She ran her first marathon at 60
Denise Munroe had seen family and friends, including her own sister, suffer from diabetes, so when she was diagnosed as prediabetic in 2015, she took action. “I had to do something quickly,” says Munroe, an NYU administrator from Bed-Stuy. “I knew what could happen if I were to get diabetes . . . insulin, diabetic shock, removal of limbs, toes. That was enough to scare me.” The 5-foot-5 Munroe, who weighed 210 pounds at the time, started eating more veggies and less red meat, chips and chocolate. After a couple of months of working on her diet and trying with little success to take more aerobics classes, she put on running shoes for the first time in her life.
Munroe took off slowly at first, walking and jogging in her Brooklyn neighborhood and joining open runs with the New York Road Runners at Brooklyn Bridge Park.
“I was usually the last to finish, but when I got to the end, I would hear voices and realize it was other runners waiting for me,” she says. “That’s what made me come back every week.”
Before long, she had dropped 40 pounds, and was competing in dozens of races, leading up to her 60th birthday in January 2017, which she celebrated by running her first marathon at Disney World. She followed it up by running the New York City Marathon in November. Best of all, this year, her doctor told her she was no longer pre-diabetic.
“I cried at every finish line,” says Munroe, who just booked her tickets to run three half-marathons on three consecutive days next year. “I just feel so happy I did it.”