Why would anyone want to run 26.2 miles? 5 uniquely motivated Charlotte Marathoners explain
Kim Callaway is celebrating her physical and emotional comeback after being hit by a car.
Daní Benítez is capping their triumph over a past addiction to alcohol, drugs, and over crippling mental-health issues.
Kristin Padgett is using it as a way to bond with her teenage son, and Taiwanese international student William Lin is using it as a way to bond with his adopted city.
They’re among the 2,500 runners who this Saturday will tackle the city’s largest 26.2-mile race — the longest of the events at the sold-out 20th-annual Novant Health Charlotte Marathon, which also encompasses a half marathon (featuring another 4,500 participants), a marathon relay, and a 5K.
These are the uniquely personal stories of how each of them was inspired to make their way to the start line in uptown this weekend.
‘It can prove how much strength and resilience you have’
Who: Kim Callaway, 37, a client success manager in the technology space.
City of residence: Cornelius.
What number marathon: This will be her first.
As Kim navigated through her 20s and early 30s, she did so as someone who worked out regularly. But like many people, she struggled with her diet — she was 60 pounds overweight as the end of 2020 neared — and like many people, she didn’t fully understand what it meant to be healthy. For 10 years, she says, she didn’t realize “that you’ve got to do more for your body, to give back to yourself, than just going through the motions.” Oh, and her stance on running back then? “I hated it,” Kim says. “I mean, granted I was carrying around a lot of extra weight. I’m sure that didn’t help. But it was awful.” Then in December of that year, something far worse: While walking out of a gym in Cornelius, she was struck, run over, and dragged by a car.
The list of injuries she sustained was long and ugly: a shattered humerus, multiple broken fingers, eight broken ribs, a hematoma, and severe abrasions all over her head and body. She was in a sling for a month and a half, and eventually underwent surgery to repair her arm. But Kim says despite the physical and emotional trauma, the accident “sparked a deeper appreciation for movement and a new understanding of my strength.”
“This is the body you’ve been given,” she thought to herself. “You need to take care of it.” It became something of a mantra. Kim started tracking her food intake in an effort to improve her diet and nutrition. And since her lower body had mostly been spared from injury, she got a Peloton bike, got more intentional about her exercise regimen, and got more informed about how to push her body, how to fuel it, how to recover properly. Over the next year and a half, she developed muscles she’d never seen on herself before — and lost those 60 extra pounds.
As Kim’s fitness continued to improve, her aunt — a four-time Boston Marathoner — encouraged her to try running early last year. This time, she was immediately hooked. “I’d been in therapy to recover from PTSD and (I realized) running is kind of like therapy,” she says. “It’s a mental escape, and it can prove to you how much strength and resilience you actually have.”
Now, on the eve of running her first marathon in Charlotte, the thought of crossing the finish line in front of her husband, her parents, her aunt and her uncle makes Kim emotional. “I think going through what I went through,” she says, her eyes filling with tears, “and just knowing that I’m gonna push the limits, and I’m gonna run 26 miles, is pretty amazing. So much hard work has gone into this. Coming past this accident has been huge for me. Yeah, it’s gonna be big.”
They plan to ‘cross that finish line more authentically me’
Who: Daní Benítez, 29, a spiritual life coach. (Daní uses they/them pronouns.)
City of residence: The community of Tyro, outside of Lexington.
What number marathon: This will be their second, following their first in Greensboro in 2013.
Daní began running in high school and started training for their first marathon as a freshman at Wake Forest. But they were struggling with several mental-health problems, including depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and binge eating disorder; additionally, Daní says, they were questioning their gender and sexuality. These were all things that — as a first-generation Mexican-American — Daní struggled with quietly, because “I came from a background where that stuff wasn’t really talked about.” And despite a solid marathon finish of 3:58:20, good enough to win their age group and encouraging enough initially that they wanted to run another, Daní went into a downward spiral that included a series of medical leaves. Ultimately, they dropped out of school.
In 2020, Daní had gender-affirming top surgery, which “made me feel more myself,” they say. “But it didn’t get to the root of why I was suffering and why I was dealing with this pain.” To try to numb it, Daní got to the point where they were drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana every day. They were also still binge eating. “I felt,” they say, “like I had nothing going on for me.” At rock bottom, Daní says, the only thing preventing them from taking their own life was empathy for their parents and for their sibling, who also is queer and trans.
But everything started to changed when Daní’s grandmother died of Covid shortly before she was to travel up from Mexico to North Carolina for a visit. Daní says they again tried to numb themselves with alcohol and drugs, including mushrooms this time, and in an altered state had a vision of both of their grandparents. “There were words spoken,” Daní says. “I don’t remember what they were. It was just — I felt a lot of love, and I think that’s what I needed at that moment, is to feel unconditionally loved.”
