"Throw like a girl." "Run like a girl." For generations, those phrases carried the same message: boys are better athletes. Stereotypes show up in playground taunts, billion-dollar investment gaps, and even the way we celebrate women's accomplishments. When Simone Biles became the most decorated gymnast in history, with 41 Olympic and World Championship medals, five skills named after her, and nine U.S. all-around titles, the media famously called her "the Michael Jordan of gymnastics." For the record, Jordan has two Olympic gold medals. Female athletes have spent decades being measured against men.

This year alone, female endurance athletes have been making headlines. In July 2026, Kelsey Pfendler became the fastest person, man or woman, to row solo from California to Hawaii, covering 2,400 miles across the Pacific. Rachel Entrekin won the Cocodona 250, one of the world's toughest ultramarathons, while Courtney Dauwalter claimed victory at the Moab 240, an ultramarathon with over 31,000 feet in elevation changes. Their performances reignited a fascinating question: if men generally outperform women in traditional endurance events like a marathon by about 10%, why are women increasingly dominating the world's longest races?

Until puberty, boys and girls have remarkably similar athletic potential. Then testosterone changes the equation. Boys develop larger hearts, greater muscle mass, and higher hemoglobin levels that improve oxygen intake. Meanwhile, girls begin navigating menstruation, fluctuating hormones, lower iron levels, and a higher risk of injuries like ACL tears and bone stress fractures. Those differences have fueled the assumption that men are simply better athletes.

But ultra-endurance sports don't reward the same things that a 100-meter sprint does. When races stretch from hours into days, raw power is only part of the equation. Women generally have more slow-twitch muscle fibers, which are better suited for sustained effort and fatigue resistance. New research even suggests women recover from muscle fatigue more effectively than men. They're also more efficient at burning fat for fuel, a crucial advantage once the body's carbohydrate stores are depleted. Estrogen appears to help preserve glycogen, reduce inflammation, and protect muscles during prolonged exercise, while women's naturally higher body fat can become an advantage in events like ultra-distance swimming by improving buoyancy, insulation, and energy reserves. Even smaller frames and shorter limbs can help conserve energy over extraordinary distances.

Then there's the advantage that's much harder to measure: pain. Scientists are still trying to understand how men and women experience pain differently, but many believe women may be better equipped to tolerate prolonged discomfort. Whether it's menstrual cramps, endometriosis, childbirth, or simply years of navigating pain that has been minimized or dismissed, women may develop a different relationship with discomfort. That doesn't necessarily make mile 200 easier, but it may make the mental challenge of getting there look different.

Ultimately, it all comes down to resilience, not just of the body, but of the mind. Ultra-endurance sports come with mental challenges. Research has found that women pace themselves more effectively than men. During marathons, women were 1.46x more likely to keep their pace. It sounds simple, but in an event lasting 20, 30, or even 60 hours, patience becomes a competitive advantage. Few athletes embody that better than Jasmin Paris. In 2019, she became the first woman to win the 268-mile Montane Spine Race, shattering the course record by 12 hours. And yes, she accomplished it while stopping to express breast milk (!!!). 

The truth is, we don’t quite know just how much these advantages play out and if women are, in fact, better ultra-endurance athletes. That’s because of unequal access to sports, less women participating, and a void in research when it comes to female athletes. Still today, only 6% of global sports research focuses on women. Female athletes have trained using evidence largely built around male bodies, which makes these performances even more remarkable. 

As Kelsey Pfendler said, “If any part of my win has made at least one person feel a little bit more powerful in their own skin, I’m happy. You might not think that you are strong enough to finish it right now, but you’re definitely strong enough to start it, and you’ll find everything else along the way.” If women have successfully demonstrated one thing, it’s that even if they have to take the long way, they’ll get there…and at an even pace. 

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Dr. Melissa Frey is a gynecological oncologist whose focus is improving women’s health and access to information, particularly when it comes to cancer. She is currently heading the clinical trial FOCUS, Feasibility of Obstetric and Cancer Universal Screening, that allows women to get a hereditary cancer screening at the same time as their routine obstetric carrier screening. She has more than 100 publications in peer-reviewed science journals, and has received grants and awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the American Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Foundation Scholar Award, Weill Cornell Medicine Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center, and more.

What’s the worst career advice you’ve gotten?

For as long as I can remember, I have been vocal about wanting to be a surgeon, but I also had an interest in oncology and women's health. When I was in high school and undergraduate medical school, there were people telling me that I needed to decide then what was important to me, and if I wanted to have a personal life or a family, I would not be able to do all those things. It’s bad advice to tell someone to decide what they’re going to sacrifice before they’ve even entered their career. Women get this type of advice a lot. I don't think 20-year-old men are thinking about possible career trajectories and how that relates to the type of parent they can be.

