The Ocracoke Island Weekend Runfest 5K/10K/Half-marathon will be held April 23 & 24. Registration closes April 1. For details and to sign up, click here.
By Connie Leinbach
Angie Todd is looking to add the Six Star World Marathon Medal to her collection of marathon medals.
Angie, 43, owner of Angie’s Gym on Sand Dollar Road which opened in 2012, has been an exercise aficionado and guru since about 2009 when she decided to get in shape.
An epiphany experience with “turbo jam” led her into a new fitness regimen and then to teaching and to the establishment of her gym behind her house.
She ran her first half-marathon in 2012, then the second in 2014 when her husband, Andy, wanted to run one and she joined him.
“This is where I really got bit by the running bug,” she said.
She is on her way to earning the Six Star Medal bestowed by Abbott World Marathon Majors on runners who complete six world marathons – Chicago, New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Tokyo.
According to the Abbott website, Angie is among the five-star finishers, having run all but Tokyo.
Her first marathon (26.2 miles) was the Tobacco Road Marathon in Cary in 2016. The Boston in 2018 was her fifth marathon, but her first World Major marathon.
She ran New York and Chicago in 2019 and ran Berlin and London last fall.
Oh, and the Rome marathon, which isn’t part of the World Major Six but which had been rescheduled to the fall due to COVID-19.
So that was three marathons in three weeks, Angie explained as she handed out medals to the 320-plus runners in Ocracoke’s Scallywag 5K/10K/half-marathon races Nov. 13 and 14, which also had been rescheduled. Then she ran the New York City marathon again early last November.
Brad Metcalf, 71, an island homeowner and triathlete who had just finished the 5K and was later named top runner in his 70-99 age bracket, was quizzing her about her marathon achievement.
“That’s crazy,” he said, as he cooled down. “Most don’t do four marathons in their lifetime let alone four in a month and under four hours each. She’s in the top 1 or 2% of the 1%.”
Angie later corrected Metcalf, however, and said the New York City marathon was three weeks after London. So, she actually ran four marathons in seven weeks.
Angie hadn’t planned to run three marathons in three weeks in Europe.
“COVID rescheduled everything,” she explained. “You never do three in a row with a week between each one. That’s not enough time to recover.”
She had planned to train between each run. “But I was in Rome and Berlin and London. So, I chose to sightsee instead,” she said.
Angie ran the five world marathons in under four hours, clocking the 2019 Chicago marathon in 3:33.
“That was my fastest ever,” she said.
So far in her running career she’s run 14 marathons and hopes to repeat the Boston Marathon on April 18.
Then the Scallywag 5K/10K half-marathon returns April 23 and 24 followed by the Turkey Trot Thanksgiving morning.
To sign up for Runfest Weekend in April, online visit https://runsignup.com/Race/NC/Ocracoke/OcracokeIsland10K5K.
When Angie trains for a marathon she runs 50 to 60 miles a week.
To get into these world marathons, which typically sport 30,000 runners, you must have fast run times, run for a charity or get chosen in a lottery.
“So, it’s hard,” she said.
She has already secured a spot for the sixth world marathon — Tokyo in 2023. Only Japanese natives may run this year because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
She hopes it will reopen internationally next year and after that, and after she logs 18 or 20 marathons, she will be done with marathons and will do half-marathons, which are 13.1 miles.
“That’s my favorite distance,” she said.
In addition to running her gym and her duties as race director for this yearly event that benefits Ocracoke’s community radio station WOVV 90.1 FM, Angie organizes the 5K Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning.
Andy and her daughter, Catherine, also help her with the island races.
“She and Andy are my cheerleaders at the races I run,” she noted about her world travels.
Angie works fulltime at the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching (NCCAT) and recently was appointed chair of the Hyde County Board of Education.
