LORRAINE GERSITZ
Events: Ultramarathons 
Height:  5'5"
Weight:  125 lbs.
PRs: 5 km - 18:12; 10 km - 37:45; Marathon - 2:51; 50 Mile - 6:33; 100 km - 8:20
Born: 5/6/54 in Irvington, NJ; grew up at the Jersey Shore
Current Residence: Fullerton, CA
Club: Millrose AA

Career Highlights:

  • USA 100 km Team Member - World Championships: 1993 (Belgium), 1996 (Moscow), 1997 (Netherlands)
  • USA 100 km Team Member - North American Championships: 1994 (British Columbia)
  • USA 100 km Bronze Medalist: 1993
  • USA 50 Mile National Champion 40-44: 1997
  • USA 50 Mile Silver Medalist 40-44: 1998
  • USA 50 Mile Trail Silver Medalist 45-49: 2001
  • USA 50 km Trail National Champion 45-49: 2002
  • Former US 40-44 Age Group 100 km Record Holder: 8:33:07 set in 1995 at age 41
  • Southern California Ultra Grand Prix Series Woman's Overall Champion: 1993
  • Southern California Ultra Grand Prix Series Women 50-59 Age-group Winner: 2005
  • Millrose Athletic Association Sub-Veteran (30-39) Runner of the Year: 1989
  • Mercer Bucks Running Club Sub-Veteran Runner of the Year: 1988
  • Completed 100 ultras since 1990 with 22 overall wins in the women's division
  • Completed 127 marathons since 1980 with 7 overall wins in the women's division
  • Active masters road, trail, and ultra runner (now age 51) with numerous age-group wins

Other Running Activites: USA 100 km Team Leader: 1998, 2001; USA Half-Marathon Team Leader: 1999; Founding USATF MUT Council member: WLDR 1998-2004, Masters LDR 2005-Presesnt; MUT Council Co-Chair: 1998-2002; MUT Council Web Coordinator: 2001-Present; MUT Council Awards Chair: 2000-2004; MUT Council Women's 100 km Team Coordinator: 1998-2004; USATF Southern California Association - Women's LDR Chair: 1998-2004; USATF Southern California Association - MUT Chair: 2005-Present

In their own words...

Running achievement I am most proud of:  All my firsts - finishing my first ever race, the NYRRC Women's 4 Miler in Central Park in 1979; running under 3 hours for the marathon at Mohawk Hudson in 1988; winning the USA 100 km Championship bronze medal and making the USA 100 km team in Central Park in 1993; running on my first USA 100 km team in Belgium in 1993, winning my age-group at USA National Championships in 1997 (50 Mile, 40-44) and 2002 (50 km, 45-49).

Why I run: Health, fitness, sanity, serenity, joy, camaraderie, competition, solitude, discovery, ice cream, and chocolate.

Future Goals:  To keep running and to inspire others to start and continue.  You will get older and slower, and you may get aches and pains, but you can keep going forward as long as you live.  And I'd like to try to win at least one USATF National Championship in every age-group as I move up through the age-groups.

Favorite quote:  "You never know how far you can go unless you dare to go too far."  an ultraunner's paraphrase of T. S. Eliot's "Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."

and

"Tramps like us, baby we were born to run."  Bruce Springsteen

Additional comments/thoughts: Long may you run - and always on happy trails.

03/06

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