Staying on the run

Terry Abrams turns 47 today. Two years ago this Liberty Lake ultra-marathoner was in Mazama at the base of the North Cascades Highway ready to run 75 miles. It was 5 p.m. and 93 degrees.

Abrams and her husband Brian, also 47, are cross country skiers who frequently ski in the Methow Valley. One day she said to Brian “I want to run this. I think I can do it.”

“I wanted to turn 45 on that highway,” Terry said. “Something happened out there. It was the middle of the night and there were a billion stars above. Brian was running with me, and I hear these two little voices.”

The two little voices were her daughters, Taryn, 24, and Jamie, 23. And they said “Hey, Mom, Happy Birthday.”

“And I came across the makeshift finish line made by my daughters 3 p.m. the next day,” she said. “I might as well have been doing the Olympics.”

“I have participated in some of Terry’s training and events,” said Brian. “But her Cascade Highway run was very cool. I appreciated how hard it is to do a non-organized event. She didn’t have the inspirational pull you get when participating with other people.”

And her kids weren’t surprised by their mom’s event.

“My kids are used to their crazy mom,” she said. “I in-line skated up Mt. Spokane while my daughter drove the car, just to see if I could do it. It was really fun.”

Her next challenge was the 2003 Wasatch 100 in Utah. The event Web site said temperatures can range from 25 to 85 degrees and the course gains 26,824 feet in elevation and loses 26,050 for a net gain of 774 feet. Some say it is the second-hardest 100-mile endurance run in the country.

“From mile 20 to 40, I was throwing up every 15 to 20 minutes,” she said. “I got to mile 62 and pulled a groin. I was done.”

“I told my kids, Brian and myself ‘I am going to give it one more shot.’ “

It was the only race she didn’t finish. Her next shot will be on Sept. 11. And one of her training runs was last Saturday.

She ran Climb a Mountain, a 34.3-mile run from Riverfront Park to the top of Mount Spokane. Approximately 30 solo runners attempt the journey along with over 60 teams with two to six members.

“I am just a mom” is how she describes herself.

But not just a mom. An unusual mom. She has four kids and is a labor and delivery nurse who works the night shift at Holy Family Hospital.

And she is an athlete who started running at age 19.

“And then I got my father involved in running,” Terry said. “My father has been my running buddy. We used to do all kinds of runs, like the first Bloomsdays.”

They would race each other to the top of Doomsday Hill. “If you were second, you had to repeat Doomsday Hill. I was always second.”

Her father, Mario Marcella, 63, has moved on to in-line skating after encountering back problems. “He is a fireball,” she said.

“We began running together 25 years ago. She is my inspiration and motivation,” Mario said.

“She works hard, and she loves to help other people.”

She is currently helping a group of 20 nurses from Holy Family Hospital train for the October Portland Marathon.

“She has those nurses all fired up,” he said. “She is a great motivator.”

Although at first they thought she was nuts. But they came around.

“I have had them snowshoeing, cross country skiing, biking,” she said. “But to see the changes in them is remarkable. They are proud of themselves.”

“It has been a great experience for me. I have gotten much more back than I put into it.”

“Running is my Prozac,” Terry said. “It does a lot of things for me. I went through a divorce after 22 years of marriage. It got me through a lot of it.”

And then Terry met Brian while cross country skiing on Mount Spokane. And it is now one of their favorite places to train.

“We are both endurance athletes,” Brian said. “And training is a huge part of our life before we were together and now as a married couple.”

“Terry is not a superstar, gifted athlete,” he said. “She gets a tremendous amount of personal satisfaction from training and is gifted with mental tenacity and toughness.

“I don’t have the mental toughness to go run for 30 hours.”

And the one word he would use to describe Terry?

“Passionate. She is one of the most passionate people that I know. And I mean in all aspects,” he said. “She is passionate about everything, from training, making dinner for 20 guests, me, her kids, or nursing.”

And she will need her passion and mental toughness when she returns to Wasatch in two months.

“There is something different about ultra-marathons: you don’t have to win. You still come out a winner,” Terry said. “When you are done, you have something to be proud of no matter where you finish.”

“It is a spiritual experience.”