Kendra moved to Pacifica 7 years ago with her husband, John and two daughters, Kaley, 18 and Kennedy, 15. Kendra had never run before and a friend signed her up for the Nike Women’s Half Marathon in 2008. The best advice surprised her - 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. She recently finished her 10^th marathon at Big Sur. She enjoys adding races to her many travels. Two years ago, she started obstacle course racing, she finished 3 races in 2 days in the most beautiful mountains of Italy last year. She has a Spartan Season Pass and plans to do 15 Spartan races, cycling races and many road races.

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.

Ami is a certified running coach with Road Runners Club of America and has been a Board Member of Pacifica Runners since 2016.

Ami leads the club's Couch to 5K program. This fun 12-week training program is designed to successfully guide participants to compete the club's 5K races.

Fran has been running since 2011 when a work friend encouraged her to run the Chase Corporate Challenge. 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 run races from 5K's to marathons, including Boston (2016).

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.

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.

EVENTS DIRECTOR - Dara Ditsworth

Dara grew up in sunny L.A., dabbling in sports throughout childhood and running track in high school.  An average 400m runner, she struggled whenever practice turned to cross-country distances, or really anything longer than a mile.

After more than a decade of living on the east coast with a school/work-centric lifestyle that led to seasonal hibernation, it wasn’t until moving to San Diego in 2009 that she rediscovered a love for the outdoors.  After joining a group to train for the La Jolla ½ marathon, she subsequently ‘trained by doing’ – signing up for local 5k, 10k, and trail runs every month. She really caught the running bug after a few seasons of participating in XTERRA’s SoCal trail race series between LA and San Diego.  More than the speed of road races, the trails served a mental challenge to get through miles 8 – 13 after climbing mountains, but proved rewarding with ocean views and a sense of adventure. Her time in San Diego also sparked a love of cycling, participating in duathlons and century rides, and annual fundraising events for local charities.  

Dara moved to the Bay Area in 2018 and was drawn to Pacifica’s coastline and proximity to the city.  She’s eager to meet new friends and contribute to building a community around healthy living, and looks forward to planning some events!

Michelle wasn't always a runner -- it wasn't until 2013 that she started running along the beach a few days a week, building mileage until she tackled her first trail half that fall. Two years later, Michelle got the "marathon bug" and signed up for her first at CIM... being the overachiever that she is, she signed up for Humboldt Redwoods Marathon two months prior to ensure she had a "solid training race" leading up to her successful CIM debut. She still hasn't beat that PR time of 3:50, so something must have worked in that crazy plan! Two marathons under her belt, she ran a third that following January at Carlsbad in San Diego. She has since run several more road marathons, to include Berlin, NYC, San Francisco, and others. 

Still, Michelle thirsted for the thrill of trails and ultrarunning, and soon switched gears to 50ks and beyond. Since 2016, Michelle has run 12 ultras, ranging from 50ks to 100ks. In 2018 she joined ultrarunner Sarah Lavender Smith in a trail running camp in the San Juan Mountains of southern Colorado, running on parts of the Hardrock 100 trail at altitudes of up to 13,000 ft! As a coastal gal, this was tough! While she likes to stay in "50k shape," she is working with ultrarunner and coach Adam Kimble to become more comfortable with 50-mile and 100k distances. She plans to run a 50-miler near Mt Shasta this fall, and tackle Miwok 100k and Cuyamaca 100k in 2021. One day, Michelle hopes to participate in multi-day stage races abroad, running upwards of 20-50 miles a day for several days in places all over Europe, South America, and Africa. 

Growing up, Michelle was an avid hiker and outdoors person, spending weekends in the mountains of San Diego with her parents. While not a fan of PE or organized sports, she found peace on the trails and beaches of her home in San Diego County. Today, she trains in San Pedro Valley Park/Montara, Sweeney Ridge, and the Marin Headlands/Mt Tam. 

Michelle has a long history of nonprofit work, having served as a marketing and fundraising professional in the sector for more than a decade, with organizations ranging from environmental issues, to social services, and education. When not running, Michelle works within Digital Customer Experience at Genentech, where she has worked since 2015. She lives with her husband and two small parrots, Honey and Badger. 

PROMOTIONS DIRECTOR - Jamie Drever

Jamie moved to Pacifica in 2016 from Folsom.  She joined the Pacifica Runners Board in 2019 and hopes to contribute to its success.

Jamie has been running off and on since the late 80’s.  Her first Bay to Breakers was in 1989, and she’s done many more since.  She was fairly content with running short distances of 3-4 miles for many years.  Then in 2013 she decided to train for and run a half marathon with her daughter as a tribute to her sister who lost a battle with cancer.  She then caught the bug for the longer distance races.  She started running more half marathons and then while volunteering at an aid station for the California International Marathon in 2014, she made a pact with a friend to run the race the next year.  Staying true to their word, they trained and ran the marathon the following year.

Jamie’s motto is:  “If I can do it, you can do it too”.  She ran her first marathon at age 48, her second at age 49, and her third at age 50, and has around 30 half marathons under her belt.  She believes it’s never too late to start and you are never too old to run.  She is a solid back-of-the-pack runner and uses intervals to try to stay injury-free and maintain endurance.

Jamie has a long history of volunteering for worthy organizations.  She served on the board of the Folsom Softball Club as treasurer for 8 years and coached her daughter’s softball team, always team mom for little league, softball and soccer teams and has been volunteering her time for running clubs for the past 6 years.  Jamie works as a Childbirth Educator/Doula and has many years of working in office management and accounting.

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, one sprint triathlon and completed his inaugural half marathon at the 2019 Inaugural Bay Bridge Half Marathon followed by the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Run Half Marathon later that year.