Idea Village awards $1,500 prize to platform for watching women's sports
Watch Women's Sports (IRL) took the grand prize at Idea Village's Pitch Night at the House of Blues in New Orleans, against four other finalists.
Lucy
Schodell
I run really long distances, and I build things that I wish already existed.
I've run across the Atacama, the Mojave, and the Gobi, usually a few hundred miles at a time and always with a crew. In between races I run a summer camp for young people in New Orleans, and I'm building Watch Women's Sports (IRL). Most of what I write ends up on Substack.
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Start here
It's always about the people
I'll miss the community, shared suffering (and shared triumph), the silliness, absurdity, and challenge of the entire endeavor. Mostly, I'll miss the people. It's always about the people.
Making It Easier to Show Up for Women's Sports
I was an athlete as a kid. I loved the feeling of running hard, of competing, of seeing what I was capable of. I remember, as a young athlete, how meaningful it was to me when people showed up to my games.
"I Love Seeing the World on My Own Two Feet" - Ultra Gobi 400KM Race Report
The race's own write-up of my 94 hour crossing of the Gobi, running it with Jack Carey, and the scholarship money it raised for Live Oak Camp.
Ultra Gobi 400km
Running ultras has never really been about running or the numbers. It's about people, community, connection, and adventure. It's about experiencing the beauty of the world. It's about doing something really hard and feeling gratitude for all that the body is capable of.
Running
Long distances, mostly in deserts
I ran my first marathon as a college freshman in 2008 and my first ultra in 2017. In 2023 I entered The Speed Project Solo, 293 miles from Santa Monica to Las Vegas, as my first attempt at anything past 100 miles. I won it outright.
Since then I've run across the Atacama, finished the Moab 240 with a ten week old at home, and spent four days crossing the Gobi desert at Ultra Gobi. Most of these races have also been fundraisers for the camp I run.
"Running is a team sport, and I've got the best team."
Projects
Things I've built
Since 2025 · Active
Watch Women's Sports (IRL)
Find a game. Put it on your calendar. Bring a friend. Bring a kid.
Supporting women's sports in real life shouldn't be hard, but it often is. Schedules live on dozens of different websites, and a lot of them are incomplete or out of date. Watch Women's Sports (IRL) puts it in one place, across every league and every level, filtered by where you are and what's actually on.
I remember asking my mom why 'women couldn't be professional athletes' when I was young, which was an assumption I made because I only saw men playing sports professionally. Every little girl who plays sports deserves to dream.
Selected
Recent work and appearances
Radical Who?
On Tilly GW's Radical Equity Program, which brought the LA to Vegas solo start line to 51% female and non-binary runners in 2025. That was the field I raced in.
It's always about the people
I'll miss the community, shared suffering (and shared triumph), the silliness, absurdity, and challenge of the entire endeavor. Mostly, I'll miss the people. It's always about the people.
Making It Easier to Show Up for Women's Sports
I was an athlete as a kid. I loved the feeling of running hard, of competing, of seeing what I was capable of. I remember, as a young athlete, how meaningful it was to me when people showed up to my games.
"I Love Seeing the World on My Own Two Feet" - Ultra Gobi 400KM Race Report
The race's own write-up of my 94 hour crossing of the Gobi, running it with Jack Carey, and the scholarship money it raised for Live Oak Camp.
Ultra Gobi 400km
Running ultras has never really been about running or the numbers. It's about people, community, connection, and adventure. It's about experiencing the beauty of the world. It's about doing something really hard and feeling gratitude for all that the body is capable of.