Lake District Sky Trails take the commitment to improving standards for women racing in our events.
Before SheRaces was developed, we took a keen interest in talking to our female competitors and learning how we could make it better for their participation. Friends like Sophie Grant helped in shaping how we texted the website and improved our imagery to make everyone feel a part of our races, not just taking part, but being able to be seen and not just focusing on the men.
We'll be honest, Skyraces are technical things and are extreme at times and whilst we try to word as much as we can appropriately, there is no getting away from the fact that our races in places are pretty damn extreme in places.
Below you will find our commitment to making sure women feel as welcome as men, no matter on either side of the fence [female/male] with regards to race, creed and/or skin colour, everyone is treated the same, whether female or male, but of course we understand the differences with both genders and try our best to appropriate our races to all.
SheRace race policy and commitment:
- Equal space is given at the start line to both female and male athletes
- Equal photography, whether in the main field of racing or at the elite end, is given to all
- Our cut-offs are designed primarily for the safety of all runners, but we have taken into account both female and male runners in our timings to ensure as many participants will make it through the cut-offs, without jeopardising the safety of our participants, race marshals and our race safety team
- Deferral for female participants with regards to pregnancy and/or post birth
- Any female participant who becomes pregnant between entering the race and the start date of that race is welcome to a deferral to a subsequent year which is suitable for them. Please note after 3 years, this deferral will no longer continue. There may be a charge for this deferral, inline with our standard deferral policy
- Elite entries for female participants - If you feel you are an elite female participant and are looking to gain an elite entry, as per our standard elite entry perimeters, we will take into account child birth and subsequent years of up to 3 years post child birth. Please contact the race organisation to discuss.
- Loos and changing facilities
- Where possible, taking our events centre's into account, we offer separate changing facilities for both female and male participants.
- Both our events centres offer separate loo/toilet facilities for both female and male participants, taking female monthly cycles into account with sanitary products supplied.
- T-shirts and Sundries
- All tee-shirts, hoodies and other clothing sundries are ordered for both female and male body shapes, not using unisex as a clothing cut.
- All race related clothing is never given away, as we do not agree with gifting a tee-shirt to all participants, they are bespoke designs for participants to purchase, should they feel they would like to purchase to embellish their race and post race experience.
- Breastfeeding
- If your breastfeeding equipment [pump/chair/etc] are needed at one of our aid/feed stations on route, please drop us and email and we will do our best to facilitate
- Prize Money
- We have always, since the conception of our races in 2015, offered equal prize money and never saw any reason not to.
We hope you find the above statement and policy acceptable to your needs and we very much hope to welcome you to one of our awesome races, be it vertical, trail, sky or sky ultra, no matter what ethnicity, gender or social standing you are or find yourself in.
We have prided ourselves since 2015 for being 100% inclusive.
