LIHUE — Fifty-two marathons in 52 weeks.
For Julie Weiss, been there, done that.
She’s moved on from that extraordinary journey in 2012 and 2013. Her latest campaign that will bring her back to Kauai is a bit easier, but still quite a quest: “52 Races for 52 Faces.”
“I don’t really need to go all crazy again,” she said in a phone interview with The Garden Island.
A book about Weiss, “The Miles and Trials of a Marathon Goddess,” was published this year. It details how running helped her find a new course in life, overcome the death of her father, and turned loose a fearless, boundless spirit.
Her visit for Sunday’s 11th annual Kauai Marathon and Half Marathon (she’s running the half) will be number 25 in her latest 52/52 quest.
A wife, mother of two and a grandmother, Weiss said she is “older and wiser” now. She’s doesn’t race the clock or run to win medals and ribbons.
She runs because she loves it.
She runs to raise money to find a cure for pancreatic cancer, which claimed her father just 35 days after he was diagnosed with the illness.
And she runs for another reason.
“I want to show people they can have hope,” Weiss said.
“Every race I run, I dedicate to somebody affected by pancreatic cancer,” the Santa Monica, Calif., resident said. “We still have hopes we can find a cure for this disease. We definitely have to keep the hope and the faith going so we can cure this thing.”
Weiss has raised more than $500,000 to fight pancreatic cancer and has inspired many to contribute — and countless more to fight the good fight.
“We can all do something toward that cure,” she said, adding “It’s a marathon, not a sprint.”
She describes herself as a girl who hung out with the “bad crowd” in her youth. She had her son when she was 17 and her daughter when she was 22. When she split up with their father, she battled depression.
It was a trip to Kauai in 2007 when she was overweight and on antidepressants, at what she called a low point, and she felt like “a beached whale.”
It was then, in tears, she vowed to change course.
She started by just running down the beach in Hanalei Bay.
Surprisingly, it felt good. It felt right.
“I ran what I thought was 10 miles, even though it was only a mile,” she said.
But when she stopped, she felt invigorated by the sand, the water, the wind, the sun.
It was then she found a new sense of direction and purpose. She believes everyone can do the same — if they want.
“You can transform your life at any age,” she said.
She ran her first marathon in Los Angeles in 2008. Since, she has run more than 100 marathons. Each race is its own journey but there is a common bond.
“It definitely gives me energy when I’m running for someone else,” she said.
Weiss was featured in the 2013 running documentary, “Spirit of the Marathon II” and has been written about in the Los Angeles Times and O Magazine.
Her 52/52 challenge includes races from a few miles to marathons. When you see her, you can bet she’s smiling, chatting with runners or waving to spectators.
“I want to show people that no matter what they go through, the bad times, whatever their circumstances are, they can make a change anytime in their life,” she said. “You have to find something that you love to do, something that you love.”
Many people aren’t sure what fuels their heart, but they don’t have to.
“It will find you,” Weiss said.
It found her.
Goals are great, Weiss added, but it can’t be about only you. There must be more.
“When you add something you love, you do it for them,” she said. “I want to show people the impossible becomes possible when you are doing it for the greater good.
That she has been able to run injury-free, in so many places, meet so many people, share this sport with her husband and raise money to try and cure cancer, “to me, those are all miracles,” she said.
She found a delight in running because, “it wasn’t just about me anymore. When you’re doing something you love for someone you love, that’s when the miracle happens.”
Weiss, a bookkeeper for a real estate company, knows life can get crazy as she balances work, marriage (her husband David Levine is also her coach), family and training upwards of 70 miles a week.
But like 52 marathons in 52 weeks, Weiss charges forward
“It’s determination. Where there’s a will, there is a way,” she said.
It’s a message she plans to share at the Kauai Marathon Expo Friday and Saturday at the Grand Hyatt Resort &Spa, where she’ll be signing copies of her book.
And there’s perspective, too.
She knows her toughest races, when things have gone poorly, when she struggled to finish, when it dumped rain, were nothing compared to what those who have cancer have endured.
It’s people battling the disease, and those standing with them, who inspire her.
It’s the faces Weiss does not forget.
“The best part of the journey was and still is all the people that I’ve met along the way,” she said.
