Never Too Late . . . Robinson Runs Past Her Comfort Zone

By Bill Pennington
January 4, 2017 1:00 a.m.

For her first half century of life, Jeanne Robinson measured herself through cerebral success. She sought intellectual challenges with assertive passion. Work success was her scorecard.

But, now in her 50’s, Robinson has taken that same drive and expanded into a new realm. She’s stepped out of her cubical to an unexpected fulfillment that only a few years ago was completely outside of her comfort zone.

Robinson became a runner.

Admittedly out-of-shape and undertrained, the Fernandina Beach resident joined the Amelia Island Runners five years ago, lost 50 pounds in her first nine months with the club, and discovered new excitement through athletic achievement.

“I’ve always had mental toughness and a positive attitude,” Robinson said. “When I came out to join the club I knew I wasn’t going to be the fastest, but I knew if I stayed with it, I would get better. And, I do know that I am in better shape now than when I was a teenager. Running has given me a better work, life balance.”

Her attitude embodies a club whose 200 members include elite, competitive, and beginner runners of all ages including children. Robinson has embraced the group experience and improved, going from a near 15 minute per mile pace to slightly over 10 minutes. Once looking at running as weight control only, now she monitors her per mile pace, reads Runner’s World training tips, and journals her progress.

“One of the fallacies of running is that you’re not a real runner unless you run a certain time,” Robinson, a WestRock Business Analyst, explains. “But, as you read articles in Runner’s World, you see that just getting out there and running makes you a runner. It’s getting up off the sofa and doing it.”

Like 99% of the competitors in the island’s upcoming February 4 Pirates on the Run 10K/5K, the 57-year-old Robinson knows she will not win the race, but is confident she will cross the finish line and feel the exhilaration of completing a goal. Approximately 300 others will line-up with similar attitudes for the Amelia Island Runners (www.ameliarunners.com) annual event that begins and ends at St. Peter’s Church (801 Atlantic Ave) and includes The Greenway as part of the course.

“Like all the races I’ve entered, I feel like I’m competing against myself more than the other runners around me,” Robinson said. “I just want to do better than the last time.”

While the local running club buoyed Robinson’s competitive spirit, it was an innocuous phone call from her daughter Michelle in October 2010 that opened her athletic world.

“Michelle called me and said she wanted to come to Florida to do the Donna Half-Marathon (in Jacksonville). She said that she only wanted to do it if I would do it with her,” Robinson recalls. “For some reason, I said okay. This was something brand new to me. I was one of those kids who was always chosen last when it came to sports in high school. Everybody wanted me on their math team, but I never really cared about sports. I was concerned about tackling projects and doing things that I was sure I was going to be good at… sports just wasn’t important.”

With only five months to train for Jacksonville’s annual February event, Robinson, who was 51 at the time, knew there was not much time to get ready for the 13.1-mile trek.

“I had no idea how to train. At that point in my life the only running I had ever done was around the house with yard work or maybe climbing a ladder,” she said. “When I started training, I was winded just going two blocks.”

Her training issues were compounded by her job, which took her to Europe at times where she felt it was simply too cold to train.

“When I wasn’t traveling, I was able to get up to a mile of running, then about three miles, then five miles,” she said. Daughter Michelle offered encouragement by sending her issues of Runner’s World with motivational articles highlighted. Eventually, Robinson was able to increase her mileage to 10, which allowed her to finish the 2011 Donna Half-Marathon with her daughter in a little over three hours.

In crossing that finish line hand-in-hand with Michelle, a new love affair had begun.

“My faith has always been the foundation of my life, then there was family and work,” Robinson said. “I knew I had something missing, and running filled that void.”

With the new running bug firmly planted in her soul, Robinson finished the New York Marathon in October 2011, then decided to get more serious about the sport by joining the Amelia Island Runner’s Wednesday night track workouts in December that same year.

“I was not intimidated at all (when coming to her first session). I came with the attitude that I was doing this for me,” she said. “I have found that runners encourage each other. Nobody in the club makes you feel bad even if you are slow.”

With her new training partners, Robinson completed her second marathon in the fall of 2012, finishing the Chicago Marathon with a 5:40 time.

“I think everybody would tell you that doing a marathon isn’t easy, but when things get real difficult, I always think about my favorite quote ‘life begins at the end of your comfort zone’,” she said.

And Robinson, who is now contemplating a triathlon, keeps expanding that zone.

Editor’s Note:  If you are inspired by Jeanne Robinson’s story, you have one month to begin training for the upcoming Amelia Island Runners Ned Tyson Memorial “Pirates on the Run” a 10k/5k race to be held on February 4.  For complete information on the event, click here.

William (Bill) Pennington is a former sports columnist for the Savannah Morning News and Florida Times-Union. He was honored as Writer-of-the-Year for the Road Runners Clubs of America as well as a Associated Press award winner and Georgia Sportswriter columnist winner. He is a contributing writer for the News-Leader. We thank Bill for his contribution to the Fernandina Observer.