Women-Friendly Practices
We care deeply about increasing the participation of women athletes in our running events. Starting from 2025, we commit to meeting the SheRACES standards at Eker I Run. In line with this goal, we have completed our SheRACES women-friendly race accreditation. You can explore inspiring SheRACES details at the bottom of this page.
We want more women to run. More importantly, we aim to offer an experience where women feel safer and can focus fully on the joy of running.
Every year, we ask ourselves, “How can more women take part in running?” and turn our ideas into action. Thanks to these efforts — along with the overall positive trend in Türkiye — the percentage of female participants in our races continues to rise. The chart below shows this growth specifically for Eker I Run:
SheRACES is an organization working to create a more equal and inclusive experience for women in the running world. It was founded in 2022 by British ultra-marathon world-record holder Sophie Power. Research shows that women face specific barriers, especially in long-distance and ultra races. SheRACES supports race organizers by providing guidance, developing gender-equality policies, and encouraging higher participation of women athletes.
What Does SheRACES Do?
Provides SheRACES Guidelines to increase women’s participation in races.
Makes races more women-friendly through practices such as pregnancy deferral policies, providing hygiene products, and ensuring equal prizes.
Increases the visibility of women athletes in media and events.
Raises awareness around women’s safety, training processes, and psychological support.
SheRACES works not only to bring more women to the starting line, but also to ensure they are represented in the way they deserve.
In this direction, starting from 2025, we are focusing our efforts at Eker I Run to achieve two key objectives:
To steadily achieve a 50% female – 50% male participant ratio.
To particularly encourage women to take part in longer distances, helping them get acquainted with marathons and increasing their representation in these categories.
These goals aim not only to include women in sport, but also to empower them as role models who inspire other women.
Join this transformation — let’s run together and take stronger steps forward!
What are we doing to reach these goals:
We take care to avoid using gender-biased language when defining the race or its courses.
We ensure that our visual content reflects diversity across all genders, ages, and experience levels, and makes everyone feel welcome.
We do not and will never portray races as unnecessarily extreme or use intimidating terminology. We know that completing these distances and events is already a significant achievement.
We produce separate-fit t-shirts for women and men.
We carefully set cut-off times on all courses to ensure that runners of all ages and performance levels can complete the race.
At venues with multiple toilet units, we ensure there are separate women’s cabins.
We provide separate changing areas for women and men at the start and finish areas.
We treat all reports of unacceptable behavior, abusive language, and harassment with utmost seriousness and take immediate action.
Starting from 2025, we will have female hygiene products available at aid stations when needed.
Starting from 2025, we believe women planning a pregnancy should feel comfortable registering for our events. If they receive good news before the race, they won’t be disadvantaged — their registration can be deferred for up to 2 years.
How can runners support these goals?
Sharing the unifying and empowering spirit of sport is invaluable. Sometimes, a small encouragement is all that’s needed to take the first step. All long-distance runners — women and men alike — can motivate the women around them to train regularly and prepare for races, and inspire women who already race to attempt longer distances.
We aim to see more women in long-distance running. Training for long distances requires adopting running as a lifestyle. With consistent weekly training, both body and mind adapt, enabling a healthy and sustainable sports life for many years.
We are always open to your suggestions — feel free to guide us by writing to yaris@maceraakademisi.com.
For more information about SheRACES, please visit https://www.sheraces.com/ .