FAIRMONT — A sport like running seems to be something that would be universal. However, there was a time when it was predominately male.

In recent years, though, more women have put on their running shoes, especially at a younger age, partly due to the Title IX law. The law, which celebrates its 45th year in existence states, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

Martin County West High School cross country head coach Stannetta Svoboda was in high school when the law went into effect and has seen how it’s helped to usher in more female runners.

“My 10th grade year of high school is when they started cross country for girls and added additional sports for girls. … I had never ran cross country until I was a junior in high school,” she said, adding that cross country inspired her to be more of a distance runner.

The rise of female runners has also been apparent in the Fairmont Summer Run. Svoboda recalls a time when most of the participants were men in their 20s and 30s.

“The biggest number were from the men. You didn’t typically see too many women that would run,” she said.

Fairmont class of 1999 graduate and City of Jackson City Administrator Jennifer (Feely) Bromeland can attest to that as well. Bromeland was a runner at Fairmont High School and the University of South Dakota, and has continued to run throughout her adult life.

“I kept running to stay in shape and because I enjoy the competitive aspect, so I do 5Ks in the summer and an ocassional 10K here or there,” she said.

Bromeland, who holds three Summer Run records, believes the rise in women’s participation in the Summer Run and running in general has increased because there are more events and information being provided about running.

“A lot of it is just people knowing you can compete in running regardless of your age or your gender or your fitness level,” Bromeland said. “You see people at these summer runs, even at the Fairmont Run, where you have more of the beginning runners, you have your intermediate runners or your advanced runners that have been running since they were old enough to become involved with cross country at the school level and had just continued on. I definitely think a lot of it is due to knowledge of its health benefits.”

“I think just the reality of being healthy and staying physically fit played a huge role in why women became more and more involved with running,” Svoboda added.

Svoboda currently holds the Summer Run women’s record for the five-mile races in the 40-46 and 47-53 age groups with times of 34 minutes, 13 seconds and 34:58, respectively.

Both Svoboda and Bromeland plan to participate in the 39th annual Fairmont Summer Run, starting with the 5-mile race at 8:30 a.m. Saturday at Fairmont High School.

Bromeland normally does the 5-mile race, but will opt for 2 miles on Saturday.

“I wanted to do the 5-mile, but with working, having a family I don’t have as much time to run, but I always try to get in at least half an hour a day, so I think I can do the two-mile run,” she said. “That’s the nice thing about the Fairmont race is that you have the different distances — the 5-mile or 2-mile. Not everybody has time to go out and train to do a 5-mile race, but … if they run at all, they can do 2 miles.”

She’s also preparing the next generation of runners in the family. Bromeland has a daughter, who is still too young to run, but plans to have her son run the quarter-mile run, which starts at 10 a.m. after the 2-mile race at 9:30 a.m.

“We’re hoping he’s going to be a budding runner. He likes to chase after me,” she laughed. “With my kids, at least one of them will be a runner.”