Jamie Mayer
While Jamie’s friends were very involved in high school cross country, she was stuck working part time, but would include herself in weekend runs because she loved the sport. She continued running solo through college, and never cared much about time or speed. “It was always just something I liked to do, and it was how I dealt with any big decisions, or stresses, or anything else,” she says. As a “bucket list” item, Jamie ran the Boston Marathon in 2013, and couldn’t turn her back on running. Now, as a mother of three, she continues to compete and won the Fox Valley Marathon in September with a time of 3:19:40. She is a frequent placer in the Chicago area, and her other PRs are half marathon around 1:31, 10K of 40:38 and 5K at 19:12.
Michael Vanacora
Michael has always been a competitive person, and swam competitively through college but fell into a rut shortly after. Randomly, he decided to sign up for the Chicago Triathlon, and while he was unsure what he was getting himself into, he immediately got rehooked into the competitive atmosphere. “The camaraderie of the participants and all of the people cheering was addictive and a year later I signed up again, and went back with a little more focus,” he says. Five years later, Michael is fully invested into the sport, and last year he qualified for the World Championships in Kona with a fourth place age group finish (and PR) of 9:35. His Half Ironman PR landed him a third place overall award at the Muncie Half Ironman with a time of 4:10.
