My involvement in the racing community began 15 years ago. I was inspired by a mom with 18-month-old twins, who had trained for and ran the San Francisco women’s marathon. A marathon seemed like a very daunting task (especially with two babies at home), but several of us other moms decided we’d like to try to train to run a 5K. And that was the start of what’s been a very involved racing career. 

After training for that 5K, I knew I’d never be fast (like my husband). So I decided he could have the speed and I’d go for distance. Within a year, I was training for my first 25K. After watching me cross the finish line, my husband decided that maybe, just maybe, running for more than an hour at a time wasn’t absolutely insane. 

I enjoyed running, but then I volunteered at a triathlon and I thought that event looked like so much fun. I mean, why be mediocre at one discipline when you can really be absolutely average in three of them. That led me to doing my first triathlon in 2013.

That fall, all three of my sons were in school full time and my need to be a full time stay-at-home-mom was coming to an end. The opportunity to work as the assistant to the race directors of that triathlon just fell into my lap about 4 weeks after the start of school. That was the beginning of a 10-year career helping put on two of the biggest triathlons in Michigan. While I have enjoyed being a runner and a triathlete, my real passion was in helping other people cross the finish line. Connecting with other athletes and making their race day journey easier brought me joy. 

In 2022, my need to be there for my family in our time of need pulled me away from being involved in dozens of races every year. I needed more time, less stress, and weekends available. I moved on from the race community into a job that is more focused on assisting individuals and families with their day to day needs, giving me more time to focus on what really matters in my life. 

But it wasn’t long before Don Kern reached out to me hoping that I would give a little bit of what I’ve been giving the West Michigan racing community for over a decade to the Grand Rapids Marathon. I didn’t miss the work as an assistant to the race directors, but I did miss the athletes. So in 2023 I came on staff of the Marathon as one of the persons in charge of merchandise. 

My husband of 30 years has long since passed me in the distance game of running. He’s completed more than a dozen marathons and several ultras (because running 11 hours isn’t more insane than running 3!). I’ll stick to half marathons and shorter (but I still prefer triathlons). Our youngest son is a senior in high school this year, and since he grew up watching his parents run, he too became a runner. He’s been on the varsity Cross Country team since his freshman year. And our oldest was a star baseball player. The longest he liked to run was 90 feet between bases and if he could hit it out of the park even better. 

I appreciate being back in action on race weekend and watching hard working athletes accomplish amazing things!