DIETERICH — As a woman with a houseful of children, a husband and a part-time job, 42-year-old Katie Waldhoff certainly has a full and busy life; however, when she heard information on LIFE Runners participating in the St. Louis Rock-N-Roll Marathon she thought to herself, "I'd like to train for that."
Finding the time to train wasn't as easy for Waldhoff as it may have been for others. She and her husband, Roger, have 10 children, all who live at home: Hank, 21; Andy, 19; Julie, 18; Eddie, 16; Alan, 14; Caroline, 12; Jack, 9; Nick, 4; Clint, 2; and Kyle, 1. The family resides in rural Dieterich, attends Mass at St. Aloysius Church in Bishop Creek and are members of St. Isidore the Farmer Parish.
"I knew that even though I wanted to train, my family and my husband come first. So, I knew I'd start training and make a final decision about the race in August," she says. "I made the decision to go ahead with it and I'm glad I did.
"My husband works construction and leaves for work early. So I'd have my morning coffee with him and then go on a run. Roger was great throughout all of this," she says. "I work two days a week (as a clerk in a medical records department) so usually I ran three days during the week and took a long run on Saturday. Once every four weeks I couldn't do the Saturday run because I work one weekend a month.
"I started to run again in mid-May, but it was around Father's Day when I heard Pat Castle on Catholic Radio talking about the LIFE Runners. It really was easier to train in the summer because the kids were home from school and I didn't have to get them on the school bus," she says.
This isn't Waldhoff's first foray into running. "When Jack was a baby I was running and I ran the 2005 Chicago Marathon. But then I had the last three babies, so I had stopped. I really wanted to get back into running, so I think this was all meant to be."
When it came time for the marathon, Katie, Roger and five of their children took the trip to St. Louis. "Our oldest son had a commitment and couldn't be there. Caroline (who has Down syndrome) thought the walk would be too much and the three little boys were too young," Waldhoff says. "So it was Roger, Andy, Julie, Eddie, Alan and Jack who went with me."
Like all the LIFE Runners, Waldhoff committed to help raise money for the LIFE Runners causes — all runners are asked to raise at least $250. She was able to raise $965 and asked that the money be divided equally between three causes: St. Louis ThriVe baby bus; St. Louis Good Shepherd; and Sioux Falls Alpha Center baby bus.
As it turned out, Waldhoff finished just under nine minutes behind Bishop Paprocki — her time was four hours, 31 minutes and 50 seconds. "I thought he should have waited for me," Waldhoff says with a chuckle. "No seriously, God does great work. I feel really good about it and I am very appreciative to have been able to run this race."