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I run for myself and for those who depend on me. I run for those who can’t and for great causes. I run for those who can, but need encouragement. I run because someday I won’t be able to. And on that day, I hope and pray someone will run for me. — Randy L. Thurman

By Michael Swisher

KT&FP Managing Editor

Whether she realizes it or not – and she mostly does – Brandi Parker is running for a lot of people when she steps foot on a race course.

She runs for someone like Jener Ludwig, whose Prader-Willi Syndrome won’t allow his young body to keep up a strong pace for long.

She runs for Joy Ludwig, Jener’s mother and sometimes training partner of Parker’s whose own bout with arthritis has limited her miles.

She runs for someone like Jenny Nusz, another training partner on the weekends who has seen her own ability to run slowed down by back injuries.

She runs for her son, Kris Parker, a standout runner in his days at Kingfisher High School, who finds endless inspiration in his mother.

She runs for the countless people she’s helped train - free of charge - over the last couple of years, teaching them not only the benefits of running, but a healthier lifestyle overall.

So when Brandi Parker crossed the finish line at last weekend’s Last Chance BQ.2 Marathon in Geneva, Ill., in just over 3 hours and 33 minutes, she not only achieved a dream, but lifted a community of people seemingly following her every step of the 26.2 miles.

Parker’s time was more than six minutes under the qualifying standard for next April’s Boston Marathon, an inconceivable achievement for Parker when she first opened the Couch to 5K app in July 2012.

“I did it!” Parker said about her thoughts as she crossed the finish line last Saturday.

“This was really in God’s plan.”

• • •

It was a plan set in motion - literally - more than seven years earlier when a colleague introduced her to the 5K training app.

“I was curious because they had so much success with it, so I gave it a try,” she said. “My oldest son (Kris) was a runner and I enjoyed going to watch his cross country and track meets. I was also overweight and desperate to change that.”

Parker made her way through the program and challenged herself by signing up for a 5K race in September 2012.

“My time was 34:57,” she remembers.

And she was hooked, or “addicted” to racing as she calls it.

Another running friend, Stephanie Wimberley of Piedmont, enticed Parker to train for and run in a half-marathon. She competed in her first of those in October 2015.

“I told myself before the race, if I could complete it without having to stop and walk at all, I would train for a full marathon,” Parker said.

She did…and she did.

Parker’s first marathon was the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon in April 2016.

Parker found herself in downtown OKC again exactly two years later running a full marathon for the fourth time.

It was then that Parker first legitimately thought about aiming for the Boston Marathon, widely considered to be the standard for marathon runners in the United States.

“I started the first half of the marathon on pace for a Boston Qualifying (BQ) time, unintentionally,” Parker recalled. “I fell apart during the second half for several reasons and ended up not finishing well there.”

Despite the poor finish, Parker had a new goal.

“The high I felt running the first half so well made me want to go after that Boston Marathon qualifier,” she said.

Knowing her knowledge of the sport was still in its infant stages,

Parker hired a coach in June 2018 to help her train.

That immediately paid dividends.

In her first marathon after hiring a coach, Parker ran the Prairie Fire course in Wichita, Kan., in 3:56 in October 2018. In breaking the four-hour mark for the first time, Parker had shaved 25 minutes off her personal record (PR).

Now the Boston Marathon was within sight.

For females age 40-44, the qualifying standard at a certified marathon is 3:40.

She ran the Route 66 Marathon in Tulsa the next month, but wasn’t aiming to qualify on the difficult course. She ran it in 4:06.

“It was too short of a turnaround and little recovery time to expect any progress,” she said. “In addition, the Route 66 is one of the harder marathons around with a lot of hills.”

Parker’s next real attempt to qualify was the Spring Chance BQ.2 Marathon in April of this year.

She ran it in 3:43:21, missing the BQ time by 3 minutes, 21 seconds.

“I remember my teammate who ran with me crying for me when I came across the finish line. She had already finished and ran a BQ time,” Parker said. “She was sad I didn’t make it and missed it by so little.

“I remember saying, ‘Don’t cry for me! I just ran a 13-minute personal record!’ While I would have loved to have qualified that day, I knew that it just wasn’t in God’s plan.”

Parker said she knew her body wasn’t yet conditioned enough to handle the endurance needed to finish strong.

“I needed more training,” she said.

After each marathon, Parker takes a complete break from running for about two weeks. She returns with light running.

Specific training for a marathon begins about four months out.

“My coach sets my plan and I strictly follow it,” she said.

She runs five days a week anywhere from 35-46 miles a week. She also has strength training specifically geared toward runners two days a week and one day a week of cross training. Parker adds extra strengthening exercises designed to counter reoccurring hip and hamstring issues.

She also works full-time and has three children: Kris, Kolby and Briley.

“She has always put my siblings and I first while still going after her dreams,” said Kris, a salesman at Jacksons Auto Family. “To see how far she has come and the work she has put in makes me beyond blessed to have her not just as a role model, but as my mom.”

As the name suggests, the Last Chance BQ.2 was Parker’s final shot at making her way into the 2020 Boston Marathon.

It was on the same course she ran her previous PR in April.

“I loved the course in Illinois, so I decided to go back,” she said.

Her knowledge of the course and her training leading up to the race gave Parker a peace.

