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Focus on ... Nina Parks-Taylor
I swear this will be my last marathon!
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i, I'm Nina Parks-Taylor. It's a little hard to say where I'm from because I'm what's called a "Navy Brat". My father was a Chief Petty Officer in the US Navy and we moved around from place to place when I was very young.
I was born in Miami and then spent the first three years of my life in Ethiopia. Then there was a stint in Washington D.C. for almost 3 years and another short stay in Pascagoula Mississippi. Finally, at age six, we settled down when my father was transferred to the big Navy Base in Charleston, South Carolina and in a few years he retired from active duty. His career spanned 25 years from the start of World War II till the late 60s. All my schooling was in Charleston, so I finally had a place I could call home. After my years of elementary, junior high and high school, I got a nursing degree and then from age 20 till I was 29 I worked as a nurse and put myself through a series of advanced degrees culminating in my CRNA (Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist) at age 29.
It was in high school that I joined the track team and fell in love with running, although even as a little kid, I loved running in the neighborhood and beating all the boys. Unfortunately, none of my colleges had a track team for girls. I was just a few years too early to take advantage of the new support of girls' sports in schools and colleges.
So finally in 1983, while I was still working my way through grad school, I got back into it: the first race was a 5K which I entered with no training at all and won 3rd place in my age group. Over the next several years I entered numerous local races and usually won an age place and sometimes I would win overall.
My parents were both very athletic and loved sports in their younger years. My two sisters and their families, on the other hand, have taken up running recently, not having done much in the way of athletics while in school. In fact, a couple of my nieces are quite competitive. Hopefully, I have been something of a role model for them.
Career wise, I was a nurse for about 10 years while I worked my way up to become a CRNA. This provided more opportunities and a better income level, and now that I'm an independent contractor, I have much greater control of my working hours. Before moving to New York in 2000, I worked for close to 10 years in North Carolina.
Early Running; first marathon
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oston 2010 was my 23rd marathon and my 6th Boston Marathon. These numbers really surprise me because marathoning is not my thing. I am a sprinter, or was a sprinter in high school, and the 400 (we called it the 440 yard dash) was my thing. I ran my first marathon, the 1998 Marine Corps Marathon, on a dare and agreed to do just “one”. I ran a 3:41 and my friends said, “You missed qualifying for Boston by one minute!” I wanted to know what Boston was. So, two years later I ran the Marine Corps Marathon again and qualified for Boston.
In 1991, I ran my first Boston Marathon. I was so excited that I went out way too fast and hit the wall around 16 or 17 miles. I was taking food from strangers, even orange slices from the Hell’s Angels, and praying that there was something in the food that would get me to the finish. Although I ran/walked the last nine miles, I still managed a 3:40 something, so I must have been flying on the first 17 attempting a 3:10 or something ridiculous like that. That experience of hitting the wall left me with the determination that I would never again run a marathon.
A few years later, I changed my mind and began to run marathons for charity using the “walking at the fluid stops” method. I wanted to run the 100th Boston but did not make the lottery. I decided to raise money for a favorite charity and ran Boston anyway. I ran under an alias because I had to keep the poparazzi away (sounds good huh? I heard a famous actor use that one and decided I would claim that as my excuse as to why my name was not in the official results that year).
I raised a great deal of money for the charity and decided after that to only run officially in all other events. Although I continued to run quite conservatively in marathons using my “walking every mile strategy” and learning that someone named Jeff Galloway became famous from marketing my technique, I began qualifying for Boston again. I ran a couple of Boston Marathons and a couple of New York Marathons, met my husband at the 1999 New York City Marathon and married him a year later in the middle of the NYC Marathon. Can you imagine running a marathon on your wedding day or having your wedding in the middle of a marathon? I can!
Here is the story, just as it happened —
Yes, we really got married in the NYC Marathon!!
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On the bus ride to Staten Island, after a discussion of our life values and goals and our many commonalities, I realized in an instant in time as I stared into Mark's beautiful green eyes, that my life had just changed forever. We spent the next year dating long distance from New York to North Carolina. Almost a year later, I moved to New York City; within 24 hours of my arrival, Mark proposed to me on the steps of Bryant Park (42nd Street between Fifth and Sixth), where we had met. I had a beautiful view of the Empire State Building, the Crysler Building, and Mark on bended knee. Of course, I said "YES", and a few weeks later we decided to elope in the 2000 NYC Marathon.
On November 5, 2000, we ran the first 17 miles of the Marathon, stopped on First Avenue and 75th Street, exchanged vows, and finished the Marathon in 4:18:10. We received national and international news coverage for about two days. This exciting, romantic time connected us as soulmates forever.
We enjoyed getting married so much that we decided to do it again to include our families and friends that were not at the Marathon wedding.
On June 9, 2001 we renewed our vows in Charleston, SC at the Wide Awake Plantation on the Intercoastal Waterway. Rev. Curt Bradford was
our officiator, and we had about 100 guests for a sit-down dinner. We left two days later for the British Virgin Islands for a 10-day honeymoon,
which included a 5-day sailboat adventure with a cook and a captain.
Running becomes more of a lifestyle
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ow that I am through the “creating our family” stage and into running and training again, I once more qualified for Boston. It could be that I am older and maintaining my speed and the qualifying times are rising, or that I am an older mother of two girls (six and one years old), very busy with 32 timed events to be at each week (that's no exaggeration — several of them are short "sprints" or "tempo runs" with a 27 pound stroller, 27 pound toddler, 50 pound first grader and some stuff).
