Seventeen years ago in rainy Redmond, WA (1997), I found myself pounding up three flights of stairs to deliver a critical document to a Board of Directors meeting. As I stood outside the conference door, laboring to breathe, with my heart pounding in my ears, I was overwhelmed with conviction. This is not how I wanted to live my life. And so, my running journey began.
As a middle child in a family of eight, I was not accustomed to doing anything alone. It didn’t take long for me to recruit my youngest sister to join me on those early training runs. Somehow, despite being totally clueless, we managed to avoid injury and slowly began dropping weight and building fitness. In 1999, we stuck our foot in the water and entered our first local race in support of cancer research. We were thrilled not to come in dead last, but more than that, we found the experience exhilarating, humbling, and repeatable. Over the next few years, we started to recruit other family members and entered every local race we could find.
In Oct 2003, Melodie, Tricia and I decided to travel to Lake Tahoe and run our first half marathon together. It was a grueling course and still counts as one of the hardest courses we have ever run, but we completed it and an idea was born. We decided we wanted to run a half marathon in every state. We were hooked. We were runners for life.
One, or both of these two, has run with me in every half marathon I’ve ever done. Although the circle has now widened, they will always be my forever running buddies.
As the years went by, more and more family members began to join us on these runs. At family reunions, or any type of family gathering, it was rare not to have a training run or a race on the schedule. Our family encompasses every type of runner – from the competitive running fanatic, to the social recreational runner, to the balanced runners who are committed to living an active, healthy lifestyle. Our goal of running a half marathon in every state has given us a great reason to travel together as sisters and family members.
At this point in time, 6 out of the 8 Conrad siblings are north of 60. Age has required us to get a little smarter about running, but it has not diminished our enjoyment and passion for the sport. Out of an extended family of 98, at least half of us are runners. We’ve done marathons, relays, half marathons, 10K, and 5K’s. Some of us even manage to place in the top three in our age groups occasionally. Running has truly given us a bond that we will treasure all of our lives.
Runner Ramblings 