Consider the first family of Northern Kentucky University.
Intelligent and highly educated — or well on their way. Well-travelled. Community- and environmentally minded.
And they’re runners. Some are highly competitive; some run for the sheer joy of releasing their endorphins. Each and every one of them — from NKU President Geoff Mearns, to his wife, Jennifer, who runs her own business, to their five children, ranging in age from 17 to 23 — have been strapping on the running shoes and heading out for a family run for most of their lives.
It’s a talent that nearly took Geoff to the 1984 Summer Olympics, and has allowed youngest daughter Molly to shine on the trails of Northern Kentucky, where she won the Regional Cross Country championship a few years ago, when she set the a new school record for Highlands.
“In season I run almost every day,” Molly, 17, said. “I like to take some time off after every season, but I also like the fun runs on vacation with family, mainly because they involve some kind of food incentive at the end — pancakes, ice cream, etc.”
Despite the competitive nature of some members, what they most enjoy is a good, family fun run.
“We will do family runs every so often, but especially when we are on vacation,” said Geoffrey Jr., 17, Molly’s twin, and a high school track star in his own right.
“I usually run with two or three of my teammates on a daily basis, and I reserve Sunday for a run with my dad… My favorite race is the Mearns Thanksgiving Day Pie Run, because it is when all of the 36 cousins and eight aunts and uncles come together and race for fun.”
The Pie Run is around Horseshoe Lake in Shaker Heights, Ohio. Geoff and Jennifer started it more than a decade ago, and keep it going, supplying all of the donuts, bagels, coffee, hot chocolate, and water. More than 125 friends and family have shown up.
Daughter Christina, 21, who just completed her sophomore year in the Long Island University global studies program and has been studying in Costa Rica, also cited the Pie Day race as one of her favorite parts of being in a running family. But she added that it’s sometimes a pain because it’s usually cold and snowy up in northern Ohio in November.
A cold and snowy Mearns-sponsored Pie Day Run in Shaker Heights, Ohio (Photo provided)
She’s also described herself as being “the least competitive person in my family.”
“I can’t remember when I started running,” she said. “It was just something my family did so I went along… I ran track for one season in middle school, and that was enough for me.”
But the family history belies Christina’s lack of competitiveness.
Older sister Bridget, 23, who will be heading off to graduate school at the University of Virginia in the fall, said she “started running pretty much since I could walk.”
“In the seventh and eighth grades, I would randomly go out and run before school some days just for fun, and participated in track. My freshmen year of high school is when I started running competitively for the first time… Right now my running style is more for fun and fitness, but I still love the feeling of a good track workout from time to time.”
Clare, a 19-year-old sophomore studying psychology at the honor’s program at NKU, said she originally was reluctant when the family would go out for runs. But she’s caught the bug: “Now I’m running every other day. I am not too serious about running, but I plan to continue running for fun.”
Dad Geoff, 55, started running as a 12-year-old growing up in Cincinnati, and still runs on a daily basis. He remembers running the Thanksgiving Day 10K when it started in Fort Thomas. He ran competitively in high school and college.
In 1978, as a freshman at Yale, he won a two-mile race in a Ivy League meet, crossing the finish line in 9:01, breaking the Yale freshman record then held by Frank Shorter, the 1972 Olympic marathon champion.
Ten years later, he continued to follow Shorter, one of the sport’s all-time greats. Geoff ran a 2:16 marathon, a time good enough to qualify him for the Olympic trials. (Shorter’s time in ‘72 was 2:12.19; Carlos Lopes of Portugal won the ‘84 race in a then-record time of 2:09.21.)
“I’m still running,” he said, “although I go much slower these days. I was a competitive runner for nearly 20 years. But now I run for health and fitness.”
Mom Jennifer had a late-blooming career.
She started running in college, when her roommate asked her to fill in at a cross-country qualifying race because the team needed a few more women to fill out the squad.
“I had no idea what (cross-country) was, and they just told me to follow the pack,” Jennifer, 54, said. “I ended up second to last in the race; the last runner had some sort of injury and was limping.”
But she soon found her speed. In that first race, her time was 33 minutes. “Two years later, I held the school record on that same course — 20:06 if I recall,” she said.
She qualified for the NCAA Nationals — the first time anyone at her college, Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island, had qualified for an NCAA national competition.
“My most memorable race was my first marathon — the Newport Marathon in 1981 when I was a senior in college. I was hoping to break 3:30 and I ran 3:07. I think I was the seventh woman, which was a big surprise.”
Her personal record in a 10K is 36:37. She ran the Avon Half Marathon in Central Park in 1983, finishing at an hour and 22 minutes, good enough to hit the top 10 for women.
“In 2008, a group of running friends asked me to run on their team in one of those crazy 200-mile, 24-hour races,” she said. “Our Cleveland Rocks team competed in the Reach The Beach race in New Hampshire. The race starts in the White Mountains in the late afternoon and finishes the next evening at the beach. We had a lot of fun supporting each other, but it was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me.”
Now, she runs mostly for fun and exercise. She sometime enters a race or two on the NKU campus, such as the summer’s cross-country series, which attracts many high school and college runners.
“But the hills (and the students) make me feel really old,” she said.
Paul Long, on the road (Photo by Kris Payler Staverman)
Paul Long writes weekly for the NKyTribune about running and runners. For his daily running stories, follow him at dailymile.com or on Twitter @Pogue57
