Besides running, what other hobbies, interests, or passions do you have?
Besides running, some other hobbies and interests I enjoy include reading (anything from rom-com books to text-books and research articles- I love learning), cooking/baking, drinking coffee, anything on a lake (fishing, boating, kayaking, or paddle boarding), and spending time with my family (my husband and 2-year-old daughter).
What is a bucket list race for you?
Some bucket list races for me include running more marathons (including the Boston Marathon one day) and maybe tossing in an ultra or two, if I’m crazy enough.
How has your relationship with running evolved over the years?
My relationship with running has evolved tremendously throughout the years, starting in middle school as a little “sprinter” to now embracing the longer distances and training for my first full marathon. As I’ve aged, my running has creeped into longer distances, and I’m embracing the journey. If someone would have told me ten years ago that I would be running a full marathon in a couple of days, I would have laughed in their face. Throughout high school, I ran mainly the 400m and below. It wasn’t until my junior/senior year of track that I started to dabble in the 800m and dip my toe into cross country. I started out absolutely loathing cross country; after my first 5k, I looked at my coach and said, “I never want to run that again in my life!” He laughed at me.
After graduation, I decided to continue my running career at the collegiate level and ran cross-country/track-and-field competitively at Division 1 for five years at East Tennessee State University. Throughout those five years I ran everything from the 800m-5,000m on the track and 5k/6k for cross country. I broke numerous school records, qualified for regionals and nationals in cross country, and medaled numerous times in track during championship races. After running competitively for so long, I got to a point where I was over it, and I took about a 2-year break to just run sporadically (if at all). Within the last year I started to get back to a point of running regularly and really falling back in love with the sport. I am currently training for my first marathon and look forward to what other opportunities running brings. 🙂
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How has your relationship with running evolved over the years? (changes in goals, motivation, preferences, etc.)
Running has taken me to places I would’ve never thought of otherwise. When I first started running in high school, my goal was to learn to enjoy the ride and improve everyday from the beginning stages to the next levels of progression to help my team win. As I progressed, I ran in college where I built on my running abilities and maturity while learning how to compete and win in a team environment. Now that I’m not competing on a team anymore, I’ve learned to continue to pursue my running dreams in various capacities whether it’s individually, running with friends I’ve made in school, or with new running friends I have or will make along the way. I believe the sky is the limit to achieve my goals and maximize my potential in the sport that has given me so much opportunity. Aside from individual accolades, in addition to proper training and nutrition, I strive to keep active, appreciate nature, think bigger, expand my social network, and most importantly, have fun since we all only live one life. I want to make the most of it with running being a huge part of my daily life.
What do you enjoy most about being a Pagoda Pacer?
Since joining the Pacers in the Fall of 2020, there is a lot I enjoy about our club, especially the community and family environment of the local running community. I get the opportunity to make new friends from different demographics keeping me active physically and socially for life. I believe we are leaders in the running community with goals to promote the sport and demonstrate appreciation for healthy living and recreation.
What is a bucket list race for you?
I am on the Boston Marathon Mission first and foremost, but along the journey, other bucket list races include the November Philadelphia Marathon, every Pagoda Pacer event, and Pretzel City Sports events. That includes the Blues Cruise 50k, the April Foolish 10 Hour Endurance Run, and the Labor Pains 12 Hour Endurance Run to name a few.
BONUS QUESTION: Would you like to give a shoutout to another Pagoda Pacer member who has been super influential and inspiring in your life? Who and why?
Every Pacer has been inspiring in the current stage of my life, but Dale Wiest especially, has been the most influential in helping me get out of my comfort zone. Dale has inspired me to pursue trail races I would’ve never attempted or imagined I’d enjoy, since I thought I was going to be strictly a road runner for the rest of my running life. Each time I interact with Dale, we’re always talking about trail racing as he motivates me to pursue local trail races to not only improve my trail racing techniques, but to also learn to be brave and courageous in challenging settings I’m not familiar with. To date, I’ve run four trail races, and I thank Dale for believing in me to pursue something that makes me stronger in this journey both in running and in life.
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I first started getting serious about running when I was fifteen. I had started racing amateur motocross at the time, and running became a great tool in my training for endurance and concentration. I also ran track at Wilson High School (mostly hurdles).
