A year ago this month, Nancy Morehead
of Pleasanton crossed the finish line of the Boston Marathon. A few minutes
later, she heard an explosion back where she had just been. Then she heard
another.
“My husband was a few blocks away and
also heard the explosions,” said Morehead, 52. “We got to our car and left as
quickly as we could.”
The bombings at the Boston Marathon
have not dissuaded Morehead from running races or pursuing her goal of running
50 marathons in all 50 states, a goal she has been chasing since she signed up
for her first marathon in 2001 on her 40th birthday.
“I’m halfway to my goal,” said
Morehead, who works for the East Bay Regional Park District as an
administrative analyst in the police department.
“I love working for an agency I
believe in,” she said. “It's the perfect spot for me because my degree is in
recreation and I had a short career as a deputy sheriff.”
Morehead’s job also allows her to get
out on weekends to run long distances with her dog, Cooper, a mutt of
questionable heritage from the Border Collie Rescue Society. “He has a lot of
Border Collie for sure with his herding instincts, intelligence, and great
endurance for long runs,” she said.
Morehead’s husband, Skip, is also a
runner and has completed several marathons and two Ironman triathlons. “We’ve
been married for 30 years,” said Morehead. “Skip loves to travel, so it's easy
to convince him to go to another state for a long weekend so I can run a
marathon.”
In addition to running, Morehead uses
her free time to coach for the non-profit organization Team in Training, which
offers training in a variety of endurance sports while raising funds for the
Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Having coached swimming and water polo for
many years at Tracy High School, she currently coaches Olympic distance
triathletes.
Of course, 26-mile marathons are not
the only endurance races she runs. Morehead has completed two Ironman
triathlons, which consist of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bicycle race, and a
marathon.
But wait, there’s more: “When I turned
50, I decided to run a 50-mile race, so I signed up for the America River 50,”
she said. This run begins in Folsom and runs steadily uphill to Auburn. The
final miles are steep, but the views of the American River are spectacular.
Asked what advice she has for new runners,
Morehead recommends taking 30-60 second walk breaks. In one marathon, Morehead
counted 162 people she passed in the last six miles because she had taken short
walk breaks each of the 26 miles. “Don't let anyone tell you walk breaks make you
slower,” she said. “They make you stronger longer.”
Adding to the wonder of Morehead’s
quest to run a marathon in every state is the fact that when she was a younger
woman she hated running.
“It took me 40 years to discover that
I’m an endurance athlete,” she said, offering this advice to all of us: “Don’t
stop trying new things.”
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