What’s the best piece of non-obvious career advice you’ve gotten?

Medicine has a traditional hierarchy and path. You take your MCATS to get into medical school and then you do your residency, fellowship, and become a junior attending. Through all that, you have to wait for people to tell you that you can move up. I met with a mentor who told me, “Don’t wait for your annual review. Get yourself in front of whoever will listen.”

Most people I met with would tell me to keep doing what I was doing. But in those conversations, even if I was told “no,” I was told why. So then I would adjust my pitch and it got better and better. Throughout my career, I’ve made it a habit to reach out to others for advice, criticism, or opportunities. I don’t wait for things to come to me. I put myself out there, even if it means rejection or negative feedback.

What was a heartbeat moment for you in your career?

I have been focused on women's health, women's cancer, and cancer prevention for 15 years. I always kept it separate from my personal life because I didn't want to be the friend who only talked about cancer. Then a friend of mine said, “The work you're doing is so important. Our community needs to know about it.” She helped me host a community event for 70 women at my apartment. I spoke about the importance of mammograms, breast screenings, and genetic testing. I shared that every woman should know her lifetime risk for breast cancer. Afterwards, there was a cascade of good health interventions: individuals called their doctor and made appointments for mammograms, breast MRIs, and genetic testing. 

Cancer is scary, but prevention is the opposite of scary. It was a heartbeat moment because it made me realize that it’s okay to mix my work with my personal life. It’s important to get outside the walls of the hospital and share the steps individuals can take to ensure they never get cancer, and if they do, they can catch it early when it’s treatable or curable.

Who is one person you’d love to give flowers to from your career that influenced your journey? What advice or lesson did you learn from them?

My mentor, Dr. Stephanie Blank, is also a gynecologic oncologist. I've known her since the beginning of my career, and we still collaborate. One of the first pieces of advice that she gave me was to figure out my story. She explained that your “story” is whatever topic or cause to which you are willing to commit your career, and that you feel uniquely positioned to do well. She told me to figure that out as soon as possible, because once you know your goal, you can align everything else with that. That way, you will find the most success and joy in what you do.

Where have you caused some good trouble in your career?

There are many people who don’t know that they are living with a higher risk of cancer. No one has found it or offered them genetic testing. So I had an idea: because I'm an oncologist and gynecologist, I sit at the intersection of cancer and women's health. Women who are pregnant or are thinking about fertility are meeting with their doctor and getting genetic testing for things that can affect a child. So I thought: why not offer them cancer-related genetic testing? 

I was met with a lot of resistance. People asked, “Why would we want to take a happy time like pregnancy and scare women with the thought of cancer?” But I pushed back: How do we know this is not what patients want? Yes, cancer is scary, but what is even scarier is being a mother with advanced breast or ovarian cancer with a seven-year-old child. So we started a program at Weill Cornell Medicine where all women who were getting pregnancy-related genetic testing were offered free cancer testing. We’ve enrolled over 100 women in our trial so far, and 80% of women are saying they want this.

Women’s health gets less attention and is historically underfunded, but there are so many resources that, for a myriad of reasons, women aren’t taking advantage of. Sometimes it’s due to mistrust in the healthcare industry, and other times it’s because they aren’t aware that they have access. With just one small intervention, we can change things dramatically. I get to be a part of figuring out how to disseminate information and offer resources to women. It motivates me every day.

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Chanelle Tyson of The Female Quotient weighs in:

First of all, I’m really sorry to hear that. This can be a tough position to be in, as you want to be supportive, but not at the cost of your work. Let them know that they can talk to you, but remember to be patient and not to pry. Focus on empathy and professionalism. Since you’re on a team, you can see what it’s truly made of; teammates have each other’s backs. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, and talk to other team members about sharing the workload. Just make sure to acknowledge those who step up so that resentment doesn’t build.

If things really start to get overwhelming, talk to your manager about how things can be adjusted in the interim to make everyone’s loads easier to carry. This won’t last forever, and you never know when you might need the favor returned. As George Eliot (real name Mary Ann Evans) said, “What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?”

P.S. Got a burning career question? Serve it up here to Dear FQ to score advice from a powerhouse leader in our network.

Can work become mundane? Of course. What keeps people engaged isn't free lunches or lofty mission statements, it's the work itself. For most of our community, the biggest source of motivation is solving complex problems. A challenge worth tackling builds confidence, creates ownership, and gives people a reason to care. 

Close behind is seeing measurable impact. People want proof that their work mattered. Progress itself is motivating, especially when employees can connect their day-to-day work to tangible outcomes. It's why organizations that create environments where people solve meaningful challenges and get to see the results consistently outperform those that rely on incentives alone.

So go ahead, run like a girl 🏃‍♀️

Xo,

The FQ

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