What that's got to do with running

By Phoebe B. Jones

Coverage of the National Women's Running Conference in the sports section afforded women runners the dignity of having our sport considered a sport, although fewer women may have been reached as a result. Since sports sections have traditionally ignored women's physical activity, more women turn to the living arts sections for coverage of their interests.

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"What's that got to do with running?” (Forum, May 15) brought the women's running movement and lesbianism out of the back pages of sports and gave full exposure to these previously ignored or hushed issues.

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The National Women's Running Conference was an exploration of the "political" nature of running, what our situations as women have got to do with running. It was the first time that women's sports have been dealt with on that level nationally.

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The overwhelming sentiment that emerged from the weekend was that running has everything to do with the rest of our lives, and the rest of our lives has everything to do with our running.

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Running, for women, is breaking out of the isolation of our homes and the confinements of weak bodies. Women are running out of the house and into the streets, wearing skimpy clothes and sweating, and it's okay because there are so many of us.

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But running is a struggle. The conference participants determined that women's lack of time, space and money posed the greatest barriers to participation in physical activity or achievement in sports. The black women's caucus made it clear that the less money we have, the harder we have to work, the more difficult it is to run, and the harder we have to fight for running opportunities.

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That is precisely why women held a national information-sharing and organizing conference. We have to fight harder to be able to run. And that is precisely why black women and lesbian women had a strong voice in the conference. They have to fight harder than other women to run.

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Indeed, the struggle to have the topic, "Lesbianism and Women's Sports," included in the agenda was long and hard. But what the lesbian women and the visibility of the issue gave the conference, and the women's sports movement in general, made it worthwhile. For the question, “What has lesbianism got to do with running?" was answered at the conference: “The threat of being called lesbian has kept many women from participating in sports and all of us from getting in touch with and developing ourselves physically."

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Heterosexual and lesbian women met at the workshop on "Lesbianism and Women's Sports," one of the best-attended at the conference because it concerned an issue that touches all women, lesbian or straight. They made it clear that women will no longer accept the definition of beauty and sexuality as weakness, or the divisions among us that have kept us from overcoming the obstacles to our participation in sports or our becoming

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The strongest resistance to the workshop did not come from other women. Some women, questioned, "What has that got to do with running? and were answered at the conference. It was the corporations from which we sought funding that were not willing to support a conference, organized and controlled by women runners, that included such topics as Lesbianism and Women's Sports" and "Exploita tion.c ད མ གས ལ མི

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We were pleased with the turnout at the conference though lower than expected. We could not afford advertisements, national promotional efforts or scholarships. Women runners, beginners and Olympians, came from as far away as Los Angeles, Toronto, San Francisco, Boston, New York, Philadelphia and, Des Moines, and the North American Network of Women Runners, including caucuses of lesbian woman, black women, women over 40, and others, was launched.

Phoebe Jones, a Clevelander, was conference coordinator and is executive director of the North American Network of Women Runners.