My relationship with running had many up and downs. I ran to keep in shape and for enjoyment. In my early thirties, I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, and I had to stop running. Twenty-five years later, with the help of new modern medication (and with retirement from Alcon, where I worked for forty years), I was able to focus on running again–finally!
Due to my long absence from the running scene, I needed some support and motivation as I got back into it. I found that (and more) from the Pagoda Pacers Athletic Club.
The club has a strong base in the community and is a well-run organization, with many events that members can participate in by running or just helping.
My passion is my family: my wife of 42 years and my two girls. My hobbies now keep me very busy in retirement. I enjoy my time riding my Sportster motorcycle. I go to all the motorcycle events and rallies that I can, especially vintage motorcycle events. I also enjoy outdoor hiking, trout fishing, carpentry, and handy work around the home.
My most memorable race so far was the Sarasota, Florida Half Marathon. My sister came to watch me run, and I was able to set a PR. I even received 1st place in my age group!
My goals for this year are to run the Run for the Ages Trail Run and another half-marathon.
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I was always a relatively active person when I was younger: I liked to ski, ride my bike, and play soccer. I did some running in high school, but mainly to stay in shape for soccer. However, during college and throughout my twenties, I took an almost complete break from running and focused more on group fitness classes at the gym. In 2015, in my early thirties, I was inspired to run in the first Laney’s Legacy of Hope 5k, since this is a charity that is close to my heart. I didn’t do much training, figuring I was in good enough shape from the gym. I remember it feeling so hard and thinking that I would never run a 5k again. Spoiler alert–I ran it the following year and then gradually started becoming interested in other races.
How has your relationship with running evolved over the years?
I started consistently running to stay in shape and to challenge myself. However, running with friends has made all the difference for me. I used to be too nervous to run with other people because I was worried I wouldn’t be able to keep up. But finding running buddies has made me truly enjoy and look forward to my runs. As an added bonus, I got faster by running with people who are faster than me! Just simply having the companionship helps me not quit when I am tired.
What do you enjoy most about being a Pagoda Pacer?
I enjoy making new friends and being surrounded by people who support each other’s goals. I also believe in our mission to promote physical activity and to give back to the community.
Would you like to give a shoutout to another Pagoda Pacer member who has been super influential and inspiring in your life?
You all truly inspire me! But if I had to pick one person, it would be our current club president, Michelle Henry. She was one of the first friends I made through the Pacers. She often dreams bigger than I do and convinced me to run my first 50k which we did together at Labor Pains in 2018. That is something I didn’t think I would ever be capable of doing especially looking back on that first 5k three years earlier. She also inspires me to have more fun in whatever I am doing and to give back to the club as much as she does.
Michelle and Lisa, flying
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What are my other interests, hobbies, and passions?
Interests:
Music – I play clarinet, saxophone, oboe & flute, and I perform in 3 community bands.
(I retired after teaching music for 42 yeas.)
Hobbies:
Wood working & gardening
Passions:
Joanne & I fly hot air balloons. This is Nightstar, one of our two current balloons.
Our chase crew members are the “Star Chasers”.
We participate in festivals up and down the east coast.
I also fly for Lancaster Balloon Rides during the summer months.
How/when did you first start running?
This has happened twice. I first started running on the track team in jr. high and continued through high school. I ran while in college, but just to stay fit. Then came the first job and running ground to a halt.
Around 2002 my wife, Joanne, decided she was going to start running, and after a year, she started dragging me out. We’ve been running together since then.
What are your most memorable events?
Without a doubt it would have to be the Broad Street Run. The crowd and encouragement stretch all 10 miles.
Thanks for asking,
Blair Beard
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Besides running, what other hobbies, interests, or passions do you have?
This is an easy one, and those of you who are friends with me or follow me on social media know the only thing I talk about more than running is my cats. Over the years my cat family has been anywhere from 2 cats to 7 cats. This past year after losing 2 of them to old age, I adopted a pair of 8-year-old cats (brother and sister), and I also adopted 4 kitten brothers who needed a good home : )
How has your relationship evolved with running over the years?
For one, my distances have increased as I have become more seasoned. I found it more fun to go far than to go fast. Although I do like to do a quick and fast race at times, my home is really in the 50k – 100k distance. Additionally, when I first started running, it was all about challenging myself, but as I matured, it became more about inspiring others and helping my runner friends reach their goals.
