6 minute read
Running in the Family
By Jake Ten Pas
Outside of Myrtle Point, Oregon, there’s a running route that can take an athlete anywhere. Actually, this freedom can be accessed wherever people seek escape in the great outdoors, the repetition of movement, or the inspiration of fellow travelers. Member Sophia Macleay Cardwell just happened to find her onramp in the wilds of Southern Oregon by following in the footsteps of her aunt, Mary Halpert.
“I thought she was so cool. I mean, she is cool,” Cardwell quickly corrects herself while discussing what her aunt meant to her as a young girl growing up on a farm in rural Coos County. “We had this jankity house with only wood heat and farm animals. I sewed my own clothes.
“Mary was so polished and put together, flew all over the world and saw all these places, and she’s so funny. She was such a lovely person to have in my life and to look up to and just go, ‘I want to do that. I want to travel. I want to experience things. I want to wear beautiful clothes and laugh a big laugh.’”
And Halpert ran whenever she came to visit. “From their house, I could run down the road and keep going for miles and miles without encountering anything if I wanted. There was a hill a few miles away, and I could go up it or turn around and just come back,” Halpert recalls.
Soon, Cardwell was taking after her, and these early tastes of freedom shaped a life that would see Cardwell escape her rural confines to attend University of Oregon, graduate with a degree in biology, and eventually move to Portland to start a family. This year, Cardwell was joined by her sister, kids, husband, and Aunt Mary in competing at the Shamrock Run in downtown Portland. The training everyone undertook before showing up at the starting line reinforced the family’s traditional connection to fitness and the interpersonal bonds that allow this driving force to pass from one generation to the next.
“I was thinking about this because I’ve started running with my son, Calvin, who is 8, and I probably started running just for pleasure around when I was 8 or 9, too, just out the road, past the turkey farm, and beyond,” Cardwell says.
She goes on to describe the extended Macleay/Cardwell/Halpert clan as “really close” and points out how apparent it’s become to her over the years that not every family can say the same. Shared interests help, and so does a little healthy competition, as Halpert demonstrates with just a smidge of her own history.
“My dad called when I was going to physical therapy school in New York, and he wanted to enter a race with me on New Year’s Day called the Hangover Handicap. He said, “Oh, don’t worry. Just run a little bit more, train up a bit, add a few more miles, and you’ll be able to do it.’ So, I did, and he really waxed me,” Halpert recalls. “Then I started running marathons with him, and that sort of taught me on my feet.”
Her dad, Kenneth Macleay Winters, was an avid climber, and he started Halpert ascending peaks when she was just 11. She climbed Mount Hood, Mount St. Helens, and Mount Adams all before she turned 12 and joined her dad on a number of impressive conquests in Europe. “He was a fair-weather climber, and he trained for marathons during the off-season to keep himself in shape for his real passion.”
Even as she was bonding with her dad over a love of being outdoors and raising her heart rate, Halpert also was discovering her own path in life. “I first started at Mills College, and then I went to University of Oregon. My father didn’t want me to go to Mills College because it was all-women’s and, back in those days, you went to college to meet a husband.”
She then headed to Columbia University, where she started running in the indoor gym. There she encountered Diana Nyad, the famous endurance athlete, journalist, and motivational speaker who had just swum around Manhattan. The meeting became symbolic of the expanding possibilities for women at the time, and Halpert would continue to defy expectations by running the Boston and New York Marathons in an era where female participation was relatively scant.
According to the Boston Athletic Association, the first year Halpert ran the marathon, 1979, 7,400 of the total 7,927 entrants were men. While Halpert says her field had already grown significantly by the following year, it was still a far cry from today’s numbers of nearly 30,000 participants, with more than 12,500 of them being women or nonbinary entrants.
Rather than focusing on her accomplishments, however, Halpert continues to emphasize the health benefits of her lifelong habit, as well as its approachability for nearly anyone. “It’s easy, and it’s there any day. You’ve got your shoes, socks, and whatever else you’re wearing, and you just have to do it every day. Running doesn’t have to be done at a certain time. You can just sort of work it into your schedule.”
She also jokes that, at her age, “I don’t think you’d call what I do running,” but whether it’s walking or striding, she’s still committed to hitting the road or a trail most days. This kind of practical approach to finding activities that are sustainable and have low barriers to entry continues to resonate with her niece, who hopes her own children are being set up for a lifetime of similar wellness.
“I always ran as a child and young woman to blow off steam,” she explains. “To me, it’s really peaceful. I kind of get into a rhythm. I like to be outside with trees and waterfalls or rivers rather than running in the city, and some of my best ideas or solutions to my problems will just pop into my head when I’m deep in a run.
“I also feel like there are certain things that I should teach my children before they are adults, and one of them is how to do a 5K or other race on their own, which includes training.” She wants them to be able to swim well, ride a bike, hike, and avail themselves of any other outdoor pursuit that doesn’t require a lot of equipment to greatly enhance their lives. Her daughter, Cecilia, is named after her paternal grandfather, Cecil Snyder, and just as she’s enjoyed bonding with Calvin over their runs, she took satisfaction in watching “Ceci” join in the family fitness during the Shamrock’s 1K distance.
“Sometimes in your life, you don’t realize how much you’re enjoying something until later, but right now, I’m sharing this experience of tangible joy in the moment. Soon, they’ll get faster than me and won’t be interested, but for right now, we have this connection, and it’s just really special.”
