Meet Valerie. Valerie and I met at the Fitchburg Police Association Community Five. This woman grasped the world of running a few short years ago and has embraced it mightily.

The yellow wind breaker she has on comes from an Easter Island marathon she had run only a couple weeks prior to the day we met.

Valerie has also run marathons in Costa Rica and a marathon in China that included running up the mountain that lead to running up stairs that are part of the Great Wall of China.

Future plans (October) are to run in the 2500th running of the marathon in Athens, Greece.

I am so amazed by the accomplishments of people that have stepped into this elite area of running, that I sometimes forget what I have done or am planning to run.

Valerie has a great heart, mind and spirit for this sport and the desire to use running as a way to see places she may never have dreamed of seeing.