Kendra moved to Pacifica 4 years ago with her husband, John and two daughters, Kaley, 14 and Kennedy, 12. Kendra had never run before and a friend signed her up for the Nike Women’s Half Marathon in 2008. The best advice during the training that was surprising to her was that it is OK to walk; you just need to start running again.

Her running sparked an interest with her brother and they ran their first marathons together, the San Francisco Marathon, in 2009. Several races later, in 2015 she ran 3 marathons in 3 months and a century (100 mile) bike ride. In 2016, she traveled a lot for work and added races all over the country including Vancouver, Seattle, Denver, Austin, Las Vegas, Chicago, LA, and San Diego. She is now training for her second half ironman in April and San Francisco full marathon in July.

She enjoys running with her 2 daughters including many 5Ks, the Hazelnut 7K, and 10K Tinker Bell run in Disneyland. She is trying to teach them how important health and wellness is even at a young age.

The best part about running for Kendra is finding someone who is interested in running, pushing them to the next level and witnessing their excitement in achieving a goal they never thought possible.

Shortly after moving to Pacifica from San Francisco with her family in 2000, Ami discovered that hiking and jogging the many trails was a perfect way to relieve stress after a busy day at work. Having hardly any running experience, Ami began a couch to 5k program and ran her first 5K at the Academy of Sciences Run To The Far Side” in 2004. After crossing that first finish line, she caught the “bug” and was hooked!

Ami, subsequently, ran dozens of races ranging from 5Ks to 12Ks such as San Francisco’s own Bay To Breakers. In 2007, however, she was sidelined with IT Band Syndrome for 6 months. That’s when she discovered the importance of proper training. By adding resistance and stretching exercises to her running program, she noticed obvious improvements. In 2008, she ran her first Half Marathon pain-free and became certified as a Personal Trainer. She has been helping other runners prevent injury and to find their “inner strong” ever since!

In the following years, Ami was able to improve her half marathon finishing time by 18 minutes. She even completed her first marathon at the California International in 2015. Not only that, she qualified for and ran the Boston Marathon in 2017.

Now Ami is a certified running coach with Road Runners Club of America and is excited to be a board member for Pacifica Runners.

Fran has been running for about 6 years after a work friend encouraged her to run the Chase Corporate Challenge (2011). Using a couch to 5K training plan, she surprised herself and others at work with her finish time. After that, she committed to doing a race about once a month.

Since then, she has done about 40 races, mostly 5K's, then half marathons (2013) and marathons (2014). More recently, she completed the following marathons: California International (2014), Boston (2016) and London (2017).

Fran has never considered herself an athlete, but believes that if she can do it, anyone can. She loves the multi-faceted aspects of running: improving herself and encouraging others; the comraderie, as well as the alone time running brings her; the peace of an EZ run and the challenge of pushing herself to do more! Fran and her husband moved to Pacifica in 2004. She was a finance professional and is the mother of 2 boys. This is her first year of being on the Pacifica Runners' Board.

Ramona was born and raised in Pacifica, CA. As a child and teenager, she was never really involved in many sports of any kind. Not until she decided to make a lifestyle change in 2013 did she really get into running. After losing weight and becoming much healthier she began running as a daily part of her workout routine and quickly fell in love with it.  Ramona joined Pacifica Runners to help bring friends, family, and the community together to participate in healthy and fun activities. She loves to bring her family out to all the races and wants them to reap the benefits of running and having a healthy lifestyle just as much as she has.

In 2013 Ramona ran her first 5K race and it became addicting. As she became a stronger runner she began training for 10Ks and longer distance runs. She runs the Giants Series races each year along with a few other race series challenges. She also gets out to as many local road races as she can each month on the weekends with friends. In January 2016, she completed her first Half Marathon in Disneyland. After that she started participating in Spartans races and other endurance challenges. Being fit and healthy is a big part of her lifestyle. Running has become her main outlet to combat those daily life stresses that we all face and it brings a lot of joy to her life. When it gets tough she laces up and heads out to the pavement to run it out.

