Featured Runner

Charlotte Rozich

When you see Charlotte out on a solo training run, or in the thick of the pack at a race, be sure to say hi; she’s usually pretty visible, pretty recognizable. She has her headlamp and reflective vest for pre-dawn runs. For summertime races she’s usually in black or gray shorts and matching sports bras, and for winter races, she usually dons an ugly yellow windbreaker and cap, bright as a shout.

But her visibility lends itself to much more than merely what she wears, she loves running and racing, so she almost always has a quick smile at the ready and a happy greeting in return, and she also has a limp, product of a hip misalignment from a birth defect. It gives her a gait that definitely stands out, and tends to leave people a bit surprised at the speed she can produce. So when you see her say hello, and you’ll get a happy, if breathless greeting in return, if you run with her you may think she’s pretty quiet until you get her talking about her passion for running, then just wind her up, and let ‘er go. If you race with her, she’ll definitely smile, and say hi, and offer words of encouragement to her fellow racers, and thank the volunteers at every opportunity, but she won’t really chat, for she gives all her concentration to the task at hand during the event.

You could say she’s dedicated, and she’d thank you but she’d be quick to say that yes, she trains hard but there are many more who train harder. You could say she’s fast, but she’d say thanks and point out that while she may sometimes win age group awards, there are many, many people who place ahead of her regularly and run faster and smoother, which gives her something to strive toward. You could call her an inspiration, and she’d thank you, but she’d also shake her head in vehement disagreement because all she does is get out there and do something she loves many times a week, and is happier and blessed in the doing. But there’s really nothing inspirational. She works towards goals like all of her fellow runners. Sometimes she loves the work, and sometimes, like all of you, when that alarm goes off, she’d like to turn over and go back to sleep…..and sometimes, she does! But mostly she gets out there and works it. Sometimes all the work lets her exceed her wildest expectations, and sometimes like all of her fellow runners; she falls short of her goals, despite the work, and is bummed. But it’s not inspirational; it is just part and parcel of being a runner who loves running and racing.

She came to running on October 26, 2003. She had been working to lose weight since July of ’03, riding her bike, working out to exercise videos in front of the TV and slowly changing her eating habits. As fall grew colder she wondered what she could do instead of riding her bike. She remembered running track in 7th grade, and enjoying it, and enjoying the running part of the practices for junior high basketball. She found a program on the internet called “Couch to 5k” a nine-week program that took you from doing no running to being able to run 5k. She completed the program just after Christmas 2003, and entered her first race on February 1 2004 in Okemos, MI. She knew she liked running by that point, and had already progressed to a long run of 6-7 miles, but racing just set her on fire. She discovered her competitive side, and began to train with a goal race always in mind. By May of that year she ran her first 10k, her first half-marathon in October, and her first full marathon in March 2005. She loved the challenges, and she loved each racing event, whether she felt the outcome was good or bad, she was always happy for having raced it. This is something she can still say to this day.

While she was learning the ropes of road racing in the summer of 2004, she also got bitten by the multisport bug, and did her first, second and third duathlon in rapid succession. Duathlons are run-bike-run events, and are very challenging from both an endurance and logistics standpoint. She thrives on those challenges, and all the cross training on the bike helps keep her running, and her running helps keep her motivated to bike. For her they go hand-in-hand now, and she can’t imagine not doing both road races, and duathlons.

She was injured during a duathlon in 2007, and could have been scared to ever get on the bike again. Instead she found a new resolve to not let the accident take away the happiness in the pure speed she finds on the bike, and continues to enjoy the challenge. She wants to go back next year and race that course again, so she can defeat the course, instead of the other way around. She’s got unfinished business with that course!

She had a knee injury in the fall of 2009, which kept her from running her goal marathon, so she will run Glass City Marathon in April of 2010. She’s completed four previous marathons, so now her goal is not only to finish, but also to get her time to qualify her to run the Boston marathon in 2011. She needs 3:50 or better to do it. Some days, she is flat out certain she can do it, and other days her optimism wavers. But when it comes right down to it she knows she will give it her all, and when she gives something everything she has, she has a way of attaining her goals And that is really the only way she knows to do things, especially when it comes to running. Give it your all, and enjoy it every step of the way.

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