What women think about when they think about running

Running through a city as a woman is at least uncomfortable, and at worst fatal. Architect and activist Sarah Ackland is determined to talk about Taking Space

When I write about women in running, I’d love to be writing about a world record, or a first time finishing a distance, or a new community leader, but the last two times, a female runner has been murdered the week of publishing. Alyssa Lokits did everything right on October 14 – she ran on a busy trail in broad daylight and screamed for help – but her attacker could not be stopped. It’s miserable.

What can we do? We can think big picture and change the structure of the people in control of our built environment – the people who decide what the world we live in looks like – but that’s a complex mechanism that takes generations of activism, education, and voting. What I have immediately available to me, is raising awareness of this awful issue.

Both of these things require available research and data to be effective. That’s where the work of Sarah Ackland comes in. Underpinned by her research as an architect, Sarah actively organizes…