TIME FOR AN ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT: Alberta Dalke, who registered for one of our races on Sunday, prompting me with a desire to share her story. A few years ago, I received an email message from one of our athletes, Christy Dalke Nelson. Her email mentioned that her mom, Alberta, registered for our Florida Beaches 5K and would likely finish dead last. It was to be her first-ever race after a lifetime of being significantly overweight and NO exercise. At the time, we were not offering finisher medals for our 5K athletes. Christy asked if we had any 5K age group medals left, could she buy one from us for her mom to celebrate her first 5K. I responded NO and that it was against everything I stood for. Instead, I assured Christy that we would likely have an extra, but I would not accept anything for it - they were already paid for. I asked Christy to make sure we connected after all our awards were handed out. As often happens, post-race was a bit chaotic and we never connected that day, so I mailed Alberta the medal a week later with a note of encouragement. I have since seen Alberta at several of our races and during Gasparilla, I had the pleasure to hand her a cup of water at one of the hydration stations. Now for the rest of the story, directly from Christy: She set out in 2011 to drop weight and ended up losing over 200 lbs in 2 years through Weight Watchers. When she first started walking for exercise she could only go as far as the 50 feet width of her property. She would walk back and forth in the alley, building up stamina until she could finally walk around the block. In 2012, her goal was to walk a 5K. By March she was getting close to walking 3 miles at a time and I suggested she walk the 5K race at the Florida Beaches event, knowing it would be walker friendly and the finish line would be open for a long time. That was her first 5K. By October that year she was back to do another 5K at the Halloween Half. In 2013 she did one of your virtual halfs. In 2014 she did the virtual Clearwater marathon, walking 26.2 miles in 7 days. Photos show Christy and Alberta receiving their bibs from Albertas first race, at Albertas first finish line, and at our 2014 FL Beach 5K, after Alberta set her 5K PR in 52:09! CONGRATULATIONS Alberta on changing your life through exercise. Thanks for being so awesome! Its always a pleasure to learn about our athletes enjoying success, regardless of what their goals are. If youve read this far, please take a moment to like this post and offer Alberta a note of congratulations and encouragement!
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 02:57:54 +0000
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