Karolyn is 53 years old, lives in Middletown RI and is married with 4 children (all boys)… ages from 17 to 24 years old (NOT one runner!!). She has been a kindergarten teacher for the past 27 years.
She joined the BAA 5 years ago and has been running on the BAA master’s racing team. Every morning she’s out the door at 5:00am to get her run in and start her day!!
She has been a runner since high school where she was a 2x High Cross Country Rhode Island state champion in her junior and senior years. She ran for Rhode Island College for a short time but kept getting injured. She took a break for a while to focus on her career, family, and raising four children. Then for her own sanity, I=she decided to get back into running in her early 40s and began competing in local races.
Running is her passion. Her marathon training really took off when she decided to run the Boston Marathon in 2013. Being a New England runner, Boston was always on her bucket list for marathons. After completing her first Boston Marathon in 2:57:41, she was motivated to return for the following 4 years. Through her 40s, she began running faster and faster with some great coaching and also being part of an amazing team! It’s the team spirit that keeps her motivated and running with other amazing women.
THEN she turned 50…she still kept running faster and decided to try to break some 50-54 American track records. She managed to break the outdoor 1500m record a few days after she turned 50 and then went onto indoors and broke the 1500, mile, and 3000 American records.
This past spring she was excited to come back to Boston and finally run the marathon with the BAA’s women’s master’s team. Although she battled the course with a hip injury, she managed to break 3 hours and finish in 2:57:48 and lead her team to a first place finish!
Fall 2021 her team also placed first at the XC club nationals in Florida.