Author: LRC Support

A love of fitness brought Marshall and Glenda together, and now they share their passion for this sport as a director and coach for the LRC. Together, they embodied the ethos of giving back and paying it forward.

A runner and LRC club member for the past 40 years, Will Strouse, now approaching 80, plans to run until he cannot and then walk briskly until he cannot. Running had an incredibly positive impact on his life, allowing him to do things after age 40 that were unthinkable to him in is 20s and 30s.

The Abbott World Marathon Majors is a series of six of the largest and most renowned marathons in the world: Tokyo Marathon, B.A.A. Boston Marathon, TCS London Marathon, BMW Berlin-Marathon, Bank of America Chicago Marathon, and TCS New York City Marathon.

Yvonne is one of 2,863 American runners, and the second LRC member, who has completed all six world majors. This is her story.

“Never in a million years did I think I could run a marathon. It seemed crazy to me how anyone could accomplish that feat.”

David has been a LRC Member since 2019. His first race was the Watermelon 5k and his favorite race is the Mayfaire 5k. David is originally from Georgia and has a goal to run a sub five-minute mile before High School.

After escaping the bitter winters of the Northeast and moving to Lakeland in 2018, Abby recognized how large and active the running community is in Lakeland. That recognition led directly to a decision to take up running for the first time. And, as we all have learned or will learn, getting started is the hardest part.

March is Women’s History Month and one of the women that will live on in the history of the Lakeland Runners Club is Rhonda Fosser. In her 70s she is still running a 24-minute 5k.

When people ask what they are going to get if they join the Lakeland Runners Club, I tell them you’re going to get people like Dave and Cookie Quarles. They have been graciously welcoming new members into this club for over 30 years.

Lynn King has been a dedicated volunteer for the race planning committee since 2017 helping to execute the Watermelon 5k Series and Lake to Lake 10k. Lynn also served as secretary in 2019. Lynn has also coordinated the Tuesday night Pub Run for the local shoe retailer since 2019.

The Lakeland Runners Club exists to promote running and fitness for runners of all ages and abilities in the community. We are led entirely by volunteers, and for many years Sarah Kozul has been a dedicated volunteer to the club, executing behind the scenes with many, many hours donated to the benefit of LRC, and the entire running community.

In 2012, a friend told Angi Griffin that it was so nice outside that they needed to walk Lake Hollingsworth instead of being stuck inside working out. They started meeting at the lake a couple of times a week. Angi was really intimidated being there because there were people running and we were walking. Some were even talking and laughing while they ran. After a couple of weeks, her friend said we should try running a little. That was a hard no for Angi. She didn’t run and didn’t like it, and besides, it might ruin her knees and she didn’t want to die (which she was sure would happen if she ran)! After a couple of more weeks went by, she started noticing there were some people much older than herself running. She decided she could try it and here we are today.