Your Story--Bill and Traci Clark

Traci and Bill, you guys are fabulous! The most amazing thing is not just that you gave a bad habit, but replaced it with something that was hard! Running is fun, but still challenging and sometimes downright painful nonetheless. So, great job on your change of lifestyle! And, we will all cross our fingers for you Traci.

This is my (our) story. My name is Traci Clark my husband is Bill Clark we took up running 3 years ago after I gained a few (20) pounds. We were both smokers for about 20 years, and decided one day we had spent enough money killing ourselves. I quit around my 40th Birthday and Bill was 42. We both ran a local 5K and thought we were pretty cool, Yeah we just finished a 5K! Then, Bill ran Salt Lake City Marathon 2007 and qualified for Boston. He ran SL Marathon 2008 and qualified again. He really inspires me! I ran the Salt Lake half for 2 years and finished around 2 ½ hours in 2007 and 2:02 in 2008.

I will be running the SL Marathon this year and my goal is to qualify. We are both are signed up for the Grand Slam this year. Whew! I’m a little scared but this will give me 5 chances to try and qualify for Boston so we can both go.

Bill is so sweet and says he will wait for me. He is truly the love of my life always pushing me when we run together, which is not very often. He’s too fast. That’s why I married him on Valentines Day. The last couple of years running have truly been the happiest years of my marriage. WE ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! And are very addicted.