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“I can’t believe I’m here,” I thought as I willed my legs to keep running the last two miles of my first long-distance race.
The shock/wonder/joy I felt during that first half-marathon was a product of a few factors, the largest of which I had not accounted for during my training – finding other female runners.
As someone who went to a small, all-women’s school in the Northeast, you’d think I’d have a lot of female friends, but the truth is I never have.
I’ve had a few, sure, but those women were fun dinner dates, or shopping companions – I never really talked to them about my “real” life.
I kept relationship issues to myself, and, as outgoing as I am, I keep my personal life fairly personal and divulge details with the same skill I’d imagine a press secretary has to have -- giving just enough information for a peek, but not the whole story.
So when I looked around at mile 11 of my first 13.1 miler and realized I was surrounded, entirely, by women, I was struck that I felt like I had been missing out.
I had this overwhelming desire to figure out just how each of us wound up running. “What is her story?” I thought as woman after woman would share a few strides with me.
I was the woman who did it all – work, family, career, but for the first time I was also a runner. I came to running late, having taken up the sport after my son was born as a way of regaining my sanity after sleepless nights. It was my time. My solitude brought back my sanity, reined in my frayed nerves, and generally made me happy.
But up until that first all-women’s half marathon, I had always run alone. I trained alone. In my head I wasn’t your “typical” female runner, I was slightly overweight, not fast, and raced for the fun of it, not because I wanted to become some hardcore elite.
Around the time I signed up for that first half-marathon I began running with other women and discovered my “typical female runner” didn’t exist.
We were as different as could be, and yet, this sport brought us together, gave us a common footing to stand on, and allowed me to let my guard down for a minute (or at least a few miles).
I discovered there is more to running than the training plan you are using or how fast you can make it to the finish line.
There’s something else that draws us all to the sport – these incredible women who seem to do it all and I’ve been on a kick ever since to figure out just what “it” is since I ran those first few scary miles with my sole sisters.
They say “every runner has a reason.” I’ve discovered most of the women I run with have several.
We want to know yours.
We’re building something here at Runner’s World we're hoping can capture and harness the collective power, energy, and drive women runners have. It will be a place we document our struggles, triumphs, personal stories, and along the way, uncover some of the “several” reasons we all run.
If you have suggestions of what the new women’s channel should include or cover, please feel free to contact me at Elizabeth.comeau@rodale.com.
Elizabeth Comeau is a marathoner, journalist, triathlete, coffee addict, mother, writer. Comeau worked as a journalist at The Boston Globe for 14 years, first as a reporter, then in marketing and events. To Elizabeth, being a runner means more than just racing fast, or running hard: It’s about pushing herself to do things she didn't know she could do. Her philosophy is that if it seems impossible, she simply has to try it.
