Recently I had the pleasure to talk with an amazing member of our local running community, Rhonda Dunn. She has an interesting story of how she got her humble start running and now has compiled an amazing running resume.

Looking back at her childhood, Rhonda described herself as "the fat kid in high school." She had an exciting job opportunity at a correctional facility, however a big obstacle loomed in front of her .... there was a requirement to complete a 1.5 mile run in 14 minutes. So her running journey started then and there. She worked hard to successfully complete her run and then began her new working career. She next decided to sign up for a 5k race, which she ran on a sidewalk. She ended up falling flat on her face, requiring stitches. Strike one!

But Rhonda was not deterred. She was beginning to enjoy what recreational running was doing for her. It was controlling her weight and making her feel better about herself. She suffered another setback when an ex-boyfriend ran her over with her own car. The wheel mark was visible across her leg but somehow there were no broken bones. How tough is that!! What she was able to leverage from that experience was a true life lesson, "When someone tries to hold you down, rise higher!"

In the year 2000, Rhonda decided to try her first half marathon. She felt like she died out there. After that she was working out at a YMCA in downtown Milwaukee when a woman said she should try a full marathon. She thought she could never do that, remembering how she nearly died trying to run just half that distance. But she learned that it could be done with just 16 weeks of training, so she read a marathon book by Hal Higden and followed his program. On marathon day it was 92 degrees outside that morning, she was wearing cotton, had bad shoes, and didn't really know what she was doing out there. But again, she toughed it out and was able to complete it in 5:20, ending up in the medical tent. Afterwards she said, "Never again!"

But Rhonda is no quitter, when she heard Oprah ran a 4:30 marathon, and then P. Diddy ran a 4:15 marathon, she told herself, "You gotta beat Oprah! You gotta beat Diddy!" Again the full proved to be a difficult feat, and she always seemed to end up in the medical tent. Her family became concerned about her running anymore fulls, so she promised them that she would not.

In 2004, Rhonda signed up for the Fox Cities half marathon, as promised. But the night before, she quietly changed her registration to the full. She asked her mom to pick her up afterwards at 12:00, and when her mom saw her she could tell that she just ran the full. Not only did Rhonda complete it, but did so with an incredible time of 3:40:56, falling just short of qualifying for Boston, needing 3:40. She was amazed that without having any strategy for herself she still somehow nearly qualified. She looked again at the Boston Marathon website afterwards and was surprised to discover that she only needed a time of 3:40:59, so she actually did qualify by just 3 seconds!

That next marathon for Rhonda was Boston, her first out of state marathon. That's where her serious marathon addiction took off. She found this tremendous sub-culture of runners there. The race rules said no music while running, but there she was with her Sony Walkman, with an extra cassette tape along to change music mid race. She was soon running as many marathons as she could. She set 2 seemingly impossible goals, completing a marathon in each of the 50 states and completing100 marathons. Both goals were achieved in 2018.

Rhonda's 2010 setback was foot issues requiring surgery. For her comeback race she decided to attempt a 50 mile event. In hindsight she says she wouldn't encourage others to run this distance, she learned that the recovery afterwards took too long. She worked with a PT guy to help her recover and asked him if he was ok with her running a half. He agreed, but when she found out the half was sold out she instead ran the full. The PT guy was so angry with her decision that he told her she no longer needed him for PT and refused to see her anymore!

After achieving so many goals, Rhonda needed to find a new motivator. What goal could she set next? She thought about trying to complete a second marathon in each state, but that gets expensive. As she put it, "Who wants to pay $700 to run another f**king marathon in Vermont!" It was then that she discovered On Pace, the race pacing service with the pace sticks that Carrie and Paul Miller started in Green Bay. She found this was a way to connect her with new people. She could pick and choose the races she wanted to do. Now her "party pace" might be 5:00, which becomes a nice 5 hour running party spent with other runners. Another thing she liked about this is she could run a full every month and then didn't need to do any long training runs in between.

At the time of this interview Rhonda had completed 163 full marathons. That is incredible considering this was accomplished in a little more than 20 years. She is not sure about her future plans. She has considered setting a goal of 300 full marathons because not many have achieved that. But then she also thinks that she should possibly switch to running halfs instead. She finds that with age her times are getting slower. That can feel self-defeating. But she sees local mentors like Dave Moore and Ron Barr proving that one can continue running at any age. It's natural that our race times get slower with age, but says she's "not going to do nothing and feel sorry for myself." She will celebrate her 50th birthday later this month.

She finds that running is symbolic of life, you have good days (workouts) and bad days. At the start of her races she does the sign of the cross, says a prayer and is thankful for being there. And just like life, "It's about the people we meet along the way."

We will be throwing over annual Pacesetters Christmas Party on Saturday December 6, 2025. This will be held at Wilder's Cutting Edge Bistro, 2639 S Oneida St, Appleton. You can expect delicious food, drinks, slideshow, short program, good times and gifts for all. More details to follow.

The world's oldest marathon runner, Fauja Singh, who was still competing after turning 100 more than a decade ago, died in a hit-and-run in July. He was 114. Born in rural India in 1911 before later moving to London, Singh earned the nickname the Turbaned Tornado after he took up marathon running in his late 80s. His running club humorously call themselves Sikhs in the City. He went on to complete nine of the 26.2-mile races.

He was considered the world's oldest marathon runner, though he never secured a Guinness World Record because he didn't have a birth certificate. Singh only started running marathons when he was 89, after moving to England following the death of his wife and son.

"Running showed me kindness and brought me back to life by making me forget all my traumas and sorrows."

He ran his first marathon after just a couple of months of training, and achieved his personal best of five hours and 40 minutes at the 2003 Toronto Waterfront Marathon three years later at age 92. In 2011, Singh returned to Toronto, where he became the first centenarian on record to complete a marathon, finishing in eight hours, 11 minutes and six seconds.

It was a far cry from his humble childhood in India, when he was unable to walk until he was five due to weakness in his legs.