I’ve entered a lot of races of varying distances over the past five years. But this weekend was a first for me. It was the first time I’d lined up at the start of a women-only event. Luckily the race was a 10k, not a marathon – our periods might have synced by the time we’d covered 26.2 miles.

The Women’s Running 10k was being held in Finsbury Park, North London. A park just a mile and a half from my flat so there was no excuse not to roll out of bed on a Saturday morning and head there for the 9.45 start.

We warmed up and headed to the start and everyone got chatting about race expectations and goals – much like a mixed race then. A horn sounded and we were off with everyone down the front jostling for position as we went round the first bend and up a hill. It was then I remembered that this wasn’t strictly speaking my only time running in an all-female field – I’d done a cross country race for my old running club a few years ago and for this the women and men ran separate.

Anyone who has stood by the side of a women’s cross country race will tell you that when it comes to running, there’s no real difference between men and women. The competitiveness is just as fierce and the camaraderie just as strong no matter what your gender.

I’ve run around Finsbury Park a fair few times and know that it takes four laps to make up a 10k run, so when the race organisers promised a two lap course, I was sceptical that they were talking about the same park. But come race day, via some possible form of magic, the course managed to loop round and find those extra kilometres.

I was running the race with Team Write This Run and the out and back sections of the race allowed me to look out for the other team members and give them a shout. And that’s what this event was about – getting together with a group of women, heading to a race and cheering each other on. I’ve never felt the need to seek out a race that is for women only, but being part of one was a nice experience. And if it helps encourage women into running then that’s a good thing.

By the second lap my legs were feeling the distance having gone up and down the hills a couple of times but I ran to plan and finished bang on 50 minutes. This was, after all, my first race of a two-race weekend. The next day I’d be doing Run To The Beat half marathon. More on that tomorrow.