Welcome to Savannah Ladies! The first annual Everywoman’s Marathon on Nov. 16 gave 7,000 runners, primarily women, but some men, a fun-filled weekend of running community. I saw this race on social media and decided to reignite my training. If you have never ran a marathon, I would say training from July-November is a great way to go. The weather is usually wonderful and you don’t have to bundle like you do when preparing for a spring marathon.
I was excited to find out that Des Linden (2018 Boston Female Winner) and Kathrine Switzer (First official Woman to run Boston, despite men still trying to pull her off course) would be at the race as well as my favorite running podcaster, Emily Abbate of the Hurdle Podcast. Despite this being an inaugural race, there were very few hiccups. The expo was an in/outdoor venue within the Trustee’s Garden and they moved us along well, except for the merch area that can always be a little hectic. One reason being is that they offered free screenprinting of an option of 4 images on the front of your race shirt. They featured a magnetic name board of all racers varying in color from having never run a marathon to 50+. Being that the race was so women friendly and motivational for racers of all kinds, 4,000 were first timers!
They offered yoga classes, hair braiding, food demonstrations, speaker panels, (where Emily was the interviewer) muscle taping with HEALI, and two shake-out runs in the morning (this is where I got a selfie with Kathrine S.) As for the swag, the race shirt is by Rabbit and the fabric was smooth and soft, I love it! We got Feetures socks, a race belt by SPI and chocolate milk ( which was the primary sponsor)
Fast forward to the morning of… with the smaller size of the race and location, it was easy to make your way down to the start if you stayed downtown or even across the river, as we did. The atmosphere was uber friendly and there were porta potties stocked with female products and pacers from Fleet Feet.
The 26.2 miles led us up a bridge (don’t be intimidated) through various towns, around the squares with the beautiful oak canopies and even on the highway. It was appropriate that my playlist selected, Life is a Highway, when I got on the entrance ramp, no joke! We ran around the Savannah Banana’s field and even ON THE TRACK of Savannah State College where the marching band was playing for us in the bleachers! There were Girl Scouts at a water stop, I saw Forrest Gump, a woman with a pig on a leash, and women smiling the whole way!
I need to shout out one of the runners that finished before me, a mom running with her TWIN BOYS!!! Amazing!!
The race medal is almost like a suncatcher, encased in gold and the inner charm can also be worn as a charm and they offered engraving on it for a small fee on site. I took advantage of a free massage and they also had Normatec recovery as well as milk, bananas, Cheez-Its, fruit snacks, stroopwafels by GU. Natalie Imbruglia took the stage post race to sing some hits too. There were many opportunities to smile for the camera along the course and all photos were free to download. Happy Running : )
Mindy D’Addario
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathrine_Switzer