OK, quick. Answer the following question without reaching for your phone or any other access to the Internet: Who is Ann Trason?
Still sipping your coffee without cheating? OK, good. Assuming you “answered” the previous question with an “I dunno” shrug, here’s another question: Why should you know who Ann Trason is?
Another shrug …
Go ahead and look it up now. Or just keep reading. Or both! Or, even better -- after you are done reading this post (and telling a friend to subscribe to this Substack!): Check out this link from a reprinted article from September 1989.
Ann Trason is an ultra-running legend. Ann Trason is a running pioneer. And finally, at the risk of starting another heated debate among loyal Substackers, I will posit the following claim: In her prime, Ann Trason was perhaps the greatest endurance athlete who ever lived.
It’s important to note that I’ve never met Ann Trason, although that possibility certainly could have existed more than 30 years ago – when I was just getting into ultra-distance races, and she was the dominant figure in the then-fringe sport. I was in awe of her feats at the time; I marveled at her results in Ultrarunning magazine, a periodical that I eagerly awaited receiving in the mail each month.
And, to this day, I still find that she has largely gone unnoticed in the “modern era” of one-up-man-ship that exists in the very popular ultra endurance community of the present day – fueled by the omnipresence of social media.
OK, so what’s the big deal? Ann Trason was among the best in quirky races that featured a few dozen diehards, or mabye a few more than that at the bigger events. Here’s why her legacy matters: In some of her best races, including the 1989 National Championship at the 24-hour distance, Ann Trason was, indeed, the best of them all.
Best. As in, women AND men. She was national champion. Not “women’s national champion.” She finished ahead of all the MEN, too!
Look, gender inequities still exist. But, things are a lot different in 2024 than they were in 1989, when Trason beat all the best men (and women) in the United States. Nowadays, statistically, more women complete long-distance races than men. Women get as many, if not more, headlines about endurance achievements as do men.
But back in 1989? Only a small fraction of race participants were women.
Trason’s achievement was monumental, historic, all of it. Finally, people wrote, the gender gap has been narrowed to zero. Finally, a sport where women and men exist on an equal, level playing field!
From the aforementioned/linked article by Nathan Whiting: “Her statement was only beginning. We assume male athletes beat females. Women are told they are weaker. Don’t compete. America’s salary structure and other institutions depend on this belief. Imagine a woman hitting 50 home runs in the major leagues or gaining 100 yards to lead an NFL team to a big win. This the order of Ann Trason’s achievement.”
Less than a generation after Kathrine Switzer was humiliated, physically assailed on the road, for having the temerity of running the Boston Marathon “as a woman,” Ann Trason laid waste to gender inequality. Switzer, a well-established and well-deserved icon and legend in our sport, proved her point – paving the way for millions of women since that shameful episode long ago.
In her small, under-the-radar way, in a mostly solitary pursuit through the day and the night, so did Ann Trason. And now, you know!
She was one of my running heroes when I first started out in the sport. Not really for her talent, but for her humility and passion.
I knew this one. I remember watching a rare ultra marathon program theorizing if women were better than men at ultras because of Ann's results.