A race to the lighthouse
wømontauk is the first long distance women only relay to be held in the US — athleticism and adventure combine to race the length of Long Island
There are those who run more for escape and a sense of adventure than anything else. They are members of a breed that needs something more than the traditional park loop on a spring Sunday morning. Cheering crowds and the crush of competition makes them feel confined; instead, they hunger for exploration and accomplishment. I know because I am one of them: a champion of the different, of the underground and of the new.
It’s the nontraditional races that stoke the fire in me. The gracefully orchestrated chaos of the Midnight Half has drawn me in every year despite my good sense. Or maybe because of? It’s a race where the first place finisher isn’t necessarily the most talented or best remembered. And I’ve won twice. The real champions of the city are the brazen loud mouths who run entirely with heart, leaving the most indelible of impressions.
It’s the races of which completion do not seem humanly possible, like T he Speed Project, a 344 mile relay from Los Angeles to Las Vegas that silently humbled every runner that accepted the challenge. To be on a team where nothing is demanded of you except to demand everything of yourself creates an environment of encouragement, passion and determination. It’s an environment where your body will quit long before your mind, and when it does, it’s the type of race that screams, “I double dare you!”
It’s on long and lonely runs to the beach that I feel my motivation for running revive just as I’m ready to give up. The very first of these runs, for me, ended at the Montauk Point Lighthouse. It was a run so meaningful that I got the geographical coordinates tattooed on my clavicle, right next to my heart.
Taking part in and helping to plan adventures has become increasingly interesting to me and it’s certainly fulfilling. But there’s still something missing from the greater landscape — something I don’t see enough of when I step up to toe the line on the pavement or the sand: women. Women who, like me, are bold and daring but stay away from the endurance challenges such as The Speed Project for reasons I’m not entirely sure about…
When you can’t find what you’re looking for, go out and make it yourself.
So that’s exactly what I did. woMontauk is to my knowledge, the first ever curated ultramarathon relay solely for women. On June 24, 2016, four teams of four runners will traverse the 122 miles from the base of the Williamsburg Bridge in Manhattan to Long Island’s easternmost point, Montauk. There are new runners and seasoned veterans. There are those who are fleet of foot and others who have no use for the beeping of a watch. What they share and what unifies them is undeniable courage, ferociousness and tenacity. I hope they reach the ocean at Montauk Lighthouse as inspired as I was the first time, and have been every time since. And I hope they finish feeling emboldened to go out and create and never stop.
Follow the adventure on social media:
Instagram: @renegaderebellion
Snapchat: RnegadeRbellion
