More women joining field at Myrtle Beach marathon

When Kathleen Castles of New Providence, N.J., became the first female overall winner in the 14-year history of the Bi-Lo Myrtle Beach Marathon last year, it was a shocking result.

She covered the 26.2-mile course in 2 hours, 40 minutes and 11 seconds, beating her closest male competitor by more than three minutes.

It was quite an accomplishment for Castles, who deemed the win “euphoric.”

Yet it fell in line with a couple of trends regarding the demographics of participants in the marathon weekend’s events, as women and runners from greater distances away from the Grand Strand are entering events in increasing numbers.

“I never even gave it consideration until someone said there’s a woman coming down to the finish line,” marathon executive director Mike Shank said of a female winner. “It’s pretty remarkable and pretty exciting that it happened. But it does follow the trend of how many women are running now that weren’t running a few years ago.”

Of the 7,256 runners entered in the adult runs with online registration complete – 2,200 in the marathon, 4,122 in the half marathon and 934 in the 5-kilometer – 51 percent of them are women.

That’s up from 45 percent in 2004. The percentage of women entering the races has essentially been on the rise since the marathon’s inception in 1998, particularly since the introduction of the half marathon in 2003.

The percentage of female entrants increased to 46 percent in 2006 and 48 percent in 2007 before women became the majority in 2008 at 51 percent, and that percentage has generally remained consistent for the past five years. Women comprise 58 percent of the half marathon field, while men comprise nearly 65 percent of the full marathon field.

More women is the trend nationally, Shank said, “especially with the half marathons. Marathons are typically still male-dominated.”

The influx of women bodes well for running events and other endurance competitions. Shank said USA Triathlon, of which he is a member, is at an all-time high in membership.

“You see it in half marathons. They’re not necessarily going and running 26 miles, but they’re doing 13,” Shank said. “What you’ll probably end up seeing is more women in the future in the marathons as they kind of progress and start doing the full. You can see where they’ve just kind of entered into the running market and gotten up to the half but they haven’t quite gotten up to the fulls yet.”

Eight countries are the most ever represented and are four more than last year, and all 50 states are accounted for. There are 13 participants from Utah, 24 from California, two from Hawaii and one from Alaska, and there are nine states with more than 100 entrants. Canadian participation has increased to 65 runners from 46 in 2011.

North Carolina and South Carolina have generally been equal in participants for the past decade, including last year when they were each around 37 percent of the total. But this year 39 percent of the entrants are from North Carolina and just 30 percent are from the less populated South Carolina.

Shank believes increased promotion on social networking sites including Facebook in the past couple years has helped lead to the increase in participants from greater distances. “We’re almost exclusively an online advertiser now,” Shank said. “That’s been a big change for us. This year we’ve done the most [with social media] and we’re definitely seeing a difference.”

The capacity for the half marathon was increased by 1,000 runners and the marathon was increased by 250, bringing the total capacity for Friday and Saturday’s races to 8,000, which includes a 2,000-runner 5k limit.

Shank believes the race is well-positioned both on the calendar and geographically, particularly this year during a mild winter that contrasts with 2010, when a snow storm led to the cancellation of the race.

“We’ve had mild temperatures, there aren’t many other races this time of year, we’re a qualifier for Boston, and having a flat fast course has certainly helped,” Shank said. “We got a lot of exposure last year over a woman running the race.

“It’s taken a little time but coming back from [the cancellation] two years ago we have to feel very positive about where we’ve ended up this year. It’s been pretty impressive to see.”