What is a bucket list race for you?
Although I am most at home on the trails, one race I really want to do sometime is the Big Sur Marathon in California.
Would you like to give a shoutout to another Pagoda Pacer member who has been super influential and inspiring in your life? Who and why?
This is an easy one for me. One of my best friends out there, Gary Gehret. I am not sure if he is in the Pacers any longer (since he moved to Lancaster a few years back), but I know running changed his life drastically for many reasons. And I can say it has for me as well. I actually forget what life was like before running!
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I play in a band! I play the flute with other members in the community with the Ringgold New Horizons Band. We perform at various venues: parks, independent living facilities, and a prong concert at the Scottish Rite Cathedral in West Reading. I love the joy that music brings to others.
How and when did you first get into running?
My husband and I adopted two teens to add to our 3 biological kids. Between working and 5 kids, I needed a mental break and to do something for myself. So in my 40s I started to run. Just a couple miles at first, but then I decided to try a race, and I entered a half marathon. I was bitten with the running bug! I shortly after joined the Pagoda Pacers and ran the Shiver by the River series, and I haven’t missed the series since 2007 (except for COVID).
How has your relationship with running evolved over years?
Many of my fellow Pacers went from road running to trail running to ultras. After completing several marathons and running Boston, I decided to try a triathlon when I turned 50. I love the variety of the sport, and I enjoy biking and swimming now as well. Many of the Pacers I consider my friends. Too many to name, but they are encouraging and always there with a smile whenever I see them!
Want to introduce yourself to the club in the next newsletter? We’d love to feature YOU in an upcoming Pacer Profile. Click HERE to find out how!
This is the end of the February 2023 newsletter. You can read older posts by continuing to scroll down.
To continue with our mission of making the club as welcoming as possible, we thought it might be nice to share brief profiles of club members in the newsletter each month. Our hope is that this will help seasoned members and new members get to know one another, and thus facilitate an even greater sense of community!
For this to work, we need your help!
Please review the questions below and CHOOSE THREE that you would be willing to answer and share with the club. Type up your answers and send them–along with a picture–to Newsletter Editor Matt Brophy at Matthew.L.Brophy@gmail.com.
Both new members and long-time members are encouraged to participate. Your answers can be as brief or as detailed as you want them to be. Thanks for taking the time to share a little bit about yourself with your fellow Pacers!
The Questions — (Choose 3)
Besides running, what other hobbies, interests, or passions do you have?
How and when did you first get into running (or other sport of choice)?
How has your relationship with running evolved over the years? (changes in goals, motivation, preferences, etc.)
Write about some of the races–or other running events–that are most memorable for you.
What do you enjoy most about being a Pagoda Pacer?
What is a bucket list race for you?
BONUS QUESTION: Would you like to give a shoutout to another Pagoda Pacer member who has been super influential and inspiring in your life? Who and why?
Kris Jacoby lives in Exeter–her hometown since 2nd grade–with her husband, Steven. She is a mother of three (Andy, Dan, and Abel) and a two-time cancer survivor. She works for Lacey Electric, and when she’s not running, she enjoys solving puzzles, gardening, and reading.
Thanks to Sue Jackson, who recruited her, she’s also a relatively new member of the Pagoda Pacers. (This is her 2nd year in the club.) And thanks to Tom Chobot, who gave me a great lead, you’re about to learn her somewhat secret history as an elite, trailblazing distance runner.
Jacoby (who was “Kristen Bankes” at the time) first started running in high school. She played the sports her sister played (hockey, basketball, track), but she laments the fact that women’s sports weren’t taken seriously by many at the time.
Despite the lack of institutional support, Jacoby and her track teammates qualified for the district and state championship meets. The year was 1974, and it was the first time that girls were allowed to compete at this level. At the time, however, Jacoby admits that her own interest was elsewhere. She preferred team sports. “Track seemed like running without a purpose.” She also confessed to a persistent battle with nerves: “I threw up before every race.”
It was at Penn State that Jacoby truly began to fall in love with running. After dabbling in field hockey, she joined the cross country team with a friend. It was the first year that Penn State had a women’s cross country team, which consisted of seven pioneering athletes and a new coach.
