EVERETT — For some folks, turning 50 is a tough milestone.
Let’s face it, at age 50 it’s hard to believe there are better days ahead. At 50 your body isn’t what it was at, say, 25. You don’t see as well, hear as well, remember as well or wear a bathing suit as well. And a lot of your athletic skills have gone bye-bye.
At least that’s how it is for most people.
But there are exceptions. Strange as it seems, some people actually get better with age.
People like Cheryl Plumb of Lake Stevens.
Plumb, who is 50, runs marathons. A few years ago she ran a full marathon of 26 miles, 385 yards in approximately 41/2 hours. That’s a good time, though hardly exceptional.
But Plumb kept training, and last October she ran the Tri-Cities Marathon through the eastern Washington cities of Richland, Pasco and Kennewick in three hours, 34 minutes and 34 seconds. Still not a world-class time, mind you, but it bettered the Boston Marathon qualifying time for women 50-54 by more than 30 minutes.
“And that,” said running pal Steve Hamilton of Everett, “is freaky good.”
Next Monday, Plumb will be one of around 25,000 runners, including some from Snohomish County, taking part in the 114th Boston Marathon, the oldest annual marathon in the world and likely the most prestigious.
“If you’re a runner, the Boston Marathon is kind of the ultimate goal,” Plumb said. “It’s the goal that means something to everybody. Everybody knows what the Boston Marathon is.
“People say to me, ‘Wow, you’re going to Boston. That’s really cool.’”
The race will be watched by an expected throng of some 500,000 spectators. Regardless of the weather — race day in Boston is often nippy and sometimes wet — the enthusiasm of the crowd helps make the race special.
“It’s amazing to me that people will stand out there for four hours to cheer you along,” Plumb said. “If you put your name on your shirt, they’ll be yelling your name, just trying to encourage you.”
Plumb, who works in the human resources department of the Everett School District, ran track as a girl growing up in Klamath Falls, Ore. But she was a sprinter back then, “and I’d complain if we had to run more than a mile,” she said.
She took up distance running in her early 20s, but didn’t run her first marathon until 2003. Last year’s Tri-Cities Marathon was her third.
Plumb says she runs “to be healthy, for the stress relief, and so I can eat without worrying. And I’m pretty competitive, so I enjoy the competition.”
A few years ago she hooked up with an Everett-area group called the Port Gardner Bay Runners. They train together a couple of times a week, and Plumb also works out by herself on other days. She prefers to run in the morning, and because she has to be on the job at 6:30 a.m. she will hit the dark, deserted streets of Lake Stevens at 4 a.m. (Brrrr!)
“I just get up and I run,” she said, explaining her early-morning regimen. “And when I’m done, I’m done. I don’t have to think, ‘Oh, I have to work out later.’
“I enjoy it. It’s quiet and I’m not dodging cars. And when I get to work (later in the morning), I’m wide awake and ready to go.”
If co-workers think she’s crazy, “they don’t tell me,” she said with a smile. “But they shake their heads a lot.”
Hamilton, another member of the Port Gardner Bay runners, is also headed to Boston for next week’s race. It will be his 28th marathon to date and his sixth Boston Marathon.
Boston qualifying times are challenging for most runners, Hamilton said, “and a lot of people just can’t make them. But Cheryl was (nearly) 31 minutes under her qualifying time. … She’s a 50-year-old female, and to run a 3:34 is just an amazing time.”
The Boston Marathon is one of the few marathons in the world with qualifying times, which means the field is elite. Together with the history and tradition, it helps make the race a unique event.
“It’s sort of like the Olympics for the average jogger,” Hamilton explained. “It’s really special being there, and that’s something you can feel with all the other runners who are around town. From the moment you walk into the airport, it’s there.”
And on race day, he added, “when you turn the last corner onto Boylston (Street) and you have 31/2 blocks to go, and you’re looking up at the banner (across the finish line), that’s when you know you’re going to finish this thing. The noise is just deafening and it’s very emotional. It’s just really cool.”
Plumb says she’s not quite sure what she’ll feel when she finishes the race. Also, she’s unsure about any future marathons.
But she does know that she expects to keep running.
“There’s a feeling of contentment,” she said, “when I’m doing something that I really love to do. And I can’t imagine not doing it. I think you have to have something you love doing, and for me it’s just a passion.
“Running gives me a sense of strength and a sense that I can pretty much do whatever I set my mind to do. I figure if I can run a marathon, I can probably do most things.”
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