Adventurer of the Week: Tacoma marathoner Donna Jackson

By the time the groundwork was laid for woman and girls to get a fair shake at college and high school athletics it was too late for Donna Jackson.

Title IX passed in 1972. Jackson graduated from Peninsula High in 1968.

Without organized sports to provide opportunities to help her find her athletic gifts, Jackson’s talent went undiscovered for decades.

But Monday, the 65-year-old Tacoma resident will enjoy the highlight of her athletic career. Jackson is one of 82 South Sound residents participating in the Super Bowl of running, the Boston Marathon.

Jackson doesn’t want sympathy for the chances she never received. She just wants to enjoy the moment.

“I’m not saying it to whine, it’s just a fact,” Jackson said. “There are so many things we couldn’t do then that we can do now. I was not allowed to call a boy on the phone back then because it was not acceptable behavior by my mother’s standards.

“I never questioned it. Now, I think, ‘Why the heck not?’ ”

With no school sports for girls, Jackson’s primary extra-curricular activity was singing. One of six children, she did play baseball and other sports occasionally with her two brothers. She skied on family trips.

Jackson didn’t find her passion for running until 1990, when she got a yellow lab named Chamois. The dog loved to run, so that’s how Jackson and Chamois started every morning.

Those runs became more meaningful in 1992 after Jackson’s first husband, Alan Spadoni, died in a climbing accident near Snoqualmie Pass.

“Running kept my feet on the ground,” said Jackson, who has since remarried to Bill Jackson. “It’s what kept me sane. So it became a necessity in my life, but never competitively.”

“I take first in my age group all the time, but it’s against local runners,” Jackson said. “Then I ran a race in Arizona and finished second to a world-class runner. Then I finished second in another race to another world-class runner and I thought, ‘You know what, I had no idea I was in those numbers.’ ”

Her favorite distance is the half marathon, but she’s run four marathons and posted a Boston qualifying time in each. She needed to run in 4 hours, 40 minutes to qualify. She ran last year’s Tacoma City Marathon in 4:05:33.

Running keeps her young, and she credits her trainer, Will Baldyga of Tacoma’s b.Well Fitness, for showing her how to run properly and safely. She’s enjoyed learning the finer points of the sport alongside younger athletes.

“I’m like a kid in a candy store,” Jackson said. “I never learned this stuff before. Learning all the jargon. Speed work. Strength work. It’s just so much fun learning something new.”

The strength work has made a huge difference, Jackson said.

“Getting older doesn’t mean you have to get slower,” Jackson said. “It’s all about strength.”

Jackson remembers feeling hammered after running her first marathon. “I had the tenacity to push through, but that is not the best way,” she said.

She qualified for Boston, but, “I said, ‘I’m never doing this again.’ ”

Her current routine of running three to four days per week and doing two days of strength training has resulted in her getting faster and staying healthy.

“I don’t have injuries,” Jackson said. “… I’d do (strength training) for the rest of my life if I can. It’s meant so much to everything I do. I’m healthier and I stand up straight. You are aware of your posture and what you are doing with your body.”

It’s been suggested to her many times that her late arrival to the sport is actually a blessing. That all that pounding her body avoided by not running in high school and decades after left her knees and hips stronger.

Jackson disagrees.

“I happen to believe that it’s better for my hips and knees that I’m a runner and that I do weight-bearing activities and that I stay thin.

“And form is so important. That’s when you hurt yourself. Whatever it is you are doing. You don’t just do it. You do it right. That saved me from injuries.”

Jackson says getting ready for the Boston Marathon was a two-year process “And I can’t believe it’s almost here.”

Her focus has been crucial to her success.

“I don’t look ahead,” Jackson said. “If you look ahead and think, I can’t do that, you start that negative programing, so I just take it one week at a time. And I say, ‘I’ve never done that so I’m going to give it a try.’ ”

It still surprises her when people tell her she’s an inspiration.

“I guess it’s inspiring to older people,” she said. “You too can do this because I’m a nobody.”

A nobody who seems to be aging in reverse. After Boston she plans to run the May 1 Tacoma City Marathon. And she and her trainer have set a goal of finishing in 3:45, a time that would qualify a 40-year-old for Boston.

“That would be a big deal for me,” Jackson said. “I make no promises. I’m just going to go out and do my best.”

This story was originally published April 14, 2016 at 7:38 AM with the headline "Adventurer of the Week: Tacoma marathoner Donna Jackson."