Mary Jones Hall of Fame Member Shorewood

Mary′s running habit began back in 1996. Mary and her mother were invited by Kevin McEvilly, a member of the Prairie State Road Runners, to come to Chicago to watch the marathon and to see at the finish line. While watching thousands of runners cross the finish line, (back then there were no chips and less than 10,000 runners), Mary overheard her mother telling another mother of one of the runners that her daughter would run next year′s marathon. Mary realizing that her mother did take quite a few medications was obviously just trying to trump another mother′s "super kid" story. Mary said to her mother "Mom, how can I run a marathon - I don′t even run a block". Her mother promptly replied "well you do aerobics" for which Mary replied back "but that is not running a marathon". Her mother then simply said as mothers do "you can do anything you want to". Therefore, the running started ever so slowly on a treadmill at the Joliet Park District, and soon, 10 minutes became 20 and then the miles just started. That Christmas, for a gift, Kevin and his wife Meg, gave Mary a membership to the Prairie State Road Runners. What a gift it turned out to be. Over the years that gift has multiplied in so many ways. That gift has brought the gift of health, friendship, self-awareness, perseverance, and determination, just to name a few.

Mary′s first race was Earl′s 5K in Joliet, for which she actually placed. To this day it has not been totally determined if she placed because of running ability or because not too many people showed up due to the thunderstorm. Funny note - since that was her first race, the nuances of foot wear were not fully appreciated yet, and the shoes she wore were "blue suede" gym shoes, which left her feet smurf blue for 3 weeks because of the rain. Mary continued to run and later that month her mother passed away. The summer was spent training for the Chicago Marathon that October. Mary finished that marathon in 3:51 with just about 6 months of running experience. Since then Mary has run numerous marathons, a few ultra events, and countless races. Some races much better than others. However, each race is done with a best effort.

Mary is ever so grateful for all of the support and friendship the running community has given her. She feels very blessed to be part of the community.

Mary has also served as a past president of the PSRR club and race director for the National Heritage Corridor 25k and the Polar Predictor.

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