Saucony 26 Strong: Training With Mom

The toughest part for Melissa has simply been finding the time to train.

Melissa Simonds-Williams may be the marathon veteran of Team 3, but it was her mother, Betty Crecelius, who introduced her to running. “My mom has been a runner since as long as I can remember and at the age of 12 she introduced me to the sport,” says Melissa, who lives in Sacramento, Calif. “Being an athlete her whole life and challenging herself with various distances, she never managed to run a full marathon. At the age of 63 she has now completed over 10 half marathons and has set a new goal of completing a marathon.”

So the mother-daughter team is training to do the California International Marathon together in Sacramento on Dec. 8. They are now in week five of their marathon training program—and so far both are on sticking to the plan.

“No major setbacks so far,” says Melissa.

The toughest part for Melissa has simply been finding the time to train.

“I just wrapped up my first year of graduate school, so it has been a real challenge managing my time with work, school, family and training,” she says. “The toughest part of training this time around has been getting enough sleep! In fact, this was one of my goals the past few weeks. (With work and school), sleep can be put on the back burner, which negatively impacts my training schedule.”

Betty has been fighting a bit of sciatica, which has limited some of her running. The two plan to compete this weekend at The Giant Race 5K in San Francisco on Aug. 4. “The 5k this weekend will be a good benchmark for determining where she stands in her training now prior to her injury,” Melissa says.