From my midtown Manhattan office on September 11, 2001, I watched a horrid simulcast unfold both on television and outside my office window.
My response was to run, because I needed to exhaust every muscle and bone in my body, so that sleep might be a possibility. I ran 15 miles—the Hudson River to my right, and to my left the massive smoke plumes in the distance—breathing because I could, running because they couldn't.
I discovered Jim Thorpe in 1998 when I read a mountain biking review, came up for a ride, and purchased a Stone Row home, partly as a respite from the city and partly as a place to relax in an absolutely stunning setting just two hours from New York City. I began training for my first marathon, and coming to Jim Thorpe for my long weekend runs.
The week following 9/11, as a neighbor and I were running to the Lehigh Gorge, a newspaper photographer took a picture of us—not a pretty run, but a run complete with gruesome facial expressions and intense musculature. I identified myself as a "Jim Thorpe resident"—not exactly the truth, but then I couldn't talk about living in New York City. I just wanted to run.
I soon discovered I was pregnant with my first child. While I was in the best shape of my life, which made for a healthy pregnancy, my marathon would become a marathon of labor in August 2002 resulting in the birth of my daughter, Skyler.
In April 2003, I decided to leave New York's corporate world and move to Jim Thorpe with my artist husband, Victor Stabin, and our nine-month-old daughter. When our second daughter, Arielle, was born, my running days became but a distant memory. I was now the mother of two small children, renovating a 15,000-square-foot building, and opening the Stabin Morykin Art Galleries and Flow restaurant.
Last February, I was sick for the entire month, gaining 20 pounds over my healthy weight. Somehow, in the fog of that illness, I had responded to a request to run in the spring to benefit the Special Olympics. May hit before I realized I had committed to run the Jim Thorpe Memorial Day 10K, replete with a run up the infamous North Street Hill.
I managed three training runs that month and pulled off a respectable finish in the 10K. I banged it out. As I rounded the Jim Thorpe monument for the final lap to the Jim Thorpe High School track, my passion for running rekindled with a vengeance.
After that race, I continued my running and rediscovered so much of what originally brought me to Carbon County—the beauty of a run on a summer day along the Weissport Canal surrounded by magical reflections, a shaded run up the Switchback around the Mauch Chunk Lake Park and up to Summit Hill encircled by dramatic vistas, a victorious run to the top of Flagstaff Mountain cheered on by a carful of onlookers, and the drama of a run along the winding splendor of the Lehigh Gorge.
I ran a 15K in the Race Street Run in Jim Thorpe and a 5K benefit along the Walnutport Canal—finally feeling confident enough to sign up for my bucket list item—a full marathon, the Steamtown Marathon.
I ran 35 to 45 miles a week, rejoicing with every increase in speed, distance and endurance. I was proud when my oldest daughter, Skyler, told friends, "My mommy is a runner."
My family greeted me as I crossed the Steamtown finish line, completing my first marathon in 4 hours, 3 minutes, and 47 seconds—within striking distance of qualifying for the Boston Marathon.
I was 20 pounds lighter and feeling healthier than I had in years. I also had rediscovered the beauty of where I lived.
I may have taken a nine-year detour, but what an incredible run it has been.
Joan Morykin