October/November 2009 Vine-covered wall photo by Becky Hart
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Vol 26 No 1
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Great Falls’ Louise Mitchell Stays On Track By Bernice Karnop Louise Mitchell started running at age 48. “I pretty much started from nothing because I hadn’t done anything while I was raising my three children,” she says. She ran half a block, then walked half a block, until she could run a whole block. That year she entered her hometown Great Falls Icebreaker’s one mile fun run. She thought the race would never end. Twenty-nine years later, Louise runs four or five miles every day, enters about 12 races a year, and completed her 15th Marathon this March. She took first in her category, running the 26.2 miles in five hours and 31 minutes. “I run to win,” she says, but not because she has a competitive streak. “I have a streak to do my best.” According to Louise, life consists of different stages, and during this stage of her life, she runs and teaches piano. “We’re so involved raising our children in that stage of life, and then that’s done. It’s your turn, but you don’t know what to do at first. Finally, you just kind of get out there and do it.” Looking back it’s not surprising that what Louise did was run. It’s something she enjoyed in her earlier years, and two of her children ran cross country in high school. Louise grew up on the farm homesteaded by her grandparents near Kalispell. She was born during the Great Depression, but they feasted on vegetables from the large garden and enjoyed plenty of eggs and milk from the cows and chickens. They had pigs, and grew wheat and barley. Her dad harvested Christmas trees and logged during the winter. During World War II when things were rationed, they fared well with what they raised and what they couldn’t have didn’t matter. She walked a mile and a half to the Half Moon school from first grade through eighth. For fun the children rode sleds down the Half Moon hill and ice skated on Piano teacher Louise Mitchell found her the Whitefish River. In summer, rhythm in music and running. She believes they swam in it. On the 4 th of July they all that playing the piano and running require similar determination and perseverance. “I went to the community picnic don’t want a dull life,” she insists. [Photo by in Kalispell and every year the American (Continued on page 62) Bernice Karnop]