Joan Bellsey

​Questions

 

Joan, you’ve been a member of DC Front Runners for how many years now?  Since 1989. Lisa Henderson, a past runner, brought me. I wasn’t a runner in high school or anything, and in fact I used to smoke. I went on the three-mile run and I could barely breathe. I can remember thinking, “Whoopsthis isn’t going to work.” So I changed over to walking for a year or so. And then I stopped smoking. I started to run, slowly at first. I actually ran to just keep in shape.



I didn’t know the walking group went back as far as the late 1980s. Can you tell me more? It started before even I joined. There used to be a lot of walkers, and I loved that. We’d meet on Sundays and walk the canal. And when you walk with people, you talk for an hour. It’s a little easier to talk than run, and you start to build connections. I’ve made lifelong friends running with the club.  There are still people there from the old crowd, the late 80s and 90s, like Cletis [Durkin], Warren [Snaider], J. Ford [Huffman] and my friend Maryann [Krayer]. They’re still from the old days. The Front Runner Christmas party is my favorite event. Since having a child, it’s not as easy for me to run. And I don’t race anymore.



Joan! How do we convince you to do another race? I don’t know! I had Planter Fascitis, so that was a problem. Now I run two to three miles at the most. I would do a 5K, though. I actually thought about doing the Ragnar [Relay] in Florida, but it was just bad timing.



You had a cameo in Fast Forward, the documentary about the group. What was it like reflecting on two decades of the runners?  It felt very nostalgic. The club still exists, and there are a lot of members, but my sort of connection is not quite the same as it once was. Both Maryann and I were single at the time and more of our social life revolved around runners. The club gets people moving. I would have never run if it weren’t for this club.

 

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, they say… I was able to do a lot more than I ever thought I could do- a 10K. 



When you look back at Front Runners over the past few decades, what do you think has changed the most?  Well for me, I don’t know as many people anymore. Every time I go, I wonder who are all these guys? There are so many!There are still a lot of the same races. We still do the Colonial half marathon. We all still do Philadelphia. Maybe these relay races will spur some new interest.I still love the club. I will always be part of it even if I never run a race again.



Any traditions you’d like to see us bring back? Like the Board’s potluck dinners? It was nice to get together, but it was all before e-mail, and computers. It was a different time – but our club loves to eat and socialize. For new ones, I think it would be great for some of the new members to get them involved with new races like the Ragnar Relay.

​

So, your son Liam is how old now?   Liam is 11. I tried to get him interested in running. But all he wants to do on Saturday morning is watch TV!  If other Front Runners would bring their kids, I think he’d come. I brought him to a game night once and he seemed to really like that.



He’s really grown up around FrontRunners. I met my ex-partner from the Philadelphia Front Runners, and we had Liam together.The Front Runners did me well – two girlfriends and a baby, and a lot more heart-to-heart good friends.



Interview by Stephen Sawchuk, Design by Micah Norgard

January 2012