The NYRR Mini 10K is a women’s only race that has been held since 1972. It is of significant importance in women’s running history. Just three weeks after its inaugural running Title IX was signed.

The Battalion had 8 females racing, so the men were going to go cheer!

I crashed at Dougie’s as a lot of the gals were having a sleepover at my place. We ended up leaving at 6:30AM to report to cheer squad. Cooper lives close to Doug so we scooped her up. The weather was good, not perfect, but better than years past.

I have to say it is a strange feeling to not be racing. Part of you is like ‘Oh I feel left out, I wish I could race’. Then, as I sipped my giant cup of Starbucks I thought, ‘No, this is lovely, what a day to watch people run. I am a good clapper.’

First up was Maddie, our youngest team member. She was racing the kids race in the 7-10 bracket. As we were getting her into corrals Erica and Robert rolled up with their son Emmit!

At 72nd Street we met up with Maura who briefly joined our cheer squad. Eric (elite cheer squad) showed up to hang as well. My buddy Pat from the Reservoir Dogs was hanging out for a bit too. She crushed it. What other 10 year old has a Battalion race singlet?

Next up were the masses of women. It was pretty packed at mile .25, luckily our team shirts are red and very easy to spot in a crowd. Abbe, Susan, Amy, and Danika rolled by in a squad looking good. We then saw Bojana, who seemed to be having a lot of fun and was all smiles. Once the main pack left we hustled over to the Boathouse which was mile 5.

We saw all the gals, this time we spotted Kelly. They had broken up into smaller groups and drifted apart, but they all looked strong.

Douige, Maddie, Eric and I hustled over to the finish line where we met everyone. There was just one person missing… Amanda. She was in wave 2 and was about to cross the finish. We gave her a serious cheer as she cruised through the chute.

There were of course many team pictures to be taken. Once that was done there was one final plan, meet up to celebrate at the Boat Basin at high noon. We did an all hands in the middle of the circle cheer ‘BATTALION!’ and then split.

THE AFTER PARTY

Then after the run it’s the after party. We rendezvoused at noon as planned and scored a giant table right in the middle of all the action. There were roughly 12-14 of us in attendance. We had a blast and were there for most of the day… I mean, it was gorgeous out. Towards the end of the afternoon I noticed that randomly my friend Beth was there with another group of 6-8 runners, cool! We hung for a bit before it was time for dinner and Abbe and I parted ways.

Congratulations to all the female Battalion members who killed it and congrats to all my female friends on other teams who killed it!