A Momentous Day

Today was the running of the Willow Bay Race for Women. It was the culiminating race for the 12 week Y Run. The Y Run is a beginner running program that takes non-runners from nothing to running a 5k road race in twelve weeks. This is my second year running this class. There were runners who finished the 12 week program and today was their first race.

Last night we met out for dinner. The runners had a card and a 'Great Coach Award' ribbon for me and they bought my dinner! :-) We ended up hanging out there for about 3 hours, just talking away. Everyone was full of excitement and anticipation for the race. The one thing I love about participating in this class is that the participants always build strong, lasting and supportive relationships amongst themselves.

Today, it started rainy and overcast. Perfect race weather :-) I arrived at the park to find Sue and her sister (who was not in the Y group but wanted to run the race with her sister) already there. Shortly, everyone else arrived, including Bridget and her husband Bill there to spectate (they were leaving for a weekend with family in PA right after the race).

The Willow Bay is always such a great race. It is a women-only race, very small but a great crowd. They also have lots of door prizes :-)

Everyone in the group finished and finished strong. Sue and her sister Theresa even took 2nd place in the sister/sister division! Results aren't posted yet but everyone finished with great first-race times. And not only did all my racers finish, but after the race, I found them all crowding around the future race applications table! I think it is safe to say that their first race was a positive experience for them and I am very, very proud of them all. Running is not easy and to see these women, start from nothing with only their own determination to keep them going is very inspiring to me. I took lots of pictures and they are on my website.

Congratulations, runners!