Bonnie Sexton Story

Just Another Runner’s Story March 2024 Written by Gale Fischer

Fueling a Running Boom

“It's not about the running, it's about the people.”

—-Dave Walch

When I began my running journey back in 1997 I didn’t think too much of how many individuals were involved in our sport. I trained on my own for the first year and didn’t know any other runners locally.  Two years later I ran my second marathon in Chicago with over twenty-thousand runners toeing the line. This seemed massive to me. I was stuck in the middle of the starting corral with a sea of runners in front of me and a sea of runners behind me. Although the number of athletes tackling the marathon distance does not tell the complete story of how many individuals there are who are a part of our sport, it does draw a parallel to the size of the running community. As spectacular as it was to be immersed with over twenty-thousand runners back in 1999, another running boom was soon on the horizon after the turn of the century. This month’s featured runner, Bonnie Sexton, found herself in the thick of this expansion over the last two decades as not just a runner but also in taking on a leadership role.

Running was not Bonnie’s first love in the world of sports growing up. She spent much of her elementary and middle school years training as a gymnast. Eventually, she would find that she could excel as a runner. “When I started high school at Somers High School in Somers, New York, we didn’t have a gymnastics team and my days as a gymnast came to an end. My gym teacher, Chuck Gilberti, was also the indoor varsity track coach. As part of our gym class, we were required to take part in a physical fitness test which included a running portion. After I finished the test Mr. Gilberti told me that I had to come out for track. He said that he was going to make me a star.”

Bonnie wasn’t immediately sold on joining the track team. There were things to consider and it was much different than gymnastics, but after talking it over with her mom and dad she decided to give it a try. “I joined the winter indoor track team as a sprinter my freshman year in 1982. My events included the forty-yard dash, fifty-five-meter dash, three-hundred-meter dash, and six-hundred-meter dash. I sometimes ran on the four by four-hundred and four by eight-hundred relays. I also participated in the long jump, triple jump, and some hurdling.” This was Somer High School’s first season fielding an indoor track team. It provided Bonnie with a chance to make school history. “Because this was the first year of the program I was able to set school records for the long jump and in all our running events with distances of six-hundred meters or shorter.”  It was exciting for Bonnie to own these records but like all records, hers were eventually broken. Other accomplishments for Bonnie as part of her high school indoor track team included multiple all-conference event championships and also just missing out on a state meet qualifying race for the six-hundred-meter dash.

Bonnie enjoyed outdoor track as well, for Coach Mary Ball,  competing on the oval all four years of high school, participating as a sprinter, and in field events as well. “The four-hundred-meter hurdles and four-hundred-meter open were my main events. I sometimes ran the relays. I also competed in the long jump and triple jump.”  Bonnie enjoyed many milestones during the outdoor season. “I made it to state in the long jump my senior year, breaking the school record with a jump of seventeen feet, ten inches. I also broke the school record in the four-hundred-meter hurdles. My fastest four-hundred-meter open time was sixty and one-tenth seconds. I was able to earn all-conference status for the four-hundred-meter open and hurdles as well as the triple jump.”

Competing on the track as a high school athlete was thrilling for Bonnie but her biggest takeaway comes from the lessons learned. “My outdoor track coach, Mary Ball, taught me the importance of integrity in sports and in life. My indoor track coach, Chuck Gilberti, taught me the importance of giving your best in anything in life. My two high school coaches impacted me more than anyone else as a teen and early adult. This taught me  the importance of athletics.” These lessons learned from her coaches would be influential for her role later in life as a leader of the Kalamazoo Running community.

Although Bonnie’s bread and butter as a high school runner was as a sprinter she also ran cross country. “Chuck Gilberti was also the cross country coach and he talked me into coming out a few years, but this wasn’t my strength back then. My fastest 5K cross-country time was twenty-two minutes but as an adult, I have run faster than this.”

Bonnie’s success as a high school athlete would provide her an opportunity to compete in college. “My senior year Long Island University recruited me to run track. I turned them down, choosing to attend Liberty University in Virginia because my parents wanted me to go to a Christian-based school. I started there as a walk-on for the indoor team and eventually joined the spring track team.” Bonnie was able to improve upon her two-hundred-meter time enough to earn a scholarship her sophomore year but would retire as a collegiate runner after her second year of college. “Being a collegiate athlete was very demanding so after my sophomore year I decided to let running go.”

