Walk-In
Colorado Running Company
833 North Tejon
Boulder Running Company
3659 Austin Bluffs Parkway
Runners Roost
121 North Tejon
Race Day Registration: Yes, starting about
6:30 am.
This event originated as a RRCA sponsored event with
the RRCA providing many of the race supplies and goodies to member
running clubs that organized the event at each local level. The
RRCA first supported the event in 1979. Saucony and Moving
Comfort were national sponsors of the event, as arranged through the
RRCA.
The PPRR organized its first Women's Distance
Festival in 1979. This continued until 1984. The 1984 race
was run on the same day as when Joan Benoit Samuelson won the Women's
Olympic Gold medal.
There were no races from
1985 - 1992.
In 1993, Melody Lundin
resurrected the race and continued as race director until
2002. Melody would go out of
her way to make sure all of the volunteers were male, and she would
make volunteer shirts with the slogan, "I Love Fast
Women." Melody also arranged for unique hand-crafted
awards, and had women's-specific shirts, or other female-type
apparel/bags/etc.
John O'Neill took over the race director duties in
2003 and has added cash prizes to the mix. This has attracted
some fast runners from Alamosa, Boulder and other areas. Many of
the course records have been set since cash prizes were added.
When
the RRCA had a few difficult financial years in the early 2000s, they dropped support for
the Women's Distance Festival and left it up to each running club to
continue or not continue the event. The PPRR decided to continue
the event on its own. The only other running club in Colorado
that also continued the Women's Distance Festival event is the
Southern Colorado Runners in Pueblo.
The
Women's Distance Festival in Pueblo and Colorado Springs give women
the unique opportunity to run in a race without all the guys.
The swifter women runners have an opportunity to actually lead a race,
instead of chasing some guy with hairy legs. And the middle and
back of the pack women runners don't have to be bothered with all the
hustle and bustle and elbowing of a guy trying to make a big pass.
It's your day, ladies, so come out and enjoy yourselves.
