Carrie Trubia of Livonia was a runner on her high school track team — and continued running through college and into her career as a home health nurse.
“I was very active in high school. I ran track and played volleyball,” she said. “I had to get out of it since I had kids.”
Now she’s back in a big way, training for the 26.2 mile Women’s Nike Marathon Oct. 17 in San Francisco.
She chose that race because it takes place in autumn, allowing her to train through the summer. She admits the hills of San Francisco will be tough, but the scenery is unbeatable.
“The last six miles are along the beach,” she said. “It’s supposed to be amazing.”
Starting the first week of June, Trubia has been training with a group of Western New Yorkers who run near home four days a week and meet at Mendon Ponds on Saturday morning.
She’s up to ten miles a day, and planning to increase her distance to 12 miles a day by the weekend.
Her trainer is Dave Brongo, a teacher at Livonia Central School who has been running marathons and training other runners for 30 years.
Trubia joins around 90 percent of entrants in supporting the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, which support research for blood cancers which also include Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma.
Over 40,000 runners, walkers, cyclists, hikers and triathletes who will participate in the world’s major marathons, triathlons, hiking adventures and century rides to raise money for LLS.
In order to participate, Trubia must raise a minimum of $3,200. Her first fundraiser is this weekend in the form of a garage sale.
She has been collecting donated items from her neighborhood for the past couple of months and will have them on sale at her home at 20 Linden Street starting at 9 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.
One hundred percent of the proceeds will benefit Leukemia and Lymphoma Society chapters in Western New York.
She is running in honor of a 12-year-old boy she knows named Austin, who was diagnosed with leukemia at age 4 and, after eight years of treatment at Strong and Roswell Park, is considered “cured.”
