Walk-In
Colorado Running Company
833 North Tejon
Boulder Running Company
3659 Austin Bluffs Parkway
Runners Roost
107 East Bijou
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 1984, and it was run on the same day that Joan Benoit
Samuelson won the gold medal in the inaugural Women's Olympic
Marathon.
Julie Foster was the first race
director of the local event in Colorado Springs. Melody Lundin
took over race director duties in 1989. 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." John O'Neill took over the race director duties in
2003 and has added cash prizes to the mix.
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.
