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Running Profile of Carla Gregor If anyone told me prior to 23 years ago I would be a runner, I would have told them they were crazy. I hated to run. I was a competitive swimmer, volleyball player and sky diver; running was the farthest thing from my mind. During my high school days, I joined track to be with my friends and convinced the coach the team would be better off with me participating in discus and shot put only. Running once around the track was painful. When I was married, I was married to a runner but still would not run. My husband would take me out at nights to start a running program so we would run together. He had me running from one street lamp to another and walking to the next street lamp. During those walking breaks, I was praying the entire time that the next street lamp would never come so I wouldn’t have to run again. A year after my marriage ended, I was out power walking with a girlfriend who also was a runner. She said that if I could walk that fast then I could become a runner. The challenge was on. I asked the trainers at my gym to help me learn to run and they put me on a treadmill and gave me a program to run my first 8K (5 miles) … the St. Patrick’s Day 8K in Virginia Beach. From that point forward, I ran 5Ks, 8Ks, 10Ks, 10-milers and half marathons. I was hooked. The infamous “runner’s high” I always heard about finally came to me during my training runs … but ONLY after I hit 4 miles and not before. I even tried training for the Marine Corps Marathon three times but, for one reason or another, I have yet to make it to the start line. One year I had to stop because I developed carpal tunnel in my ankles after running 17 miles. Another year, during one of my training runs, I was hit by a car and had both knee caps cracked. And my third year of training for a marathon, my training came to an abrupt halt due to developing mortons neuroma (pinched nerve) on the bottom of my left foot and had to go into surgery. I have come to the realization that I was not meant to run a marathon. Three years ago I broke my tail bone playing ice hockey which made me stop running; but, once again, I came back. While training for the Army 10-Miler that year, I had to deal with cramping around the tail bone area. My running coach had me sitting on a heating pad before I ran, and an ice pack after I ran. One more new experience to add to my list of many. Running is my natural high and no matter what my body goes through with other sports I will always come back. Two years ago, I started having chest pains in January and collapsed after 5 1/2 miles during a road race in Maryland in February. Two weeks later I was admitted to the hospital with paracarditis. A liter of fluid was removed from the area around my heart. My doctors informed me that the ONLY thing that saved my life was that my heart was so strong due to all the exercising I had been doing. Ultimately, I was diagnosed with systemic lupus which obviously attacked my heart and lungs and put me in the hospital. Unfortunately this put another kink in my running and exercising. I had to learn how to walk again and worked with physical therapists with strengthening my heart muscles and my body and getting myself back to where I was. That following September/October I was diagnosed with a growth in my brain due to a side effect from one of the drugs I was taking for systemic lupus which caused me to lose my peripheral vision and cause me to have vascular migraine headaches. The doctors have since been able to stop and reduce the size of this growth to where it is manageable. Another health setback. Regardless of my frustration, I am determined to pull through these setbacks too and get back to my joy of running. I have probably experienced almost every injury known to runners and have been in and out of all types of sports doctors’ offices. Over the years, I was a sponge for all the running knowledge I could get. I hired running coaches yearly to get me to different levels. I learned the hard way the value of speed work but only after humiliating myself during each road race that I ran. I would run races with my friends who were MUCH faster than me. They would be standing at the finish line eating the last of the food and yelling at me to sprint across the finish line to get a better time. I did exactly what they told me to do and each time I crossed the finish line with the dry heaves and ended up in the first aid tent. I was beginning to think my friends were cruel and inhuman or that I was definitely NOT cut out to be a fast runner. It was then I learned the value of speed work to avoid that humiliating finish line display and to improve upon my running pace. I am your typical social runner. I love running and talking with everyone I meet. I run for exercise and fun and don’t mind the “view from behind” in the races I enter. During my earlier years of running, I learned fast that running was the quickest way to tone and firm my hips and thighs which has always kept me coming back for more! Seven
years ago I wanted to give back to this sport that I love but took me so long
to get into. I figured what better place for me to return something to my love
of running than to help other women learn to run or become better runners (especially
from all my good and bad experiences). I underwent two days of intense training
with an instructor by the name of Coach MadDog who had “the Coach from HELL” printed
on his business card and an e-mail address of “maniac mutt” (need I say more about
my training?!). Certifications:
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