Running with the Williamsburg Track Club twice a week has actually increased my usual mileage of 15 miles per week to 20 something. Speaking of that, in 2000 at the Disney marathon I asked the guest speaker, Jeff Galloway, what he thought of running marathons on 15 – 20 miles per week. He thought that was not possible unless you had a lot of talent, but said he would research it. He wrote an article in Runners World about 6 months later about running marathons on 3 training runs a week: one tempo, and one speed workout each week, and one LSD every two to three weeks, (something very similar to what I explained to him that I did).
Recently, when I was choosing a team to join in NYC and was looking at all of the different websites, I found that Jeff Galloway now promotes the “low mileage marathon training program” on his website instead of advertising the “marathon walk break method”.
The New York Flyers
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or most of my life, I had been a singleton runner, i.e. I had never joined a team. But a few years ago I was looking for some coaching to help me get my speed back. So I ran with Urban Athletics for a while and met many wonderful running friends and coaches and enjoyed training and running with them.
Then when two of my favorite coaches, Todd Weisse and Jeremy Busch, formed the Williamsburg Track Club, I started training with them. They have twice-weekly workouts: on Tuesday in McCarran Park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and on Thursday in Central Park. I just love training on the track. I did very well with the group and improved my speed, but I still missed having other competitive women in my age bracket. Then one of my best friends, Andrea Kent, who also worked out with Urban Athletics and then with Williamsburg, convinced me to join the New York Flyers which has a very strong group of 40+ and 50+ women.
I joined just before this year's Awards Gala and that was my introductory event with the Flyers. Well, it was a perfect match to what I needed. Not only is there a strong team for which I can help score in races, but the social aspect of being with a group of friends with many of the same running issues and life issues was great. I push myself harder, since even if I don't win any awards personally (which is a very tough thing to do in large NYRR races), I can almost always help the team. And the most vaulable aspect — the cameraderie — was something I didn't realize I needed until I found it.
Running Boston this year
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y most memorable recent running story has to be Boston! Boston; Yes Boston! When I am in Boston, it’s the best marathon in the world, but when I’m running NYC, it’s the best. I can never make up my mind.
In Boston, I always wear my name on my shirt “NINA” with long-vowel slash “‾ ” over the “I” in Nina so they scream N‾ INA not NEENA.
Well this year, I was wearing a plastic trash bag over my running stuff because it was chilly in Hopkinton waiting for the start (see the picture). Just before the start, I took it off and off we went. After about a mile, I noticed a piece of the "N" in my name was missing — it had gotten stuck to the long-since-discarded trash bag. So in the middle of the race I had to improvise and take the slash from over the “I” and use it to fix the “N”.
Now with no “‾ I”, from that point on I was NEENA. Several runners that ran next to me said “you sure know a lot of people” as hundreds were screaming, chanting, singing “Go NEENA”, and I explained that I was really N‾ INA with the long “I” sound, not NEENA, Then they began correcting the crowd, “It’s N‾ INA, not NEENA!”, (this has been my life’s story!). This went on for miles and I was laughing out loud! I was just running and the crowd was yelling my name, fellow runners yelling back and correcting them, and then the crowd yelling it correctly — so much energy and all I had to do was run. It was a great day, with a fabulous crowd, an energizing group of runners from all over, and I was blessed to have a great run.
The Cooper River Bridge Run
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he other best recent running experience: running my hometown Charleston Cooper River Bridge Run 10K in 44:07 ( March 27th) and placing first in my age group (50-54) out of 1300. Although I did not win money as the top three in the 50-59, by virtue of them being taken out of the age group awards (no double awards), I moved up to first. The three of them are listed in the top 10 women over 40 in South Carolina, so they were pretty tough to run against. I have run this race every year since 1984 (27 years) except for last year when I was diverted by plane to DC and was stranded overnight with my baby daughter and missed the Run (1st time in 26 years). I would have been in the money for that one!
My Running and my Life
I am grateful to my husband, Mark, who helps me find the time to train, and to my two favorite fans, Zoe and Nina Frances, my daughters, who think a mom that runs is great! I am grateful to my coaches Jeremy Busch and Todd Weisse of the Williamsburg Track Club for their encouragement and wonderful coaching techniques. Thanks to their expertise and advice, I was able to run a very even marathon and have a good kick at the end. I have already recovered and am running again. I am also grateful to all of the runners/friends that train with me on Tuesday and Thursday nights, I have made so many wonderful friendships — who needs therapy!
I thank Janine for hanging out
with me in Boston. We made it to the Expo, the Flyers Pre-marathon Pasta dinner, the bus to the start, and the post race Flyers party.
Thanks to Sung won for making us feel so welcome. Thanks to Jodi and Dave for joining me for an extra supper that night and going with me
to the Post Race Party! Thanks to Arnie from Boston (121 marathons) for meeting us at the party — so good to see you again. I am also
grateful to Jeff Galloway, because great minds think alike! Also, I am grateful to such a wonderful running club, The Flyers, that I have
joined. So many of you have made me feel more a part of your family each day and I look forward to training with and knowing you all better
in the near future! I look forward to celebrating more with you all as we run Chicago and then New York. That’s right, two more marathons
this year, one month apart, and then I am retiring from marathoning — it’s not really my thing! 