As a legacy runner with the LA Marathon for 23 years, I ran 10 other marathons, notably Oakland, San Francisco, Golden Gate, Long Island and New York City. My favorite was NYC because I ran through the five boroughs; my parents were from the Brooklyn Borough.
My marathon years began in 1980, when I taught at St. Elizabeth’s School in Oakland, with the Junior High Department team. I was invited to walk in the gym after school. I was very athletic in my own elementary and high school years (all our family were athletic and great swimmers.)
I immediately loved the walking and very soon began getting up at 4:30 a.m. with Sister Denise Lazaro to run in the high school yard, then to Lake Merritt – 3 miles away. I was good friends with Sister Marion Irvine, OP, a San Rafael Dominican who was ten years older and qualified for her age bracket for the 1984 Summer Olympics.
In 1982, I signed up for the Avon Run for Women. I was in the registration line behind a woman who was running her 11th marathon. I was in AWE!! And that was the beginning of my marathon “career”. Sister Kathleen Bryant, vocation director, for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, initiated the RUN FOR VOCATIONS with the 1989 LA Marathon. We had a great team every year and our bright green shirts pointed us out in the crowd of runners. Glorious days!!!!!
Sister Mary Sean, a Dominican Sister is the Foundress, Partnership for Re-Entry Program of the Restorative Justice ministry of the ADLA. Please consider a gift to PREP’s account at CCF-LA in her honor. PREP
