GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — It’s a race to empower women.
This Saturday the annual Bellin Women’s Half Marathon & 5K was held in Green Bay to celebrate and motivate female athletes of all levels and abilities while building camaraderie and highlighting health and well-being issues specific to women.
Event organizers say over 600 women from the community came out to run.
This female-focused event began outside the KI Convention Center and end at the CityDeck in the heart of downtown Green Bay.
The race first begun in 2015 with only a half marathon. But in 2018, Bellin added a 5K event to its race-day offerings, providing the opportunity for even more women to get feet on the street in the name of health and wellness.
This is the first time in two years the event took place in person.
Event organizers say for many moms this was a way to set an example for their own children. That being healthy and active can be fun.
"So when they cross that finish line in their full smiles and they have their little kids running across a lot of the times in their flip flops or whatever. Just having that joy and cheering them on is something really extra special," said Linda Maxwell, race director.
This year the event was offered in a hybrid in-person/virtual format after going exclusively virtual in 2020 due to the pandemic.
Rebecca Justiniano was one of the participants who ran the half marathon.
"The race today was so much fun. It was great to be back in person. Everybody was out there cheering. The excitement, everything, it was perfect, the weather was great, couldn't have asked for anything more," Justiniano said.
Not only did the racer complete the course but she was also individually handmade the medals every participant received. All 600+ of the medals were designed and created by her.
"On one side it says joy, its kind of outlined it was their logo word and then on the other side it says for the Bellin women's half marathon or the 5K and the year underneath," Justiniano said.
Below are pictures of those medals Justiniano designed.
Giving each medal a personal touch, she says she began working on them as early as last February.
"Each and every medal is different because they all passed through my hands and they were all stamped and filled, the chain was cut and assembled by me. So no two are the same," said Justiniano.
Her labor of love also leading her to gaining some extra muscles too.
"It's kind of labor intensive. It’s a four pound hammer and I'm hitting the metal, so when you do that a couple hundreds of times you arm gets really tired. So I have one really strong arm," Justiniano said.
