| INSIDER FITNESS LOVERS REJOICE.
Carmel fitness advocate Susan Love began running in 1972, “when Frank Shorter won gold” in the Olympic marathon, she notes. Now in her late 60s, Love completed the last of her 37 marathons in 2009, but she has hardly slowed down.
Instead, the motivational speaker and former schoolteacher helps thousands of grade school students every year win awards for becoming more active through the nationwide Just Run program, which she administers on behalf of the Big Sur Marathon Foundation. She also directs the annual Run in the Name of Love, a 5K run and 2K walk in Carmel inspired by her son, Brian, who died in a snowboarding accident at age 22 in 2005.
“He was a sportsman, a scholar and a musician, he tutored schoolchildren who were having difficulties with their work, and he volunteered at a nonprofit for mentally challenged adults and children,” Love said. “He was secretly training to run his first marathon to surprise me, his marathon mom . ... It was a huge loss to so many people.”
Brian’s fellow students at the University of Virginia created the race, which Love moved to his hometown in 2011.
“It’s grown more popular and meaningful over the years,” she notes. “Everyone runs in the name of someone they love, and it’s on Fathers Day, so you get fathers running with their children, which makes it a special way to celebrate.”
Love is especially proud of the race’s dog-friendly 2K walk.
“The dogs all get a free bandanna, and you can buy little doggy race T-shirts,” she says. “Then when they cross the running line, the dogs get a biscuit and the owners get a medallion.” People walk along Scenic Road in Carmel, above, which is one of marathoner Susan Love’s, left, favorite places to run on the Monterey Peninsula. Although she no longer does marathons, Love still runs shorter distances in Carmel with Molly, her Maltese-Yorkshire terrier mix, and takes her to the town’s dog-friendly restaurants such as Carmel Coffee & Cocoa Bar in Carmel Plaza and Forge in the Forest. Love also enjoys showing her two-legged friends around Carmel and Monterey County’s other attractions.