After graduating from Liberty Bonnie would go through many transitions. She continued to stay active on a limited scale by going to the gym now and then.  Her running would be put on hold for the next fourteen years, although at the time she didn’t anticipate that she would ever return to the sport she had excelled in as a student. She and her future husband Jeff began dating while going to school at Liberty. They kept dating long distance after graduation in 1990. “Jeff moved back home to New Hampshire after college to work. I started a job in human resources at a manufacturing company in Yonkers, New York, and moved back home. My mom was diagnosed at this time with cancer and passed away a few months after moving back home.”  A year later Bonnie started grad school at Mercy College, earning her MS in Human Resources Management three years later. She and Jeff were married after this and Bonnie moved to New Hampshire. Over the next four years, Jeff and Bonnie were blessed with their first two children, Michael and Steven. Not long after Steven was born they packed their bags and moved from the East Coast to the Midwest in 1997. “Jeff’s parents had moved out to Michigan. Jeff and I moved out to Kalamazoo in 1997 to be near them. I started working in HR in the banking industry.”

Bonnie continued to go the the gym to try and stay in shape but still had no interest in running. Her life was hectic and bountiful. It seemed that there wasn’t a space for running. “In 1999 our family was blessed with the birth of Paige. This was a busy time for me, being a mom, a wife, and working full time.” After Paige turned three, Bonnie decided she needed to shed some weight and decided to reunite with running. 

She started off not biting off too much but soon enough Bonnie would immerse herself in the running community. Although she had participated in cross-country in high school, Bonnie’s bread and butter had always been the sprint events. She hadn’t expected to compete when she started running again. She surprised herself. “I started training in March of 2022 and ran a 5K race in May. I was surprised that I was able to place second in my age group. This really got me excited about running so I trained and ran 5K races for the next year. By the fall I was able to eclipse my PR from high school.” 

Bonnie was content in competing in 5K events but would eventually progress to longer distances. “I joined Borges Run Camp in 2003 to train for the Borgess 5K. I ended up participating in the longer runs in the training program and decided to run the Borgess Half Marathon finishing with a time of one hour and thirty-six minutes.” 

With the success that Bonnie experienced in her first half-marathon, she decided to try a marathon. “The next summer I joined Summer Safari, a marathon training program hosted by Kalamazoo Area Runners (KAR) and Gazelle Sports, to train for my first marathon.” She had competed at a high level as a runner in high school and college but this was different. Not only had she transitioned from sprinter to marathon runner but she was enjoying being a member of KAR and connecting socially with other runners. “I ran Boston 2005, my first Boston Marathon, with a time of three hours, fifteen minutes, and ten seconds, my PR, as a member of Frontline Racing. I finished one-hundred and fifty-third overall for women. Our Front Line Racing team finished in third place.”

Bonnie has competed at many distances on the road race circuit but the marathon has no doubt been her most raced distance. She has run from Hopkinton to Boston five different times, with this being the marathon experience she appreciates the most. “Boston is hands down my favorite, with the crowd support, the organization, and the community spirit of the local residents.” She has finished first in four different marathons, the Last Chance in Columbus with a starting temperature of two degrees, the Carolton Marathon near Saginaw, Michigan twice, and the Tecumseh Trail Marathon near Bloomington, Indiana. She has PRs of one hour and thirty-three minutes for the half marathon, forty-one minutes and twenty-three seconds for the 10K, and nineteen minutes and thirty-six minutes for the 5K.

Bonnie has made a name for herself in the Kalamazoo running community as a runner. In her prime, she competed not just in her age group but also as one of the best female runners in the area. Her involvement in the growth in the running in a round Kalamazoo is where she made the biggest impact. She reflects on this journey in her life as a runner. “The winter of 2004 Rollin Richman, who at the time was KAR treasurer organized a group of runners to train for a spring marathon. He shared with me that there was a VP of membership opening for KAR. I threw my hat in and was elected to this position, serving as VP for a few years.”

With Bonnie’s organization and leadership skills and her vision for the future of running in Kalamazoo, the VP position provided a stepping stone for her. “At that time Dave Walch was KAR president. Eventually, I joined Dave as co-president. When Dave’s term ended he decided not to return, so I became president. I temporarily stepped off the board a few years later to take a break and eventually came back as VP of hospitality for a short period of time before stepping in as president again.” Bonnie served on the KAR board for nearly two decades, most of these years as president.

