Marine Corps Base Quantico --
“I’ve always exercised my whole life but I never thought I could be a runner,” said Mary Jo Betyak-Eisler, supervisor of the Community Counseling Program aboard Marine Corps Base Quantico.
But in the last two years, this “non-runner” has completed two Marine Corps Turkey Trot 10Ks, two Historic Half Marathons, two Marine Corps 17.75Ks, and one Marine Corps Marathon. She is registered for this year’s marathon as well. And she has trained for all the events on a treadmill in her house.
“Not bad for a 46-year-old mom of four- and eight-year-old boys,” Betyak-Eisler said. “I’m in better shape now than I was in my 20s.”
Her journey from non-runner to runner started just two years ago at the 2014 Semper Fit Health Fair aboard Marine Corps Base Quantico, where she completed her first 5K race with some of her Behavioral Health co-workers. (The 2016 Health Fair and National Walk/Run at Work Day will be held Sept 16 at Butler Stadium, with the Health Fair beginning at 10:30 a.m. and the Walk/Run starting at 11 a.m.).
“I found that I just really liked it,” she said of that first race. “I had just bought the treadmill for my house and I started looking around to see what else I could do.”
She signed up for the Turkey Trot in November and then registered with her co-workers for the Historic Half Marathon the following May. Having never run anything close to the 13.1-mile half marathon distance, she thought she would sign up for a longer race to see whether she’d be able to finish. So she registered for the Marine Corps 17.75K (11.03 mile) race, which is held in March.
“I showed up for the event and was standing around with the other runners and found out that most of them were there because they’d get guaranteed entry into the Marine Corps Marathon in the fall,” Betyak-Eisler said. “I didn’t even know that. I was just doing it to practice for the half.”
She finished the 17.75K and went home with a ticket to the 40th annual Marine Corps Marathon in October.
“I’d always thought, ‘I never want to do a marathon—that’s crazy!’” she continued. “But now I had the ticket in my hand. I told my husband ‘I think maybe I can do it’ and he said, ‘Of course you can! You have to register.’”
So she did, and she finished the marathon with a time of 4:39:41. The only time she walked was through the water stations along the route and for a few minutes up the hill that precedes the finish line.
“I loved it,” Betyak-Eisler said. “It was the best experience. The Marine Corps does a great job running the event and the crowd support is amazing.”
She said that life got stressful for her in the months leading up to the marathon—her father was ill (he passed away shortly after) and work was tense—but she thinks these difficulties increased her motivation to finish the race.
Betyak-Eisler completed her second 17.75K and Historic Half this spring and is registered for the 41st Marine Corps Marathon in October. But she says she probably won’t run another marathon and that there are no ultra marathons in her future.
“People say, ‘Never say never,’ but I think this year is going to be it,” she said.
Still, running is now a part of her life. Four days a week, she gets up early, before her kids wake up, to run on her treadmill. She does a different kind of exercise for cross-training twice a week and takes Sundays off. She relishes the sense of accomplishment she gets from finishing racing events and said the adrenaline and endorphins from running help her stay focused at work and at home.
“I can feel a difference in my body when I don’t run,” she said.
Betyak-Eisler’s advice to all prospective runners—women especially—is “don’t assume you can’t do it.”
“I never did it before because I never thought I could,” she said. “But obviously, I can. Just try. Ask for advice. Set goals for yourself, even if they are small, and when you accomplish one, set another one.”
“And if you don’t like it, try something else,” she continued. “Find some kind of exercise that fits you.”
Writer: auphausconner@quanticosentryonline.com