Hello from the founders!
I launched Women’s Running magazine in 2004 and it quickly became an award-winning
publication thanks to all our readers and partners. In 2009 my sister and I, along with our
amazing team, decided to launch a women’s running series.
We first launched in our hometown of St. Petersburg, Florida and then quickly grew the event to other locations in Tennessee, Arizona, Minnesota and California. The series raised nearly $1.3 million for charity and became the largest women’s series in the country with women from all 50 states and 16 countries participating!
In 2012, I got an offer I just couldn’t refuse and sold both companies. To be completely honest, I never found anything that made me as happy as when I owned the magazine and the race series. Seeing women of all ages cross the finish line and achieve their goals was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever experienced.
I’ve never stopped thinking about how running brings so much to our lives and how one day I might be lucky enough to once again return to an industry I love so much. When the women’s series I started shut down in 2014, I thought about launching a new women’s series but the timing never seemed right—until now. So here we are! And we are more excited than we’ve been in a really long time.
With your help, we envision the Virtual Women’s Half Marathon and its associated events (10K, 5K, Double Challenge and Triple Challenge) to become the largest and most exciting virtual running series in the country. We hope you will join us in making this a truly special event for you and all your running buddies!
Sincerely,
Dawna
Dawna is a mom of two kids, puppy lover, ice cream lover, chocolate lover, and lover of any ice cream with chunks of chocolate in it. She is the author of ten books, a certified health coach, motivational speaker and successful entrepreneur.
Co-Founder and CEO
Dawna Stone
Prior to launching and selling the award- winning national magazine, Women’s Running, and the nation’s largest Women’s Half Marathon Series, Dawna was a financial analyst for Wall Street investment bank Morgan Stanley, a strategy consultant for Deloitte Consulting, senior vice president of operations at Active.com, President of PR*Nutrition and chief marketing officer for a $700 million publicly traded company.
Dawna appears regularly on television and has appeared on the Today show, Martha, MSNBC, and morning news programs on NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox. She was the host of “Health and Fitness Talk” on Sirius Satellite Radio and had her own segment on Fox News called “Healthy Living with Dawna Stone.” Dawna is a highly sought-after speaker and has done engagements for Chobani, Disney, American Heart Association, Wharton Business School, WE TV, PGA Tour, Super Bowl Leadership Forum and many more.
Dawna has an undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley and an MBA from the Anderson School of Business at UCLA. She lives in St. Petersburg, Florida with her husband, two kids and two dogs.
Michele is a mom of two kids, rescuer of two cats and lover of sunset bike rides.
Co-Founder and VP of Business Development
Michele Stone
Michele is the proud mother of a daughter and son who are both serving in the US Army. Michele is an active outdoors enthusiast and specifically enjoys adventures on the beach or in the mountains. On the weekends, you can often find her riding her bike to the farmer’s market or around her St. Petersburg, Florida neighborhood.
Michele led the sales effort for the award-winning national magazine, Women’s Running, and sponsorship effort for the nation’s largest women’s running event series. Michele has developed highly innovative and creative solutions for major companies such as Nike, Milk Board, Under Armour, Subaru, New Balance, Oakley, L’Oreal and many more. Michele helped launch and sell both companies and is excited to get back into the running industry with the Virtual Women’s Run Series.
