Organizing a women’s only race

We chatted with the founder and director of the Sole Sisters women’s race, Stacy Chestnutt, in the days after her race became the largest women’s only 5K in Canada.

How was the idea for the Sole Sisters – a women’s only race without timing –  born?

The idea for a women’s only race was not my original idea. I used to live in New York and was a member of the New York Road Runners. The New York Mini 10K was a women’s only race. I didn’t normally care about the race shirts, but it just seemed like the Mini had better shirts, better medals and this great vibe. Then I moved to Halifax and I missed the women’s only race. I would go back to New York for the Mini, but I felt as though we were missing out not having one in Halifax.

As for not timing, I coach for the Girls Gone Gazelle Run Club, a not-for-profit group for pre-teen girls and so I know that when you first start running, it’s not about being competitive. I became a runner because I couldn’t play basketball. You don’t have to be fast to be good; if you’re a runner, you’re a runner. My goal is to get women active, so why would I put the pressure of a time on them? The idea is to get as many people participating as we can. We want to be as big as possible. Nova Scotia is not big, so it is really crazy that we had 3,200 women running.

I do every women’s only race that I can. I’m doing the Mini 10K this weekend. I go to other races to see  what they’re doing – if they’re something good, I’m going to incorporate it.

How is planning and organizing a women’s only different from planning other races?

I put on two other races and organizing a women’s only race is definitely more work. I think that is because women are more engaged. I’ve been racing for 26 years and I know that guys tend to be more laid back and just show up, but women are planners. As a woman, I think about what I want and try to meet my own high expectations, so everything has to keep getting better.

This is a very labour intensive race. I have three water stops, even though you don’t need three water stops during a 5K. They’re really more theme and cheering stops. We have a hug station and chocolate station—they are events within the race and that’s part of what makes it so special. Though I do always say at the beginning of the race “ladies you do not have to drink at every stop!”

Twenty five per cent of the field are walkers or first time runners, so they are just getting from water stop to water stop. Inclusive and welcoming is the vibe that we’re going for.

What were some memorable moments from the weekend for you?

During the race I saw one of the girls that I previously coached. I didn’t know that this former gazelle was doing the race and last year she was very shy. I ran over during the race and gave her a big hug while she was running. Her mom sent me a picture after and told me how proud her daughter was of finishing the race all by herself. It means the world to me to know that the girls go on to keep racing and keep building confidence in themselves.

One of my other favourite moments from the weekend was watching the young lady that was our last finisher. She has multiple sclerosis and every single volunteer left on the course walked it in with her. The entire hug station was with her, the course marshals were with her, the volunteers at the finish area were with her and that is a visual that I’m not going to forget for a very long time.

What sort of team did you have working with you?

I had over 150 volunteers and they did absolutely everything. I had two local running clubs, the Lakeshore Runners and the Halifax Running Club, working two of the water stops. Team In Training has an offshoot group called Moms In Training and they did one of the water stops and helped with registration. The Dartmouth Crusaders are a local elite swim club and they did the chocolate station.

The neatest thing about a women’s race is that women are so supportive of each other. This is their race. Volunteers on race day are mostly male but beforehand, mostly female. Thursday night we had to lift some really heavy boxes containing over 3000 medals and it was all women that came and did it. You don’t even have to tell a woman to do something, she just does it. We had a really quick and seamless set up thanks to all the work that those women did previously.