OK - I`m a little behind the 8 ball posting this but I didn`t see anyone else post a report so I thought I would make my first race report.

I`m typically a bit on the disorganised side when it comes to looking at what the race is in aid of - In this case - very disorganised - I actually didn`t really look at the race history and info until after the event. I wish I had done so before hand I would have known that this was the worlds first womens only road race and has a great history behind it and some very well know athletes have won the race in the past.

It certainly was interesting running with just the ladies and for a change we started out on central park west rather than inside the park.

Maybe it was the history or maybe because it was women only - the turn out was amazing - over 3500 runners of all ages shapes and sizes - This was definately a great race for a new runner to feel at home espeically one who didn`t fit the tall skinny 20-something profile. The energy + excitement at the start was apparent and some of the older ladies were just an inspiration - I think the entire membership of a certain womens over 50 running club passed me ! - they are AWESOME ! especially the lady in the sparkly purple cap !! Love it

I had read some rather negative comments on another site about this race being over crowed and complaints about having to put with all the women chatting - I actually enjoyed listening to some of the conversions I passed and that passed me by - people were obviously enjoying themselves ! I did think there were more little groups running together that made passing a bit of a task in places - but nothing that would drive you to killing anyone and I did feel the course in general was more crowded but there were less people drifting out of the runnning lanes + I suspect that there were more people running at that 10 - 11 mm pace that in other NYRR races which likely made the course seem more crowded ( maybe this race would be a good candidate for the wave starts ... whatever happened to that idea ? .. I only saw them use it for 1 race ). On the flip side I did think that the majority of runners were out there seriously trying their best.

The other cool thing about this race is there were more people on the side lines cheering - I think some of the men had come out to support the ladies in their clubs but many were gracious enough to cheer for whoever was passing at the time ! A couple of people reconized that the dragon on my shirt was the Welsh flag and I did heard a few "Go Wales" cheers - along with one guy who said - "A dragon .. I love it ! " .. it was pretty funny


As this was only my second 10K I did set a personal best time of 1:05:42 ( dispite the humidity) - discovered that I need to get some body glide - made a mental note to don the sun screen before racing and was very happy with my decision to down and extra 8oz of water over my usual 16 oz before leaving the house - I think that helped me combat the effects of the humidity.

All in all this was a great race experience and I am feeling very comfortable with my plan to try and run the NYC Half in Aug. - I even got my very first finisher medal


Oh .. side note to the people banditing this race ... if you are giong to inisit on running and not paying - at least have the sense to look around you and if you see there are a LOT of ladies .. then the race is likely to be for women and it will be obvious if you are not a lady that you are not a paid up entrant no matter what you do or say !!