SUE COTTRILL – 50 MARATHONS IN 50 STATES

BY JEANNIE SCHIERBERG PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHAEL BOOINI

“I’m not a runner,” Sue Cottrill insists.

A generation of Bay District School swimmers and their grateful parents know her as “Coach Sue,” their beloved swim coach. She will reach her goal of running 50 marathons in 50 states this year. Her first marathon in 2009 was an innocuous Disney Marathon. She has since completed 52 marathons/ultras, in 46 states. Some in very poor weather conditions. She has run with altitude sickness and with a broken nose. She even pushed through nightmares such as the “Dust Bowl – Five States in Five Days” in bleak PBS-documentary freezing conditions where she remembers, “We took breaks just to huddle together in the Port-a-Potties, desperately trying to get out of the relentless, icy wind.”
For our interview, Sue agreed to meet me on her day off and we are having coffee downtown on a stormy Saturday afternoon. Before our meeting, she ran 18 miles at Harders Park with Joe Edgecombe and other Bay County running stalwarts, had breakfast with friends, then caught the first Spring Special Olympics meeting in Lynn Haven. After our coffee, she is off to take her mother, Iris Williford, to dinner. It is one of her relaxed days. The next day, a Sunday, she will tend to physical therapy patients at her “marathon money” job at a local rehabilitation facility. Monday, she will be back making physical therapy rounds with Bay District School students. “I’m just one of those lucky people who get paid to do what I love; teach children to play, and help adults regain function to have a full life,” she smiles. Her routine: Rising at 4:30 a.m., running four or five times a week, swimming when she can, working a full-time job, a part-time job, and, roughly seven months of the year, coaching high school and middle school swimming. She hasn’t raced this year, but she did jump into December’s Panama City Marathon at the last minute as she is “pushing” to maintain her Boston Marathon Qualified status, running the 26 miles along Front Beach Road in four hours and five minutes. “Full-out fun” is Coach Sue’s way of life and, with this, she is stepping into her parent’s footsteps. Sue’s mother, Iris Williford, and father John Lavery rally-raced MGs (“Mom was the big trophy winner”) on the weekends. They made sure their children were burning energy as well. Sue’s childhood was filled with horses, gymnastics, and, of course, swimming. Always ahead of her time, Miss Iris (“The Queen Mum”) had a hamburger cooked for her daughter at 4:30 a.m. to eat in the car on the way to swim practice. Sue swam in high school, and ran cross-country, badly, she claims. Sue recalls her great goal was to beat her mom’s running time and believes it took as long as completing college to achieve. Sue was married to her workout partner after a long courtship and had a perfect pair of kids; daughter Casey, an archeologist and world traveler, who is just as enduring as her mom, and son, Danny. Casey frequently flies to meet Sue at races and they run the marathons together. “Casey and I participated in endurance riding and competitive trail riding with our horses. She started winning those long events when she was 8 years old,” Sue summarizes. “Danny easily excels at swimming, soccer, sailing, bouldering, and climbing.” It was the perfect storm when, in 2003, the reshuffling of Bay County’s longtime swimming program resulted in a need for certified swimming coaches and from it came the perfect solution for many of Bay County’s swimmers of the last generation. Sue went from the world of 4:30-a.m.-age-group practices to coaching Rutherford students. Some of Coach Sue’s students set records, and others just “needed a sport” for their college applications. There were parents who hovered and parents who helped and parents who were never seen during the four years their child competed. All the swimmers were treated with the same courtesy, appraised with the same bemused look, encouraged with the same quiet measure of confidence in ultimate success, whether the challenge was “47 seconds for 100 yards” or “making 25 yards to the end of the pool.” Sue helped many students and their parents experience an entirely different high school curriculum. Sue Cottrill, coach and all-around swimming guru Steve Burdeshaw, along with Renee Whitton, have been mentoring the county’s swimmers in the school system’s only pool, located on the Mosely campus, since 6 a.m. summer conditioning took place. Their students were invited to swimming-powerhouse Auburn, setting records with Michael Duderstadt, Auburn swimming standout and NCAA, All-American and two-time Olympic Trials competitor. One of Sue’s students, Victoria Hove, Mosley High School graduate of 2012, was the female overall winner in the 12.5-mile Swim Around Key West while still at University of Alabama. Several others have won swim scholarships. The marathon running in all reality is just something Sue Cottrill does “on the side” for fun. Her encouragement for those considering running 50 marathons in 50 states or otherwise is simple: “Point yourself in the right direction, and run. And have fun.” It’s social, she says, and adds, “How else could I have seen Big Sur (marathon number 12, California) or run with Mt. Hood as a backdrop (marathon number 36, Oregon)? To complete the 50 states, the last of her marathons will be the weekend of July 9th in Missoula, Montana. This will not include the “Yeti or Not” in Asheville, a 50K invite from daughter Casey, more side trips to see son Danny in Colorado where he’s pursuing his need-for-speed motorcycle category, cheerfully recovering from a motorcycle wreck.

Sue’s answers to our questions:
What motivates you? Who knows? I don’t like to sit still for long and I love to play outside. I don’t watch TV or hang out and relax much because that is actually torture for me. I love to explore new places and go on adventures. It’s been lots and lots of fun to be able to travel with my running buddies and my daughter to places all over the country on this marathon journey.

Have you ever not reached the finish line? I have only DNF’d (did not finish) once. I had the flu at the Snickers Marathon last spring and was too sick to finish. I dropped at mile 22. I already had done a marathon in Georgia, so I didn’t need it for my 50 states quest and it was a miserable day for me.

Let’s pretend it didn’t happen. What is your biggest achievement? Raising two incredible kids and playing a small, hopefully positive, role in helping many other kids grow up as well. It’s funny, really. I have been competing in sports since I was 7 years old. I still hold some records at the pool I started swimming in when I was an “eight and under.” I swam at the University of Delaware and had a great experience, even grabbing a record there. I set records in Masters Swimming as an adult (at least as an old lady!). I have completed two Ironman races, which was a big deal when I did it, but lots of people do Ironman. I qualified for the Boston Marathon twice, which is crazy, because I’m not a fast or talented runner, just willing to suffer a lot. The records and awards have never been the big reward for me. The joy is in the journey, the friends I make along the way, and the lives that I hope to change in a positive way.

If you could only pursue one sport from now on, which would you pursue? Running is the easiest for me to access right now, so I guess that’s it. I can throw on my shoes and run out the door and go for miles and miles right from my house. It takes longer to get to a pool for a workout. I am nervous about riding my road bike lately, because of the increase in traffic and distracted driving. I love to fish. I like to kayak. I love to ride horses. I like to hike. I like to snow ski. I would probably like to do lots of things that I haven’t tried yet. I just like to play.
Your favorite food:Dark chocolate. Yummmmm. I love to bake, and sweets are my favorite.
Ultimate wisdom: I’m not smart enough to offer wisdom.

How about this: Do your best every day and enjoy the journey. Spread joy