"I started out wanting to run a marathon when I was on an on-line running group and there were several people training for marathons. Before I'd always thought I ran races, but nothing over a 10K and I thought training for running a marathon was actually a crazy idea to even think about and then I decided, well, the Heart of America was local so I'd start training for it. After I ran it, I pretty much decided that I wasn't going to do another one. That was enough. I had done it. And then in a few months, you change your mind. This will be 15 for marathons."
"I decided I was going to do my first marathon when I turned 50, which was last year, but I actually ran a couple just to try it out before that. I guess I'm still running for the fitness aspect and now, as Andy said, for the social aspect and to just keep building on what I’ve got going.
Not a lot of people know that it's going on, when it's going on. We don't shut down the streets, we don't shut down the city, it's just a very low-key affair. There's not a lot of support out there on the course but we sure appreciate the local high school cross country teams manning the water stations for us."