Athletes in England are coming together to tackle what they see as gender inequality in cross country running. Although men and women usually run the same distances on the track and in road races, women’s races are often much shorter at cross country events, sometimes barely more than half of the men’s distance. A petition calling for the distances to be equalised has gathered over 1,600 signatures and that number is rising rapidly.

Case also started running to raise money to support a local women’s shelter. But the women didn’t want money; they wanted to run with her. A year later, she launched Free to Run, and in 2015, one of their members became the first female Afghan to run the Marathon of Afghanistan. The following year, the nonprofit sent a team from Afghanistan to RacingThePlanet in Sri Lanka.

Flanagan’s leadership style doesn’t fit the “girl boss” leadership archetypes that are flourishing in pop culture, the Ivanka Trump feminism, with its shallow claims of support for women, that yields no results. (Ms. Trump’s kind of feminism may attract cheers at races, but it does not win them.) Flanagan does not just talk about elevating women; she elevates them. And they win.

In three years, the group has expanded from a handful of women and girls to more than 100 today, and operates in three provinces, relying almost solely on donations from the running community outside of Afghanistan. "You can see the transformation even from the first run or the first hike,” Case says. “We see them get a lot more confidence, become a lot more outgoing and make plans for the future."

Could the six women who sat have imagined the revolution to come? “Never,” Muhrcke said. The 77-year-old is still running, and has an upcoming 15K race in New York. “I think for some men, the first time they were beaten by a woman, it came as a little surprise,” she said. “But they adjusted to it.”

The Erbil International Marathon was founded in 2011, defying outsiders' ideas about women's freedoms and running as a leisure activity in the region. The event has taken place every year since apart from in 2014, when advancing ISIS forces had taken positions just an hour away from the capital of northern Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region.

Switzer was named one of five running visionaries of the 20th century by Runners World. In 2011, she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame. A champion for female runners and athletes and women’s rights around the world, her lobbying and legwork, along with Kuscsik, led to the inaugural women’s Olympic Marathon in 1984. Her 261 Fearless Movement (www.261fearless.org), named for her original Boston Marathon bib number, is empowering women around the world through running.