The more rigorous training and higher mileage led to more success. She was also able to shorten and quicken her stride. But many challenges remained, such as finding competition. Since no other colleges in the region had a women’s cross country team, Jacoby and her teammates had to compete against high school girls on Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) clubs.
During her sophomore year, Penn State actually recruited three new state championship runners. (The original 7 had all been walk-ons.) Jacoby was encouraged to find that she could hold her own against these highly talented new recruits. During her sophomore, junior, and senior year, she was competing in Nationals, along with her teammates, in both cross country and track.
Jacoby formed a close friendship with her teammates, including Nationals champion Kathy Mills (now Kathy Parker), during college. While Mills often received more attention, Jacoby actually preferred avoiding the spotlight, and she admired how friendly and humble Mills remained. Jacoby remains friends with many of her college teammates, and they get together every three years for a reunion.
After college, Jacoby returned to Berks and found herself a new coach: Jim Sutton. “Doc” (as he was known) encouraged her to shift her focus to road racing and to run longer distances. Sutton, Jacoby, and Beth Guerin often trained and raced together during these years. “We were almost akin to a team,” Jacoby reminisced. After a win and a couple other top-5 finishes in 10k races throughout PA, Jacoby ran her first marathon, along with Guerin, in March of 1979–the Prevention Marathon (now St. Luke’s) in Trexlertown–which she won, with a 2:58. The following year, she ran the race again (with Sutton this time), and she won again, shaving ten minutes off her previous time for what would end up being her personal best: a stunning 2:48:48. And this was done under adverse conditions: Jacoby remembers running parts of the race with numb feet after splashing through giant puddles of melted snow.
Jacoby fondly remembers training and competing during those years. “I would meet Mr. Sutton at the Berkshire Mall after work and run. He would tell me what races to run, and I’d race almost every weekend. Beth and I were almost like sisters, often traveling together for races around the world.”
That went on for about five years, during which Jacoby won nine 10k’s in addition to her two marathon victories and wins at various other distances. She also competed in the national and international Avon races, organized by activist-runner Katherine Switzer, famous for her defiant Boston Marathon run in 1967. Switzer organized this race series to prove that women runners could compete at elite levels.
In 1979, Jacoby won a 10-mile qualifying race in the Avon series in Newark, Delaware (58:42). She went on to finish second at the national Avon championship, in Springdale, Ohio (a 30k race, which she ran in 1:54:16), which enabled her to compete at the international championship in Germany. In 1980, she ran the series again, and again she made it to the international stage, competing in London this time, where she ran a 2:52 marathon. Not only did she have a great race, but she was also able to take a month’s leave from work, allowing her to tour England, Scotland, and Wales before returning to Pennsylvania. “Usually, when I traveled for a race, I’d have to go back right after,” she explained. “But this time I had time to explore. It was the trip of my life!” The only thing that compared was drinking her first margarita with Katherine Switzer after an Avon race in Pasadena and discovering it was the perfect post-race beverage (“Salt! Yes!”)
Just a couple months earlier that same year (1980), Jacoby had competed in the U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon. Impressed, yet? Jacoby modestly downplayed the accomplishment: “It was a fake event,” she explained. The Olympics had not yet recognized women’s running events beyond 1,500 meters, so her winning 10k time (33:45) wasn’t actually going to qualify her for anything. (Not mention the fact that the U.S. boycotted the Soviet-hosted Games that year due to Cold War politics.)
One of the most unusual events that Jacoby competed in (and won) was a 5k at Belmont Park in Long Island, where the Belmont Stakes is held. Running on a track designed for horseracing was a new experience. “The surface was lumpy,” she reminisced, “and we had to jump over haystacks.” Didn’t slow her down much: 18:06.
What finally did slow her down was settling down. After marrying and having kids, she found it hard to find the time to train regularly. “I still ran, but not as fast,” she told me, but then added, “Well, there was the Marine Corps Marathon in 1987. I ran that after having my second son.” And she ran it in 2:50.
Now, Jacoby’s running priorities are to “just stay healthy and not do anything dumb.” But she’s still pretty competitive. When I asked her if there were races she would do just for the experience, she shook her head. If she’s going to race, she’s going to race.
And now, the next time she zooms by, you’ll know you’re being passed by a world-class athlete.
Pagoda Pacers News 