Bed-Stuy's NYC Marathon Runner: Caitlin Martusewicz

Name: Caitlin Martusewicz

Age: 23

Hometown: Geneseo, NY

How long you've been running: Competitively since I was 12. But I've taken a break for the past 5 years for college. I've been running intermittently since 2006.

Why you are running: I entered the lottery for the marathon as a personal goal for myself, but have since started raising money for the Michael Fox Parkinson's Disease Research Foundation.My father has suffered from PD since before I was born. To donate for the team, click this link:

What Inspires You: The possibility of setting a challenge for myself and the process of overcoming that challenge is what inspires me. When I think of how hard it is for my father just to get around from day to day, to hold a conversation, I am very grateful for the zillions of opportunities I have been given and I want to push myself to achieve as many of them as possible before time runs out.  He was diagnosed in his early 30's which has taught me that life throws curveballs.  Running is one thing that has helped me navigate those curveballs.  It's mental and physical, it's therapy.   

Training Routine: I am just recovering from a minor stress fracture in my foot, but when I get back into my regimen I start with a 3 days on, 1 day off approach for 4 weeks and then follow Jack Daniel's book on marathon running for the remaining 20 weeks. I try to run in the morning to get the blood flowing and my work out out of the way, but some days an evening session is just what the doctor ordered.  Usually the early sessions are the most rewarding because I'm done for the day by 7 am.

Other Tidbit: I actually won the lottery for last years marathon, but didn't get to run. I had just finished studying Architecture at Cooper Union. During my studies I had also been passionately studying and working on sustainable architecture and development in Ghana (West Africa) during my summers. When I found out that I would be training for the marathon starting in summer '10 I was excited by the prospects of training in sub-saharan africa, a new challenge for my running.  I daydreamed about long runs over the awesome terrain I would be running in, and the extreme climate.  

In my previous trips to Ghana it was not uncommon that temperatures reach 110 degrees and higher.  For the 12 weeks I was in Ghana I ran almost every morning with a group of children from the village orphanage that I was redesigning and building. These were the most rewarding runs I have ever been on - to beat the African sun at 5 am with 10-15 of the most amazing children (athletically, spiritually, mentally) I have ever met, was just an unbelievable experience. Training was going great and I returned to NYC in time for my harder, more precise workouts that required very measured distances and times. But 4 days after returning to NY I realized I was becoming increasingly weaker until finally, after 10 days of declining health, I collapsed and was rushed to the hospital.  

After a lumbar puncture and several blood tests I was diagnosed with Malaria, which I had stubbornly left alone too long, and which had gotten into my spinal column. Training was put on hold for weeks as I waited for renal function to return, and my immune system to stop hating me. I decided at the end of September that too much time had been lost and that I would have to wait until 2011.  So here I am.  Not going to Ghana, but training from the safety of a malaria-free brooklyn, with a vengeance.