I am on a three-hour flight home from Scottsdale so it seems like the perfect time to relive and recap yesterday’s Every Woman’s Marathon experience. I had a great day and I’m very proud of the race that I ran. It was a practice in “fun running” and that not every race effort has to be so serious or an attempt to PR. I’m excited to share it all with you!
This was my fourth marathon! Here are my previous recaps.
Let’s start with the lay flat because that’s always fun.
- lululemon Align tank
- lululemon Fast and Free five-pocket shorts
- Feetures graduated compression socks
- Saucony Endorphin Speed Pro shoes
I bought the super cute hat at the expo and they gave us bib clips in our race swag – how nice!
As weather typically does, it changed about 10 times before the race. What started as a forecast of clear skies, a 45 degree start and temps in the 60s for the finish changed to rain and thunderstorms and ended up somewhere in-between. Starting temps in the mid 60s with clouds but no rain, finishing temps in the 70s with full sun – and HUMIDITY! WTF!? I was not expecting 82% humidity at the start in Arizona.
My alarm went off shortly after 4a. No surprises that my Oura ring told me my sleep was disturbed. I went to bed before 9p but between knowing that I had a marathon the next morning and coughing fits due to drainage from my cold, I did not sleep soundly. All that being said, I did get over five hours including over an hour of deep sleep so that seemed like a win haha.
I got showered and had coffee and breakfast while I prepped for the day. I had DoorDashed bagels, peanut butter and banana to my hotel the evening prior.
All dressed and ready! I wore a light windbreaker to the start knowing I’d put it in my drop bag.
The marathon had organized shuttles to take our group to the start (I was with all of the dairy partner influencers) and what should have been a 15 minute drive to WestWorld turned into over an hour. Traffic getting into the venue was absolutely insane (something that was not predicted) and we arrived at the start at 7a for the 7a start. My marathon contact let me know that they were working to delay the start a bit because so many people were late (not just us). Thankfully they were able to!
It was so fun to reconnect with Daena! We attended an epic Under Armour trip together eight years ago when I was 14 weeks pregnant with Finn! I made a beeline to the bathrooms and then quickly dropped my bag and ran to the start.
There was literally no chill. It was so rushed and chaotic. They were singing the national anthem as I was trying to make my way to my corral. I jumped into corral 2 and quickly worked to get my watch cued up. My corral crossed the start right around 7:15a.
I knew that between the absence of a structured training cycle, the minor cold I had and the temps/humidity that it was unrealistic to hope for any kind of PR. What I did want to do was push myself for as long as it felt good to push and then pull back and enjoy the ride. My goal was to finish feeling well and not trash my body by putting in an all out effort that I knew it wasn’t my day for.
And that’s exactly what I did!!! My loose goal was to kind of treat the race like a half marathon and run hard for the first half and then either power walk or run/walk the second half. I settled into an 8:20-8:30ish pace that felt super easy.
I have to say that this course wasn’t what I expected. It was…not scenic. I mean, the mountains in the distance were pretty but most of our miles were through suburban sprawl and golf courses in the beginning – and highways and footpaths in the second half.
I hit the half split at 1:51 feeling super great so I decided to keep pushing for as long as my body said it was okay.
That turned out to be around mile 18 where we found ourselves on the “highway to hell.” We had a a several mile stretch on highway that started off flat but rough/unscenic and then became scenic but had a gnarly hill that you had to go out and back on. It seemed like a great time to stop and go to the bathroom and to start run/walk intervals.
Around this point the cloud cover was starting to clear and it was HOT when the sun came through.
Never been as happy to see mile 20 as I was during this race because it meant I was off that highway.
I had so many people ask if I was okay when I was taking walk breaks and I was like, “yes! I am so good!” I had no interest in hitting any kind of wall and wanted to smile through every mile of the race – which I did. It had gotten SO hot out and I saw quite a few runners horizontal on the ground being helped by medical. Ugh. I also talked to a lot of people after the race who dealt with severe nausea and vomiting out there.
We had to do a couple miles on a footpath along the canal and it was tough times. We were in full sun and had no crowd support. Once I hit 24, I decided to pick it back up and run in to the finish – which I did!
I finally made my way into Old Town where I was surprised by one more out and back to finish but I could hear and see the finish so it gave me a push to finish strong.
I felt ALL THE FEELS as I entered the finishing chute. Even though I didn’t “race” this one – the finish was so sweet. It’s an amazing sense of personal accomplishment to run a marathon and even cooler to do so in the company of 4,000 other women!
Official finish time was 4:11:08! Of course I ran a little over but I was just glad it was only 0.2 miles because sometimes it’s way more!
SPLITS!
One thing I love about The Every Woman’s Marathon is that it’s VERY pace inclusive. There is a very generous cut off of eight hours and walkers are welcome. There is no competitive vibe at all – so encouraging, supportive and celebratory. It’s all about the shared accomplishment and community.
I GOT TO TAKE A PHOTO WITH KATHERINE SWITZER! And got teary eyed as I thanked her for all that she’s done in service of female runners. She was the first female to ever run Boston back in 1967 and pioneered a place for women in running.
I was so appreciative of the cooling blanket and wet cold towels they gave us at the finish! It was so nice to be able to put the cool towel around my neck and to wipe off my salt-crusted face.
I said hi to a few friends and snapped some photos. I picked up my drop bag and changed into my recovery slides, which was a dream.
I took a short walk to Kaleidoscope Juice for the same smoothie I’d had the day before and a coffee. My favorite post-long run ritual! I called my parents and did a quick Instagram post and then headed back out to do some cheering.
I LOVE MARATHON FINISH LINES! I stayed out there for about 30 minutes yelling my face off. So inspirational. Highly recommend spectating a marathon and if you’re running one – go back to the finish to cheer on your fellow runners. Best way to wrap up my course experience.
I made my way to the finish festival where I wandered around for a bit. Every Woman’s Marathon kills it with the expo and finish festival. So many activities and so well done. There was everything from medal engraving to recovery areas to a concert with Sierra Ferrell.
I got back to my room a little after 2p and a hot shower, robe and bed felt like a dream. I FaceTimed Finn which was so sweet.
BIGGEST THANK YOU to the Every Woman’s Marathon for creating such a special race. It’s been such an honor to join #TeamMilk and to partner with PET Dairy these last two years. If you enjoy marathons or if a marathon is on your radar – I cannot encourage you enough to experience this one. I’ll share details once 2026 is announced!
That’s a wrap on this recap! I’ll have one more post recapping my time in Scottsdale. I’m also thinking about running goals for the first part of 2026. I’m thinking I’d like to formally train to race a half or a full and I want to do a 50K trail race for fun! 🙂
