New York City Run TEAM

Women’s Mini 10k - Central Park, June 9,2012
6,122 TOTAL FINISHERS
0 MEN / 6,122 WOMEN

And we were 13 of those 6122! We did it! 13 LUNA Chix finished the Women’s Mini 10k in Central Park yesterday morning, with big smiles and were proud to do it as a team!

This race is always especially meaningful to me, because my mom ran it too about 40 years ago! I always remember the poster she got from the race that hung in our living room; the tagline was “Who says women can’t run the world.” And we showed everyone yesterday, that we can.

From reading New York Road Runners website about the race, I learned that today, 53 percent of all road race finishers are female. Women compete at the world-class level at distances from 100 meters to the ultramarathon. And every year, thousands of them finish the Mini, which continues to attract world-class competitors, first-timers, and everyone in between. This year’s Mini had 6,122 finishers, the most since 1997. The race was started by two women who had a fantasy of two women going for a run together, and 40 years later, we have taken over the sport.

So, needless to say, we fit right in! Of our 13 runners, we had a first time race runner, a group of 4 women stick together the whole time, and other groups and teams of women running side by side, supporting and pushing each other across the finish line. The LUNA presence was felt. On a particularly difficult hill, a woman behind me yelled, “Hey LUNA women, where are our bars??”  We yelled back, “find us after the race!!” We did find her, and hundreds of other women celebrating their finish by stretching, talking and hanging out with friends. We handed out LUNA Protein bars to women to help their recovery and to tell them about our Wednesday night runs. Both messages were received with open arms, connecting more women as we went.

And of course, what better way to celebrate than by…eating! We all went out for a post-run brunch where we talked about our runs and our lives, and most importantly we enjoyed the best part of us, being women!