FOR the 7,700 fleet-footed female runners who have signed up for the second Great Eastern Women 10K Run on Oct 21, slipping out of your sweaty exercise gear could prove to be a surprisingly pleasant experience.

Forget common changing areas that you have to share with strangers and consequently expose more than just your running prowess.

Event organiser Enterprise Sports Group (ESG) will erect a special 9m by 4.5m tent that will have individual cubicles to protect participants' modesty. It will also have mirrors for women who desire to put their best faces (on top of their sweaty, sneaker-clad feet) forward.

To keep Peeping Toms at bay, security will be deployed outside the premises, which will also be swept for cameras, says ESG's business development manager David Sim.

Decent changing facilities and other extras, such as fruit and cereal, for participants bring the cost of organising the event to close to $1 million. A mixed or men-only event of equivalent size would probably be 25 per cent cheaper.

With a laugh, Mr Sim says: 'Men are usually more focused on the run itself rather than on things like nice toilets and changing rooms.'

Indeed, with the recent spate of exclusively female runs, triathlons and aerobics marathons, men aren't getting it much when it comes to sport these days.

Ms Ung Bee Koon, department head for women's sports activities at the Singapore Sports Council's (SSC) sports marketing group, reckons there have been 'easily 10' such events this year. They include the Triladies triathlon, Amore Women's Day Out aerobics challenge and Shape Run last month, the Anlene Orchard Mile run in June and the upcoming GE run this month.

Between 2003 and 2005, the Women's Day Out - now in its fifth year - was the only major highlight on the calendar, she adds.

The phenomenon is driven largely by SSC's plans over recent years to get more women involved in sport. Its latest effort, the four-month Sport A New You campaign, was launched in July. Most of the women-only events fall under its umbrella.

The idea, says Ms Ung, is to create a more conducive, less intimidating environment for women to take their first step towards developing an affinity for sport and exercise.

SSC's push has reaped rewards. Forty-two per cent of women here engaged in sporting activities in 2005, a 10 percentage point increase from 32 per cent in 2001.

A reason for the success so far could be that unlike mixed and traditionally male-dominated events where the focus is typically on the sport alone, organisers of women-only activities go the extra mile to tailor a feminine-oriented experience to draw participants.

Marketing to target women, as some have come to realise, is not just about devising a challenging route with the promise of self-reward through participation.

As ESG's Mr Sim puts it: 'It's about the total event experience, even down to the kind of songs you play. For example, we would probably play girl-friendly songs like I Will Survive.'

At the recent Triladies on Sept 23, event organiser Christine Tan - a triathlete herself - pushed for a small changing tent in the transition area as, unlike men, some women would have wanted to change out of their bathing suits after the swim leg of the race.

For families with young children who tagged along to support Mum, there was also a Milo truck and a roving magician.

Ms Tan and two other co-organisers poured $100,000 into Triladies, which had an encouraging 420 sign-ups. Bad weather, however, forced them to cancel the race mid-way.

Though the trio did not recoup their investment, Ms Tan says: 'It's as expected as this is the first year. But we are not giving up and see the potential of going another year.'

Apart from the race day environment, peripheral perks also figure in a woman's decision to get active.

The event jersey is one such carrot, says Ms Catherine Ho, vice-president of marketing at Great Eastern Life, the title sponsor for the GE run. Runners get a red running singlet from Adidas upon registration.

Says Ms Ho: 'Women really feel the fabric and choose their sizes carefully. Some even say that the top alone is worth the money they paid for registration.'

Triladies, too, offered its participants a hot pink dri-fit tee that was specially designed to be a 'figure-flattering women's cut', says Ms Tan.

She adds: 'We wanted women to want to wear the T-shirt even after the race.'

Goodie bags for women-only events customised with female-friendly products are other sweeteners.

At the upcoming GE run, for example, bags include over $2,000 worth of extras such as vouchers for food and beverage outlets and even for aesthetic treatment, says Ms Ho.

Ms Jasmine Teo, founder and chief operating officer of Amore Fitness and who was behind the Women's Day Out event, adds: 'We designed the trendy ladies' goodie bags that tied in with our event's pink colour theme. The bags were very well received and sought after, being one of the main attractions of the event.'

Runners at the Shape Run on Sept 9 were also given a handbook before the event which gave women-specific tips, like which sports bra to buy, to better prepare them for the challenge.

Increasingly, organisers and sponsors are beginning to see the practical sense in being associated with women-only events.

The recent Women's Day Out yielded more than 100 new sign-ups for Amore's fitness memberships, says Ms Teo.

But the main message behind women-only events, they say, should not be about money or marketing, but empowerment.

ESG's Mr Sim recounts an incident at last year's GE run where a man who tried to gatecrash the event was booed off by the female participants.

He says: 'The women get the sense that 'this is my day' or 'this is my race'. So they told the man, 'Get out'.'