The inaugural season of the RUNColumbus Race Series kicks off on Saturday at the Fantastic Frigid 5K Series. Meet Polly Shoemaker (pictured in the middle), one of the series creators.

Hi, I’m Polly. I was born and raised in Columbus (Go Bucks!) and am married to Mick. We are blessed with five adult children, a son-in-law, a grandson, and three granddogs.

My running journey began in earnest in my early 40s when our family lived in South Carolina. After completing two marathons, including Boston, I wanted a new challenge that wasn’t so demanding on my body. That’s when I was introduced to a competitive, point-based race series.

Being part of the series introduced me to new races in our community and runners who quickly became teammates. We toed the line to compete with ourselves, each other, and of course, the field. Together we chased PRs (personal records) and series points as we awaited the weekly release of the race series standings.

Our family returned home to Central Ohio in 2014 to find that a local race series was nonexistent. The idea of a race series in my hometown loomed in the back of my mind. but it wasn’t until the pandemic that I began taking steps to start RUNColumbus Race Series.

The first step I took was to pitch the idea to Phil Birnie of Escape Hatch. I had worked with Phil on another project and knew of his love of running. Phil responded with a resounding ‘yes,’ and as they say, the rest is history.

There is still time to join the RUNColumbus team. We’d love to have you.

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