Women Supporting Women: A Women’s Program for the Portland Half Marathon

I’ve found that there are two types of female runners. The first type is the one who will always see you as competition. These runners are always trying to beat you, “one up” you, or diminish your accomplishments.

The other type of female runner is the one who’s there to lift you up, the one who will show up when you doubt yourself, and the one who’s there to cheer at the finish line, the start line, and everywhere in the middle too. These women make you feel like a rockstar even when you feel like you are failing.

The danger with women runners is that many pretend to be the second type when they are, in fact, the first type.

What’s made me a good coach is that I’ve seen both types of runners. It’s been my mission to surround myself with the second type of runner described above. I’ve worked really hard to build a community of light instead of surrounding myself with the stuff that lives in the dark.

And one of those beacons of light came to me in the form of Heini Tallent, another running coach and friend who has the same values as I do. She believes, like I do, that there’s a place at the table for all women of all abilities. The more we can offer and contribute to other women, the stronger we will all be together. We really need more of this in the world, and our actions are powerful.

Heini and I started discussing our collection of knowledge as runners and coaches a long time ago and we’ve talked about teaming up again and again over the years. What could we do together? What could we offer other women? We wanted to create a place where women could help other women get to the finish line rather than push them aside to get there first. And finally, we created Women Run PDX.

Women Run PDX is a 13 week training program for women runners who want to get to the finish line of the Portland Half Marathon on October 5th safely and successfully. We wanted to give women a more personalized plan than what we are seeing offered elsewhere while also giving them a community where they won’t feel alone in their training.

This program will officially begin on July 8th, 2025 at a track in SW Portland. We’ll be meeting our runners twice weekly, once at the track on Tuesday nights for interval work and once for the long runs on Saturday mornings at Waterfront Park. Along the way, we’ll be offering coaching on everything from nutrition, cross training, hydration, strength training, and more.

Every runner will get a training plan to follow and we’ll be running alongside the group for the long runs, with Heini at the front of the pack for runners at about a 9 minute pace and me at the back with runners at about a 12 minute pace. We recognize that there are many runners both faster and slower than this, but since there are only two of us, we are doing all we can to keep runners together.

This is likely to be a smaller more intimate group than some of the other programs out there, which we hope will give significant value to our clients in the program. Maybe someday we can build a larger program that includes other runners to help us offer more paces, but this is our first training program together so we hope to find some success with smaller numbers first.

Our biggest goal is for runners to feel the support of a running community and get guidance where they need it. It can be hard to find other runners when you’re training for a race, and we really want to offer up a safe and supportive space for women to band together. That’s why we’ll also have a WhatsApp group so that everyone has a place to chat about everything and anything they are feeling and experiencing throughout the 13-week journey to the start line of the race.

The cost of the program is $250, which amounts to about $10 a session which we think is pretty reasonable for the value of what you’ll get. However, it’s important to note that the training program does not include the cost of the Portland Half Marathon. You do have the option of saving $5 by registering on the “Women Run PDX” team when you register for the race. Whether you register for the Women Run PDX training or not, feel free to sign up for any distance of the Portland Marathon/Half Marathon/10k under our team name to get the discount here. Sharing is caring!!

So, the bottom line is this – if you’re a woman thinking about signing up for the Portland Half and you’re somewhere in the neighborhood of a 9 minute to 12 minute pace, the Women Run PDX program might be the push you need to get there. I have no doubt that you can do it alone, as I see those women every day and they are so inspiring.

But if you don’t have to, this is your opportunity to walk away with so much more than you paid for and to find some new friends in the process. Take a chance and maybe you’ll find some ladies in that second group of female runners I was talking about. Let’s take this journey together!