“I was the most calm I have ever been going into a race,” she said. “I knew I was ready.

“I knew it was my time.”

• • •

Parker wasn’t the only one confident in the outcome.

Nusz has made several of the long Sunday morning training runs with Parker.

“When you run two-plus hours with someone once a week and travel to and from runs together, you get a good chance to talk and know them,” Nusz said. “I knew when we ran together the Sunday before she left she was going to break 3:40.”

Ludwig made the trip with Parker to Illinois both times.

“When she didn’t qualify last spring, she did not let it knock her down,” Ludwig said. “This race she was so much stronger. I literally saw her transform over the summer from the race last spring. She had one more lap left and I ran with her a minute, asking her how she felt and I knew with her time at that point she had it and so did she.”

Ludwig is one of many who have taken advantage of Parker’s free training sessions around Kingfisher (featured in the Feb. 3, 2019, edition, “Spreading the Bug”).

“I had been in a bad place for some time after Jener was born,” said Ludwig, noting the difficulties of raising a special needs child. “I had poured myself into him and hadn’t done anything for myself in a really long time. I’d had enough and in January 2017 I knew things had to change.”

Ludwig knew Parker (formerly Garvin) from school. They’d also crossed paths at the hospital when Ludwig took her son there for therapy.

A speech language pathologist, Parker then worked for the hospital though she now serves a couple of local school districts.

When she saw a post about Parker’s training, Ludwig decided to join up.

“I always ran, but I was never a runner,” Ludwig said. “I started running again and making time for myself. It was the start of a transformation I never saw coming.”

It was a transformation in which Parker played a huge part.

The two began training together often.

“With Brandi having the profession she has, she could listen and understand me. She works with special needs children daily and there was just this connection I had with her,” Ludwig said. “Our friendship, our runs, turning my life around, had become my therapy. I have zero doubt that God put Brandi in my life for a very strong reason and purpose.”

The Last Chance course is set up in laps. That allowed Ludwig to distribute fuel to Parker as she came past. It also made it easy to keep up with her time and pace, which Ludwig constantly updated on Facebook and provided a live video of Parker crossing the finish line.

Watching, Nusz couldn’t help but think of the progress her friend had made.

“I know I speak for her in saying success is not immediate. Seventeen months ago, we ran the same marathon together and she helped me train to break four hours where she finished in 4 1/2,” Nusz said.

“She believed in herself and consistently stuck to her plan. Because of her drive and determination, she ran this marathon almost an hour quicker. That’s proof that when you are mentally tough like Brandi, you can reach your goals.”

From before the race until the final moments, Parker said she knew her goal was going to be achieved.

“I felt great during the whole race. Last time I started feeling sluggish around mile 16. That didn’t happen this time,” she said. “I felt strong during the entire race.”

Her goal was to finish in 3:35, which is five minutes under the qualifying standard.

“Once I reached mile 20, still feeling strong, there was no doubt in my mind,” Parker continued. “Seeing the clock at 3:33 and hearing Joy screaming at the finish line was a moment I won’t soon forget.”

For now, Parker is taking it easy. Before long, she’ll hit up another race or two.

“I’m known as a race addict,” she said, recalling the 52 races she ran in 2018 alone.

Then her Boston training will begin.

“Boston will be an extremely tough race compared to the marathon I just completed,” she said. “That was a flat course. Boston is tough and hilly. My training will need to prepare for that change.”

People Parker has touched during her running transformation say she deserves to bask in the glory of her achievement because, despite the constant training, she’s constantly there for others.

Said Kris: “She inspires me everyday to be a better version of myself. I can’t stress enough how grateful I am for everything she’s done to make sure I’m succeeding at whatever I do.”

But it’s not just family.

“Brandi is the first to encourage someone to be a better version of themselves, especially when it comes to getting healthier,” Nusz said. “She leads by example.”

Quite literally as Ludwig recalls.

“We did a one-mile event together with our families early in the summer. I had to walk the course with Jener,” Ludwig said. “This distance was pushing it for Jener and was extremely hard. Brandi finished and came back to encourage him to finish. She just wants to see everyone succeed in life and will help any way possible to make that happen.”

There have been other instances and Parker’s latest achievement have brought them to the forefront.

“I have had so many people send me messages saying something I did inspired them to start running or simply live healthier,” she said. “There is no better feeling.”

Parker said she knows a lot of people support her in her quests and she strives to not let them down. She said she felt that at the race in April.

“I remember feeling a bit overwhelmed with anxiety of not living up to everyone’s expectation,” she said. “I put a lot of pressure on myself to do well. Too much pressure…I didn’t want to disappoint anyone.”

But it was a different feeling last weekend.

“Even though I feel like my running has reached more people, I didn’t feel the pressure I did before,” she said. “I definitely was more calm and at peace going into this one.”

The same people - and probably more - will be rooting on Parker in Boston. Some in person, some from afar.

Kris Parker and Jenny Nusz plan to go.

“I’m going to be there when she crosses that finish line,” said her son.

Ludwig, too.

“She’s one of those people that just makes you want to be a better person,” Ludwig said. “When she’s not training for herself, she’s always pouring into other people helping them train, giving advice, helping people turn their lives around just like she did me.”