Since then, Daní has given up alcohol and drugs while conquering their depression, OCD and eating problems. They also got back into a regular running routine, and they say “running was a huge part of my recovery,” in part because it allows them to “release this energy and feel more space in my mind.” Over the summer, they realized they were running enough that “I might as well set a goal,” and in having that thought Daní remembered the feeling of finishing the 2013 marathon. They were finally ready to try to recapture it. Except this time, at the Charlotte Marathon, Daní says, they plan to “cross that finish line more authentically me, proudly out as queer and trans and healthy in every way.”
“I’m setting the intention for this to be the closing of that chapter — and the beginning of a new one.”
‘He wasn’t winded or anything. I was like, He can do this.’
Who: Kristin Padgett, 33, a patient coordinator with Atrium Health, and her 14-year-old son, Foster, a student at Gaston Christian School.
City of residence: Gastonia.
What number marathon: This will be the first for both of them.
Kristin has been running since she was about 11, but only recently transformed herself into a true long-distance runner. “I went through this phase, mental-health-wise,” she says. “I was having a rough time. I had gotten put on medication for depression and, physically, I couldn’t run. I was running, but it felt like I was hitting a wall every time I ran.” Kristin ultimately consulted a psychiatrist who switched her to a different medication, “and that changed my running trajectory. I was able to actually start running again. I lost weight, and I was able to start really going longer distances without feeling like I was hitting the wall after just three miles.” It was over this past summer that a church friend who was a marathoner encouraged her to give 26.2 miles a try.
After she told her family she was thinking about tackling the Charlotte Marathon, Foster — a member of the cross-country team at Gaston Christian — expressed an interest in possibly running it, too. So he joined her one day for her planned eight-mile run, which in impromptu fashion turned into 10. “He was fine,” Kristin says. “He wasn’t winded or anything. I was like, He can do this. So he started training with me.” And, Foster adds, “As soon as I started doing longer distances and longer miles, I started feeling like This is kinda easy. So I was like, ‘Heck yeah, I’ll do a marathon!’”
But Kristin didn’t actually try to register them for the event until they had gotten deeper into their training plan, and when she did she was met with a surprise: “I noticed that the age limit was 18,” she says. “I tried to sign him up anyways, and it did not let you go forward. So I started looking at results from past years and I saw there was a 12-year-old one year, and there had been a couple of younger kids sprinkled in that had ran the marathon.” Kristin says she got in touch with the race director, who — long story short — made an exception for Foster after reviewing his running resume and their training plan. The only condition? She would need to stay at her son’s side for the whole race.
So even though they agree that he’s faster, they’ll stick to their pledge of running together. Kristin already knows it will be a memory she’ll treasure forever. “It is so special. I’m so proud of him, and then knowing that we get to do this together — like, this is something that very few people get to do.” Foster agrees. “I love my mom,” he says. “The reason that I want to do this is just so my mom can have someone who’s doing it with her.” It’s not the only reason, though. After Kristin teases him lightly about his answer, he gives another that makes his mom laugh: “I guess so I can brag to all my friends. That’ll be cool.”
‘Even though we speak different languages, we are connected’
Who: William Lin, 44, an international student from Taiwan who will graduate from UNC Charlotte next month.
City of residence: Charlotte.
What number marathon: This will be his 38th.
Yes, you read that right: This Saturday’s race in Charlotte will mark William’s 38th marathon — 35 of which were completed by him in Asia. He ran his first in 2005 (when “I was young and ran it with my friends without practicing”), but quit running for eight years and didn’t run his second until 2014. Then he went on a tear that included a remarkable 12 marathons in 2015, and in the second half of the decade he ran several with his wife, Rachel Liang, in Taiwan, in Japan, and in China.
After a two-year break from marathons due to Covid, the couple moved to Charlotte to study abroad together in July 2022 — and immediately signed up to participate in that fall’s Charlotte Marathon. It was a stressful time, as they adjusted to the culture and the language. But William says training for the race, particularly on the greenways here, gave him a sense of belonging. “We often encounter other runners. We all waved to each other. No words are needed. With just one action, the communication of cheering each other is completed. This was a great experience for me. Even though we speak different native languages, we are connected through running.”
The race itself exceeded their expectations, too. Whereas some runners complain about the hilliness of the course, William says he embraced the challenge of the rolling terrain. He also enjoyed the opportunity it gave him to discover new parts of the city — “I saw a lot of beautiful houses” — and to bask in more of that welcoming spirit: Both he and Rachel raced in tank tops bearing the Taiwanese flag and “TAIWAN” in all caps, and they heard shouts of “Let’s go, Taiwan!” all morning long.
The crowd support made returning in 2023 an even easier decision for the couple than it might have otherwise been. “In Asia,” William says, “people will also stand by the road and (offer support). But Asian people are more shy. Not like here. Here, people will give you a high-five. It’s a different feeling. People are more passionate. And so friendly. They will offer us some surprises, some food, some beverage, and cheering for us. We enjoy the party, the vibe.”
Unfortunately, Rachel hurt her ankle over the summer and will not be able to run the race this Saturday. But William will be back, solo this time, to extend a streak that could continue for a long time. “If I am still in the United States in the future,” he says, “I hope to run the Charlotte Marathon every year.”
This story was originally published November 14, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
