There are a lot of ways to experience the New York City Marathon.
You can run it. You can cheer for it. You can stand behind the barricades holding a sign for someone you love. You can spend the morning wondering how anyone voluntarily decided to run 26.2 miles through New York City.
Or, if you’re lucky, you can encounter a woman dressed as a pink cow on 90th Street and discover an entirely different side of Marathon Sunday.
That was where Mood caught up with Stephanie of Girls Running Collective, an all-women’s running group based in Dyckman and serving women across Uptown Manhattan.
And yes, the pink cow was intentional.
“I just thought it would bring some joy on Marathon Sunday,” Stephanie explained. “Come out, celebrate the runners, and just have a good time.”
Honestly? New York could use more pink cows.
But behind the costume is something much more meaningful: a community built around movement, encouragement, and the simple idea that women deserve spaces where they can show up exactly as they are.
Running, Walking and Showing Up
Girls Running Collective isn’t about creating a room full of elite athletes where everyone is comparing times and wondering who’s fastest.
Quite the opposite.
The group is designed as an all-women’s space where women can feel comfortable getting started, regardless of their experience level.
“You can run, you can walk,” Stephanie said. “We just want you to get up and move, because movement is just a healthy expression.”
That philosophy says a lot about what makes the collective special.
There is no requirement that you arrive already knowing how to run. There is no expectation that you have to keep up with somebody else. There is no pressure to prove that you belong.
You simply show up.
And someone runs with you.
No one gets left behind.
In a city where everyone seems to be moving at the speed of light, there is something wonderfully refreshing about a group whose philosophy is simply: Let’s move together.
Uptown Women Making Their Own Lane
Based out of Dyckman, Girls Running Collective is also part of something bigger happening across Uptown Manhattan.
Neighborhoods like Washington Heights and Inwood have long been home to vibrant communities, entrepreneurs, artists, professionals, families and young people creating their own paths. Girls Running Collective adds another layer to that story by creating a place where women can connect through something as accessible as putting one foot in front of the other.
The group meets every third Saturday of the month.
Getting involved is intentionally simple. Follow Girls Running Collective on Instagram or TikTok, watch for the monthly flyer, meet them at Dyckman and come ready to have a good time.
No complicated initiation process.
No intimidating athletic résumé.
Just show up.
When Running Becomes a Career Conversation
Then there is another part of the story that makes Girls Running Collective particularly interesting.
The women aren’t just encouraging one another to run farther. They’re inspiring one another to imagine bigger lives.
Stephanie shared that her co-founder, Heather, recently passed the bar.
“She’s our first lawyer,” Stephanie said proudly.
And that accomplishment becomes part of the collective’s larger culture of possibility.
What’s fascinating is that Stephanie says this isn’t necessarily something the women sit down and plan.
“It’s not intentional. It’s just kind of something natural that happens.”
That may actually be the secret.
When women surround themselves with other women who are moving forward, possibility becomes contagious.
One woman goes from never running to completing her first marathon.
Another becomes a lawyer.
Someone else decides to pursue a career goal she had been putting off.
Another simply gets out of bed and starts moving again.
Different goals. Same energy.
The message becomes: If she can do it, maybe I can, too.
The Power of Women Supporting Women
There is a familiar phrase about women supporting women.
Sometimes it becomes a social-media slogan, something nice to put on a graphic and scroll past.
But Girls Running Collective offers a more practical version of it.
Support can look like running beside someone who is struggling.
It can look like walking when you can’t run.
It can look like celebrating your friend’s new career accomplishment.
It can look like watching someone else accomplish something you once thought was impossible and deciding that perhaps your own impossible isn’t so impossible after all.
And sometimes support looks like dressing up as a giant pink cow because everyone could use a little more joy.
That may be the beauty of community. It doesn’t always announce itself as something profound.
Sometimes you just show up.
Then you realize you’ve found people who want to see you win.
A Message for the Next Generation
When asked what she would say to a young girl watching and thinking about her own future, Stephanie didn’t hesitate.
“Be confident in anything that she wants to do, because if you put your mind to anything, you can do it.”
It’s simple.
But sometimes the simplest messages are the ones worth repeating.
A young girl doesn’t necessarily need to know exactly what career she will have at 25. She doesn’t need to know whether she’ll become a lawyer, an entrepreneur, an artist, an athlete or something that hasn’t even been invented yet.
She needs to believe that she is allowed to try.
She needs to know that failure doesn’t mean she doesn’t belong.
She needs to know that walking doesn’t make her less worthy than the person running beside her.
And she needs people around her who will say, “Keep going.”
Girls Running Collective seems to understand that.
The finish line isn’t always the point.
Sometimes the point is discovering who you become while you’re moving toward it.
And on a Marathon Sunday filled with thousands of runners chasing their own finish lines, that might be one of the most beautiful stories happening along the route.
So here’s to Stephanie, Heather, Girls Running Collective, the women of Uptown Manhattan, the runners, the walkers, the future lawyers, the future leaders and, of course, the pink cow.
Because sometimes the best way to change your life is to put on your shoes, find your people and take the first step.
Question of the Day
What is one goal you’ve been putting off that you might finally pursue if you had the right people cheering you on?
Stay in the Mood
You don’t have to run a marathon to move forward.
You don’t have to have the whole plan figured out.
You don’t even have to run.
Sometimes you just need a little movement, a little courage and a community that reminds you that you’re capable of more than you think.
Find your people.
Take the first step.
And keep moving.
Because the life you’re dreaming about might be waiting for you somewhere along the route.
