It’s Never Too Late: A Middle-Aged Marathon Runner’s Story

Hi, I’m Lisa Swan; I’m from Staten Island, New York. I was a lifelong couch potato; I couldn’t imagine myself ever running. But I wanted to live a healthier life. 

I started with walking, then somehow I started to run. And I couldn’t imagine, when I took those first steps, where it was going to take me. It ended up taking me to the finish line at the New York City Marathon.

I started running around five years ago. I was the opposite of a natural athlete. I wanted to lose weight and it seemed like running was a good way to do it. 

That’s why I got started, and it was very hard at first–I was basically waddling more than running when I started–but I kept at it.

When I started training running, I was just trying to build up stamina, and just the idea of even going three miles, even walking, was a challenge, and I basically started just walking as much as I could and then sprinkling in a little bit of running and then as time went on, I kept on going more and more with the running. 

I met Mario through my running club, the Staten Island Athletic Club, and he’d been running for over 30 years so he had a lot of knowledge.

My coach, Mario, was very good about sending various Biblical quotes and devotionals to inspire me and encourage me and remind me what this was all about, and he would tell me things about how to have a purpose, you need to have a plan, and we worked on the plan together.

Running the New York City marathon for the first time was probably the greatest experience of my life. I was really prepared, more prepared than I thought I would be, thanks to Mario.

I learned a lot of great life lessons on preparation and really believing in yourself because if you don’t believe in yourself, no body else will. 

In a lot of ways, the race was almost like a party for me because I saw various friends along the way. When I crossed the finish line, it was just the greatest experience of my life. 

I remember just getting to the end and realizing, “Oh my gosh, I’m going to do this! I’m going to do this.!” I hear them say, “Welcome to the finish line,” and I thought, wow, I’m actually going to get through this! It was just really, really wonderful.

I felt like God had a plan for me, that this was something I could never have pictured. There’s a saying, God has bigger dreams for you than you have for yourself, and I really could never have imagined myself doing the New York City Marathon, and here I am and I finished it.