I don’t think I’ve ever had to write a separate recap for the pre-race festivities, but Every Woman’s Marathon was unlike any race I’ve ever done before – it as an EXPERIENCE!!!
Every Woman’s’ Marathon was the best marathon I’ve ever ran. It was the best race weekend I’ve ever experienced. It was also not a day for me to get to experience racing all out and putting my fitness to to the test – and that’s where I feel conflicted. But at the end of the day, I have no regrets.
The Every Woman’s’ Marathon weekend was absolutely incredible from start to finish and it reminded me WHY I love marathons so much – because it’s a chance for EVERYBODY to show themselves that they are capable of more than they ever imagined.
Every Woman’s Marathon – Race Week Travel to Savannah
As I mentioned in my training recap, I was invited to run the Every Woman’s Marathon as part of a campaign by Team Milk and its partnership with local dairies. I was invited by a local dairy here in San Diego, Hollandia Dairy. Hollandia supplies a large percent the milk in the local schools and has become very involved in the local running community, a sponsor at several of my favorite local races including the Carlsbad 5000, AFC and Carlsbad Half Marathon. Working with Hollandia was wonderful – they are a family owned and operated dairy and were so welcoming & supportive of me. THANK YOU Hollandia for this opportunity!
I had a good race week – got good sleep, my Garmin told me that I was “peaking” and then in “recovery’ and every day it told me i was in “prime” shape. My run on Tuesday was 5 miles with 2 miles at marathon pace and I ran the marathon pace miles easily, chatting with a friend. I felt good and optimistic! I started my carb load on Wednesday at home, mostly focusing on my normal foods with added juice (tart cherry) and more carby-snacks.
I traveled alone from San Diego to Savannah on Thursday, 2 days before the race, on a 8 AM flight , so I didn’t have to wake up too crazy early and still got a good night of sleep. The journey to Savannah was long – I had a layover in Atlanta, and when I arrived in Savannah, I shared the provided shuttle with 2 other runners & we chatted the entire way to the hotel. I immediately changed and met up with Jen, my running buddy & business partner, and a few of her run coaching athletes (she rented a house with them) for a really nice dinner. I did have a glass of wine with dinner and kept the promise to myself that I was going to enjoy this trip, even if some decisions weren’t “perfect” for my race performance.
I got a GREAT night of sleep Thursday, and slept til 8 AM (5 AM at home, my usual wake up time) & had coffee & 1/2 a bagel with honey and peanut butter. I got a grocery order delivered with the things I couldn’t pack in my bag (i packed A LOT of food – I show what I packed in this reel) – tart cherry juice, 3 bananas, coffee creamer & toothpaste .There were no grocery stores or even convenience stores near the hotel.
Every Woman’s Marathon – Expo & Pre-Race Activities & Events
Friday was the BEST day. I was torn on whether to go to the 9:30 AM hosted shake out run or just run from the hotel, but ultimately FOMO got me and I made the 1/2 mile walk to the shake out run to meet Kacy, a woman who has been part of my BODi running community for years now. The shake out was along the lakefront, and we passed right by my hotel. My coach had me do 1 longer pick up at the end, so I ran 1/4 mile fast and then immediately had a gel to replace the carbs. Then I made the walk BACK to the hotel, quickly showered & got ready & made oatmeal with honey and banana & another coffee then walked BACK to the expo for an 11 AM cooking class. In retrospect, I should not have had the coffee at 11 AM, even though I am used to 2 cups a day.
The expo was the same place as the finish line and it was an INCREDIBLE festival for runners. It felt like being at Disneyland for runners!! Everything was branded beautifully & there was lots of photo opportunities, a Milk Lounge, a grassy area in front of a large stage, but also separate indoor areas for bib pick up, goodie bag pick up, a handful of sponsor booths (Girls on the Run & Girl Scouts being the 2 closest to my heart!), a shaded area for the free yoga and mobility classes, and a separate theater for 2 of the talks. The bathrooms were stocked with tampons, deodorant, sunscreen and more. They literally thought of everything.
