I am originally from Michigan and joined the military to pay for medical school. I spent six years as an Air Force flight surgeon, and deployed to Qatar and Afghanistan. While I was in Qatar, a seed was planted in my mind by a fellow flight surgeon who was training for a marathon. I thought…if he can do it, so can I. So my quest began, and I ran my first Marathon several months after I returned from that first deployment. Running was not new to me. I’d been running since I was 15, when I joined my high school cross country team to be in better shape as a fast pitch softball pitcher. Running was a great coping mechanism to deal with stress during medical school, my time in the military, and in residency. It’s still what I do to clear my mind now that I’m the medical director at the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness. Even when stress is at its highest, like right now with the COVID-19 Response, running remains a way for me to stay healthy and focused. I’m excited to share this pastime with my son, Jacob Ray, who is a runner as well. I can’t keep up with him anymore! The picture below is after one of the races we ran together. I’m also always trying to encourage people to give running a try at my workplace—unfortunately many of us were planning to run the Derby Mini Marathon this year & I was looking forward to congratulating my work colleagues at the finish line—hopefully we will be able to complete the run in August or next year!
Favorite distance? I like running anything from a 5K to a half-marathon. As long as I have trained adequately these can all be fun distances!
Do you have any running/walking advice you'd like to offer?: Don’t ignore the core and don’t overtrain! I have found as I’ve gotten older that I can continue to run and maintain a decent pace with a three day per week training plan and some regular core strengthening. This allows me to keep running even when life gets crazy at times and prevents me from getting those nagging runner injuries!
Also, I think anyone can be a runner if they put their mind to it. I wasn’t the fastest runner, but my high school cross country team was so much fun, running ended up being my favorite sport. I’m grateful that I made that decision to join way back then! Sometimes you have bad days, but you just keep putting one foot in front of the other.
Why do you like running River City Races events?: I have found over the year that runners are a fun bunch. Anyone willing to get up early to go to a Saturday morning run must love running as much as I do! That camaraderie is a rare find today. My first run in Louisville after moving here in 2013 was the Polar Bear Grand Prix series…I was hooked and have been running in River City Races ever since! Thank you!
Anything else you'd like to share?:
The pictures below are of me and Jacob Ray (my son, age 11 at the time) after a race; my husband Jeff Ray, Jacob and me in Rocky Mountain National Park; and the Incline in Colorado Springs which we “ran” this past summer…It was a bit more difficult than I remembered it to be ten years ago the last time I ran it!