that much. In the 28 years I have been around I think the quantity and relative standard of the top level of female runners has varied from year to year but on average stayed about the same. It also depends on what you call “elite”. Again we only ever have 1-3 women who are truly competitive at a world level at any one time and I think that is the same now with Lisa Weightman getting up there, Benita Johnson on her way back into some form and similar for Eloise Wellings. There are a few others knocking on the door but yet to establish themselves. One thing I will say is that Australia is notorious, over many years, for having exceptional junior female distance runners who never realise their potential at senior level.



RT:   What do you think that we can do to promote more elite female distance runners in Australia?

JG:      Promoting more distance females... hummm. Apart from promoting the sport of athletics in general (in schools, in the transition from Little A’s to seniors, from Fun Running to Athletics, and promoting/publicising the talent and personalities we have), I think we need a much more supportive and collegiate environment in order to nurture more good female runners along. We need to support them and keep them healthy. Our biggest problem is, and has been for as long as I have been around, keeping them healthy enough to get some consistent running happening (over many years). In my opinion very few of our good distance females achieve their potential because they only last a couple of years before injury, illness and/or burnout hampers or stops their progress in the sport. This is not an easy problem to fix, but I wonder if we have put enough collective thought and energy into it...

RT:  There seems to be much more depth in elite female triathlon participants in Australia.  Why do you think this is?

JG:     I don’t think there is more depth in Triathlon. In fact I think there is less, however Australia’s top female Triathletes are among the best in the world. There is arguably not the same depth in the sport of Triathlon internationally as in distance running, but our girls are and have been consistently competitive and even world beating for 20 years! In Triathlon success has bread success – Michellie Jones showed the rest of us what was possible, but every one of Australia’s female Triathlon world champions (8 Aust women have won 12 world titles) have been bloody tough, hard working, ‘can do’, confident, trail blazers. In saying that, Triathlon is far from perfect – our conversion rate from Junior worlds representative to elite rep is pretty poor. Triathlon has not done a good job on managing what I call the ‘obligatory shit’ for females between about 17/18 and 22/23 (i.e. injury, weight gain and confidence issues). There is a lot of pressure on young Triathletes – it is a bit all or nothing, make it or not. But I think there are a few differences between the female Triathletes and runners:


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• Firstly I think triathlon allows for the obsessive attitude to training which is also common to runners, but because of the three disciplines there is perhaps less likelihood of overdoing it in one discipline (only so much time and energy!), but even more importantly you have to be strong to be a good Triathlete – they are not as frail and have to be more ‘balanced’ in order to be of the standard required across all three disciplines. As an example of this point... there have been a few 32min (+/- 30sec) 10k runners who have gone to triathlon with varying success, but I don’t believe it is possible for a female Triathlete to be able to run better than about 32min because in order to do so you must do too much running volume and be too light to be strong and have the energy for the swim and bike. So as a result successful female Triathletes don’t run too much and are not too light! For this reason I believe men with running backgrounds can transition better to triathlon than women – because they can be pretty light but still be strong. The women who had run backgrounds and did well in Tri were all ‘strong’ running women (myself, Emma Carney, Rina Hill) and didn’t need to be super light to run well off the bike, and didn’t need big volume to be in 32:30 shape.

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• One of the other big differences between Triathletes and runners is that triathlon is more collegiate and supportive. Women Triathletes train together more because the ‘pecking order’ is less of an issue because everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. In my experience and observation it is hard to get women in individual sports to train together because they get too stressed and (bitchy) because they can’t handle the competitiveness. Women need to feel accepted and need to get confidence from their environment. Head to head competitive environments are counter to this need. It is easier to get this in Triathlon because people have different strengths and weaknesses across the three disciplines so I think women feel more valued within the group for their individual strengths and the competitiveness is less direct. In distance running it is often easier and more comfortable for women to train on their own. Men don’t have the same problem because their pecking order is not quite so distinct and they have the egos and confidence to handle being beaten in training.  Plus I think that Triathlon by its nature has a lot more group training and therefore is a more supportive environment for women – they may not run together a lot, but at least in triathlon swimming and cycling is usually done in groups. Women need social support and connectedness (lots of studies of sport have shown this) and I don’t think there is enough of it in distance running in Australia. It is too easy for running women to isolate themselves.