Wendy is a lifelong Pacifica resident who began running at age 13 when she discovered she was pretty good at maintaining a steady pace during the 'dreaded mile' in middle school. She began running around Terra Nova track and the Weiler Ranch trail after that, listening to cassettes on her Sony Sport Walkman. Since then she had upgraded her technology and broadened her terrain. She can often be seen running along the beach path and streets of Pacifica, taking on the challenge of running up its many hills.

For many years, Wendy just focused on running for health, fitness, fun and stress reduction. It wasn't until her son was born and she realized that she had run about ten miles with him asleep in his jogging stroller that her self-competitive nature led her to start thinking about attempting a long distance race. She ran her first half marathon in Santa Cruz in 2009 and was hooked. Since then she has run many local races as well as a few destination races like the Tinkerbell Pixie Dust Challenge, Rock-n-Roll Edinburgh and Las Vegas races, as well as the Manchester Marathon. She loves traveling to England and her ultimate goal is to run in the London Marathon.

When she is not busy running around town or after her children, Wendy teaches fitness classes at the Pacifica Athletic Center and has been an instructor there for the past ten years. She enjoys sharing her love of fitness and all its benefits with her classes. She is a firm believer in the power of running in creating not only a healthy body but a healthy mind.

Ria is 48, and she is a runner! She did not grow up running cross-country or track and field as a child. Her running career only started four years ago when she took the leap of running outside and off her treadmill. After getting on the trail there was no turning back! 

Her first race was in 2014, the Hot Chocolate 5k in Golden Gate Park. It shocked her that people got up so early to run with thousands of strangers; she quickly understood why. Her first half marathon was eight months later, The Giant Race, fundraising for Project Open Hand of SF. She cried before she crossed the finish line. She now felt like a runner. Although she had terrible stomach issues, she loved that race and runs it every year. Ria’s first marathon was in 2016, CIM in Sacramento. She never thought she’d want to or be able to run 26.2 miles, but with the support of the Pacifica Runners she did! She just completed her first relay, one of four runners at The Big Sur International Marathon in April 2017 and hopes Mother Nature allows the race to continue. 

One of her favorite things about running is encouraging people to do their best and enjoy running like she does. Her 9 year old son Jonas, has been joining her on runs and at Pacifica Runners' 5k races. Her husband Dan, is a recreational runner, though he prefers to run alone, they sometimes start out together along the beach or the quarry and then go their own paces. 

Ria’s goal is to be a life long runner, to stay motivated, inspire others and not get injured to the point of not being able to run, or more importantly not lose the passion and interest of running. #SeasideRia is proud to represent the low and slow mileage, middle of the pack runners and loves running the trails of Mori Point, her own “backyard” and other spectacularly challenging Pacifica and beyond trails. She loves volunteering for the Pacifica Runners and hopes it remains a great family running club for everyone!

She has been on the board of Pacifica Runners since its inception and is one of the founding members. One reason she helped to found the Pacifica Runners was to help get her kids more involved in running in a fun and motivating way. It also seemed to be a natural progression after finding so many like-minded runners in her community that inspire and motivate her on a day-to-day basis. 

She recently accomplished two running goals, completing the Boston Marathon and running a 218 mile relay.

Todd had never been a fitness buff but in 2009 he became a dad – perhaps a bit later in life than most – which sparked a newfound desire to stay fit for no better reason than to extend life as long as possible to watch his son, now two sons, grow up to be men. Despite the good intentions, that desire soon lost its initial oomph and would collect dust for a few more years...  

Fast forward to 2011: Todd and his family moved to Pacifica and they quickly fell in love with the low key, friendly vibe of the town. Todd also loved taking advantage of all the beautiful walking paths but would jealously observe local runners whizzing by him. He had seen flyers about Pacifica Runners around town but the idea of meeting up with actual runners for a morning run was really intimidating. Finally, in the spring 2014, he got fed up with his inaction and committed to a couch to 5K program. Later that summer on July 13^th, he ran his first 5K at Crissy Field with the Dolphin South End Runners. It was thrilling to run alongside 100+ other runners and pass the finish line.

With the confidence and excitement he gained from that first race, Todd became a member of Pacifica Runners a few months later. The running clinics offered by the club were incredibly helpful for understanding the basics of a good running form and his running pace gradually became quicker as a result. Since that time, he’s run many 5K races, a few 10Ks and one sprint trialthon.