The cooking class was SO FUN & I’m so glad I did it. We didn’t actually cook, just watched pro athlete, Olympian and author of my favorite running book, Deena Kastor cook a frittata and make a date smoothie, all while telling inspiring stories & anecdotes and explaining her philosophies on life. She was EXACTLY like she is in her book – thoughtful, intentional, intelligent and inspiring. At the end, I was the first to go up and thank her and get a photo with her. I told her I was listening to her book for the 3rd time and she looked a little surprised, ha!
After cooking, I got in the long line for the packet pick up (the one thing I feel like could be improved was this). I got my bib, my really nice long sleeve tech shirt from Rabbit, and my goodie bag that had a part of Feetures socks, a SPI belt and kinesiology tape.
One REALLY thoughtful touch was that every single runner had a magnetic, colored name badge for them, which were arranged alphabetically on a giant wall. The color of your badge corresponds to how many marathons you’ve run. My yellow badge indicated I’ve run more than 10. But less than 20 marathons. 40% of the 7,000 registrants were first time marathoners! This event was truly inspiring women to do something they may have felt intimidated to do before.
After that, I met up with Jen and we went to the 12:30 PM talk on Communities with Alison Desir and Kathrine Switzer. Alison is the founder of XXXX and writer of “Running While Black” and Kathrine is the woman you would recognized for the famous photo of a female runner being pulled off the course at the 1965 Boston marathon. She ultimately finished the race, despite the race director trying to get her off of the course, and became the first female to officially finish a marathon (she was a registered participant in the race). During this time, marathons were widely considered too intense for women for fear that our uterus would fall out. What I learned though was that Kathrine didn’t stop there. She went on to help get the women’s marathon into the Olympics by working with Avon to create Womens races all over the world. (In order for a sport to be in the Olympics you need 40 countries to enter) .
One fun thing was meeting several virtual friends and people I’ve worked with in person, including one of the run coaches in my Runner Rising Academy (a business coaching program I’ve created for run coaches), Irina!
The expo wasn’t in a part of town with a lot of After the talk, Jen and I walked to a Thai food restaurant. I eat Thai food a lot & was VERY sick of bread-y carbs so this was a perfect lunch. I ordered a curry with 2 sides of white rice. I ate both sides of rice and the tofu, carrots and pineapple out of the curry. I felt full but not gross like I had felt the night before after the carb loading. We then took an Uber back (this was Jen’s suggestion for us to save our feet to not walk, but the damage had been done by this point, I was already at 14,000+ steps) and sat on the lawn for the panel with one of my favorite pro runners Des Linden, Deena Kastor, Kathrine Switzer, Alison Desir and XX , a challenged athlete. It was incredibly inspiring and the talk of feminism and women’s rights continued. they finished by asking each of them to share a tip for the marathon and the theme of “it’s going to get hard but you trained for this” kept coming up.
Multiple times that day I was filled with so much emotion- gratitude for this experience, joy in being surrounded by this uplifting community, the companionship of so many runners of all abilities, experiences, sizes and colors, the shared mission of pushing ourselves to do things we never thought we could do.
When I got there, I got to meet Leilani, the woman I’d been working with all year on my campaigns for the program. And I saw the two women who I shared the shuttle with, and met a new friend too. We all ate together & at one point, Maria, who won the entry & trip as part of the giveaway I did with Hollandia, arrived & happened to know both me AND my new friend. The running world is a small world! Maria ended up bringing 25 women from her running club in San Diego with her to the race!
At the start of dinner, they brought all the special guests back in (except Deena) and although I didn’t get to meet Des Linden, I was just feet away from her while she told us all to make sure we don’t go out too fast and to go to bed after this and not hit the bars. Ha!
I was back in my room before 8 PM, and starting to feel tired. I took my melatonin & tried to settle down and turn the lights off at 9:30 (which is 6:30 PM at home)….. but then I tossed and turned for HOURS. I didn’t feel anxious about the race….my mind just kept going! At 12:30 AM I got up, reset and started reading my book again before turning the lights off. I’m pretty sure I fell asleep past 1 AM. This is the 3rd big race this year where I couldn’t’ sleep the night before, although this time I do think that. They time change, late coffee & sleeping in that morning were contributing factors.
Thanks for coming to my novel. Stay tuned for part 2….the race!!!
You must be logged in to post a comment.