Jan Seeley is a modern Renaissance woman, succeeding in pursuits as wide-ranging as field hockey, running, writing, and race directing. She's been running for more than 50 years, was an editor at Human Kinetics and then of Marathon & Beyond magazine, and is now the race director for the Christie Clinic Illinois Race Weekend, a marathon and more in Champaign-Urbana. In this interview, she discusses her journey through the sport, her relationship with her husband and fellow runner Joe (and her grief after he passed away in 2012), and how the Illinois races have grown into a beloved regional event with a wide-ranging impact on the community.

Gordon Bakoulis has built an impressive running résumé that includes: a five-time qualifier for the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, finalist in the 1992 U.S. Olympic 10,000-meter Trials, and an age-group champion at the 2001 New York City Marathon, where she ran 2:41 at age 40. Her marathon personal best stands at 2:33:01; her half-marathon best at 1:11:34. "I can't imagine running not being in my life," she says. Fortunately, she has never had to. Running has shaped her life for more than five decades.

"I was just in the right place at the right time" is how Lynn Blackstone likes to color her participation in one of the pivotal events in the history of women's running—"The Six Who Sat" protest at the start of the third New York City Marathon in 1972. While this may seem a vast understatement, what cannot go unnoticed is her decades-long love of running. The sport threaded its way through her next decade, as she gave birth to two sons and continued to run through both pregnancies. Today, at age 85, Lynn still runs and is an active member of the Central Park Track Club, which she and Dave founded with 10 members in 1972.