She.is.Beautiful Gets Lucky

By Melissa McConville

She.is.Beautiful 5k and 10k presented by Dignity Health lucked out with a beautiful morning Saturday, March 18.

Nearly 5,000 women and girls took to the streets of Santa Cruz to honor of self-care, health, joy, community, and girl power.

This marks the 13th annual year for She.is.Beautiful, including the two years the event had to go virtual due to the pandemic. This year, $25,000 was raised for Walnut Avenue Women and Family Center in Santa Cruz.

Since its inception, She.is.Beautiful’s community donation to Walnut Avenue Women and Family Center totals nearly $200,000.

There are thousands of stories on our start line and thousands of reasons people show up to this event year after year.

Our event welcomes all levels from professional runners to those walking and everything in between.

Some people show up because they love to run, others show up to walk their first 5k. Some use the event as a way to honor themselves, reminding them that they can do hard things.

Others are showing up to honor someone they loved and use this as a way to celebrate that person. We had a group of more than 35 people honor a past participant, Stacey Souza, a 35-year-old avid SIB participant who recently died of a heart attack in her sleep. Her wedding was set for May.

Sarah Villar’s mother and family and friends have participated the last two years to honor their daughter who was killed by a drunk driver in 2021. Sarah participated in several She.is.Beautiful events and her family feels her presence when participating.

We have mothers and daughters who have participated together since the mother was pregnant. Because we have a stroller division sponsored by Bumbleride strollers, we encourage women to come out and move through every season of their life at their pace, including pregnancy and post-partum.

Surprises make the scenic course extra fun. This year participants ran through a Dignity Health arch, a REI donut and cheer section, and a HOKA party zone with a DJ.

The 5k and 10k end at the Lighthouse in Santa Cruz, where more than 30 vendors are there to celebrate the runners’ and walkers’ accomplishment: Free coffee from Verve, ice cream from The Penny Ice Creamery, Goodles, Martinelli’s, Black Girls Surf, local woman-owed Living Kombucha and Lume Six sport bra company.

The cute race shirts, custom goodie bags, photo ops, free race photos and good vices keep people coming back year after year.

We can’t wait for 2024!

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Melissa McConville of Soquel is founder and director of She.is.Beautiful, a 5k and !0k race in Santa Cruz and Sept 9 in Santa Barbara. Sign up at https://runsheisbeautiful.com/

Photos Credit: Captivating Photos