• I don’t think there is a culture of supporting each other enough in women’s distance running. The Australian female Triathletes are certainly competitive against each other, but they have always gotten together in squads and camps and there is a much stronger sense of supporting each other and sharing hopes, fears, experiences etc – and younger girls get exposure to the older more experienced females. There is not nearly enough of that in Australian distance running. Also in Triathlon the men support the women a lot and vice versa. There is just a lot more mutual support and respect.
  In saying that, we now have a fabulous little squad of females in Canberra that is very supportive of each other. Dick Telford coaches the squad and I am part of it but also ‘assistant coach’ and a mentor for the girls – but the girls support and look after me just as much (or more!) as I do for them. It is the first time I have ever been part of such a positive squad of running girls (no bitchiness and everyone supportive of each other) and it is awesome. And the girls are healthy, happy, connected/social and improving gradually but steadily.
• Dare I say it, but I think the Triathlon coaches in general understand the female athletes better. There are several coaches who are just very good with female athletes. I think it is too easy for distance running coaches to give female athletes too much work too soon, not listen to them enough and push them to breaking point too often (and too young). Women will do the work until they break, feeling like they are weak if they complain or can’t keep up. By nature of the sport Triathlon coaches have to tailor the training to each individual, but I think there is too much of a blanket squad mentality in distance running – everyone has to do the same and if you don’t keep up you are not good enough. The biggest problem with this is what it does to the self-esteem of female runners... my heart breaks every time I hear about female runners who just feel so bad about themselves because they can’t keep up (in individual sessions and backing up for session after session) and feel pressure from their coaches to do so. It just happens way too often. In Triathlon there is much more of an awareness that everyone is different and some people can handle more, some less etc. 
  Also in Triathlon there is much more acceptance that sometimes people are tired and just can’t nail every session – coaches are much more attuned to picking up when an athlete needs rest and recovery time. I think the distance running mentality is too rigid – you have to get through three quality session and x amount of work or you are weak/soft/fail etc. Women are so hard on themselves and even if the coach is attuned to the fact that some people can’t do as much, female distance runners have taken on and internalised these unwritten rules of what training consists of week in week out. In my coaching, my biggest task is to give people (sometimes males too) permission to be tired, have a day off, vary from the “have to” mentality of the weekly training cycle. Females (endurance athletes) are hard on themselves and obsessive – this is not managed at all well in distance running.
  For many of the reasons above, female Triathletes are healthier than female distance runners. They have to look after themselves in order to be competitive in the sport. Distance runners can get away with not looking after themselves for a period of time – and too often by the time it catches up with them it is too late. Plus I think the Triathlon women have much better role models and culture around self-management which includes eating well, recovery strategies, body maintenance (massages etc), etc.

In saying all of this, I think Australian swimming is probably the sport that supports female individual athletes within a very competitive, but team supported environment. Swimming Australia puts a lot of thought and work into how they support and manage female athletes in order to get the most out of them.



RT:  Is there anything that you wish you had done differently in your athletic career, and/or advice that you would pass on to aspiring female distance runners?

JG: Anything I would have done differently? Hell yes! ..and no... I am/was an obsessive female endurance athlete! I have overtrained myself into the ground (ruining my Sydney Olympic dream), and have at times not had enough confidence in myself. I have also had my eating issues/struggles over the years. I have made a lot of mistakes, but I think the fact that I have always tried to learn from them has made me a better athlete and person. It took me far too long to learn that me as a person was more important than my performances! All my experiences and lessons learned have given me better insight and empathy and enabled me to help, guide and support some other females (and males). Hopefully I can continue to do this. Big advice – seek support and assistance from others. Don’t try to do it all on your own. But get the support from others who listen to you and accept and treat you as the individual that you are – and who are positive for you.
I guess what I did well, looking back at my history, is that I built up steadily over many years. The first 10 years of my running life (pre-Tri and from age 14-23) I only ran 50k/wk, but with good quality. This set me up well to increase my training (but with a good background and very good base speed) as a Triathlete. When I finished Triathlon I had a very good endurance base from which to go to marathons. I think I would have better run PBs if I had met Dick earlier and spent my Tri years running, but I don’t regret my Tri career and give full credit to my coach Brett Sutton, who believed in me like no one else (and certainly a lot more than I believed in myself!) and showed me what was possible. I know I would not have achieved what I did without him.

RT:  To what extent do you think that 'eating issues' are affecting our female distance runners?

JG:  Eating issues... not talked about nearly enough and not nearly enough support or understanding. I have seen SO MANY running careers cut short because of eating issues in distance females.   I’m not sure of the solution to this one, but I think it comes back to better managing and supporting women being obsessive and hard on themselves, and also finding a way to create a more supportive, connected environment around our female runners. Women need to support each other. This issue is not absent in Triathlon, but it is much much less of an issue...

RT:  Anything else that stands out for you and suggestions for the sport?

JG:  I will repeat the highlighted bit above: Females are obsessive and hard on themselves and this is not managed at all well in distance running – by coaches, by other female distance runners, by the system...