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

Authors: Andrea N. Eagleman

Addresses: School of Sport & Exercise, Massey University, Private Bag 11222, Palmerston North 4442, New Zealand

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.

Keywords: runner attitudes; motivation; commitment; demographics; women-only races; niche sports; distance running; road races; female participants; gender; sport marketing; sport management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSMM.2013.059724

International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 2013 Vol.13 No.3/4, pp.200 - 217

Received: 20 Dec 2012
Accepted: 05 Nov 2013
Published online: 29 Apr 2014 *

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