The number of individuals participating in running nationwide seems to have reached a higher level in the last two decades. Bonnie played a big part in this growth locally, capitalizing on the new popularity of running. Her leadership inspired others to get involved in giving of themselves to fuel this growth. Bonnie talks about some of the highlights of the growth of KAR. “We went from two hundred runners to over fifteen hundred members. The popularity of women in running and running becoming a recreational sport among adults on a national level also fueled this. The partnership with Gazelle Sports to co-host Summer Safari helped to fuel this. We also partnered with Borgess Run camp for a short period which helped with this growth and we also started adding our own training programs starting in 2005, partnering with the Shufflers for a winter program named  Boston and Beyond.” 

Through the years KAR offered training programs in Kalamazoo and Battle Creek for race distances from 5K to the marathon. These training programs provided guidance and coaching for many to check off bucket list items but more importantly, they have provided a network of runners to share their sport with, creating strong friendships along the way. The development in Kalamazoo’s running community in the last twenty years could not have happened without the hours given back to running by Bonnie and hundreds of other volunteers. The partnerships that KAR has made in the community with organizations and businesses such as Gazelle Sports, Bronson Sports Medicine, and Girls on the Run have also been a key factor.

Bonnie is grateful for the opportunity to serve KAR. “It has been exciting being a leader and to be a part of the growth with such amazing people. Dave Walch once said to me. “It's not about the running, it's about the people.” It has been great seeing friendships develop through running.” Bonnie’s tireless work for the running community has been witnessed firsthand by many in the local community but her efforts have also been noticed beyond Southwest Michigan. She was honored as Road Runner’s Club of America (RRCA) club president of the year in 2014, an honor that is a feather in her cap, but also an award that all of KAR can be proud of.

Bonnie recently took on another leadership role in running, having served on the board for RRCA for the last two years, while still serving as KAR president through April of last year. Bonnie spent many hours each week with all the tasks involved in being KAR president. She has still managed to keep busy in the interim. “In addition to serving on the RRCA board, locally, I have been freed up to serve our community in new and exciting ways.  I am serving on several committees on behalf of two other local non-profit organizations and am in the process of joining the board of a third. I am also enjoying my profession as an HR Consultant where I have the opportunity to positively impact many organizations and companies in Southwest Michigan. For fun, I travel to see my kids and spend every other weekend in Northern Indiana with my boyfriend, an avid slalom water skier who competed in Nationals. He is also a runner but focused more on the 5k distance.”  

Just as being president of KAR has blessed Bonnie with many opportunities, so has being involved with RRCA. Her involvement with both KAR and RRCA has provided her with many opportunities nationally. Most recently she was able to volunteer for the Olympic Marathon Trials in Florida this winter with RRCA.

Although Bonnie seems to have some natural leadership skills she couldn’t have done it on an island. There are many who have guided her along the way. “Blaine Lam has been a mentor for me. He has been a support and advocate for KAR. Chris Crowell has also been a great influence on me. He has embraced the involvement in community and partnerships in running. He has been a great role model.”

Besides her time spent on the the KAR board, the RRCA board, and serving on race committees and as race director Bonnie also found time to coach high school runners. “My kids attended Heritage Christian Academy when they were younger. The school started a running club for its students several years ago. This led to the school organizing a cross-country team. In 2008 Pam Schrock, another parent from Heritage Christian Academy, and I organized a team. I coached the team for a few years with Pam joining me as an assistant.”

Although Bonnie is no longer a part of the KAR board she is still a member of KAR and can be found at many of the club-organized training runs and many local races. She cherishes the family that she has found in the local running community. She reflects on what the running family means to her. “The friendships made through the running community carry people through the highs and lows of life. I have experienced this firsthand. When I was going through a divorce a few years ago they were a huge source of support for me.”

Running is something that I have delighted in for many years. Growing this sport is something that fuels this excitement. The more the merrier. In my time as a runner, there seems to be continual growth. There are many factors for this. Having innovative leadership in our sport helps to keep seasoned runners interested in running while also drawing new athletes to our sport. Bonnie has been an example of this and I’m confident she will continue to show leadership even if in less formal ways. She has been like the pebble thrown into a pond, creating a ripple effect that has inspired others to give of their time to the running community. She will continue to be an ambassador for running. 

Everyone has a story.  Stay tuned next month for another runner’s story.