If you know Jennifer Rush, you won’t be surprised to see her regularly running up the steepest inclines on Fort Hill Road, or maybe verbally urging a flock of stubborn turkeys off the road so she can continue through her miles. Rush logs miles five days a week, and is sure to incorporate some physical activity daily, including a weekly swim and other cross-training.
In 2016, with a few completed marathons in her muscles and memory, she set a goal: to complete a marathon in every state by her fiftieth birthday. With about a decade to go, she’s crossed the finish line in seven states, nine times, all in under four hours. These include Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, New York, Nevada, South Carolina, and Arizona. She’s planning North Carolina, Ohio, Illinois, New Hampshire, Tennessee, and Mississippi to take her into next winter. Rush is, “front-loading them a bit while I know I can physically accomplish them.” She added, “I love exploring and traveling, and this is a great way for my kids to get out and see the country, too.”
Rush’s conversation on running consistently seesaws from the personal to other people and groups. She speaks of her husband, Adam, and her daughters, Evelyn and Addison (both of whom have competed in Gorham’s Burn Off the Turkey 5K). She advocates for the nonprofit national organization Girls on the Run, of which she is a founding coach in the Gorham program. Her impressive road credentials are de-emphasized, a broader personal and communal mission vital to her life in Gorham. In fact, the early part of her life was limited in athletic pursuits, with the more recent chapters of her journey committed to family, community, career, and ultimately a “healthy lifestyle.”
Photo credit Don PentaJen Rush competed at Gorham’s Burn off the Turkey 5K this past year.
Growing up in Hollis, a training run’s distance away, Rush’s only sports experience was high school forays into field hockey and track as a freshman at Bonny Eagle. As an undergraduate at the University of Southern Maine, she began to run occasionally, primarily for weight loss. A graduate of the University of Maine School of Law, she now mostly works in medical malpractice defense litigation for Norman, Hanson & DeTroy in Portland, which she joined in 2004.
Her family relocated from Falmouth over five years ago. While in Falmouth, she decided to attempt her first marathon, pre-children, at the 2005 Sugarloaf event. She trained solo for that race, while her husband “patiently waited in the car and stopped every five miles during that run” (her first 20-mile training session). She raced with one coworker, but said, “No one else I knew well had done anything like it.” At the finish line, she reflected, “I was exhausted, happy, felt very accomplished, and was completely satisfied with what I had done.”
There has been a process, an evolution into community through running. “Now I go the whole distance during the race without seeing anyone I know, but oddly feel more connected with a community. I get to share stories and meet people at the start, talk with others along the way, and dissect it with friends after.” She has “logged several hundred miles” with Gorham resident and close friend, Anne LaPierre, who participates in a variety of endurance sports. Rush added, “We are joined by our good friend Theresa Connelly as often as her schedule with five kids allows!”
She has observed that many women in their 30s and 40s are performing conspicuously well as a demographic at road races, “Because it’s a choice we’re making…For the benefit of ourselves.” Physical exercise is far from the only choice people can make as a manifestation of what we often name a “healthy lifestyle.” She defined this as, “What brings some balance to your life,” and mentioned crocheting and her family’s dog rescue work as ingredients in a recipe that includes nutritional awareness.
Diagnosed with celiac disease in 2003, her diet is loaded with vegetables and lean meats, and she is a “huge advocate of whole and organic food.” She sipped tea while this reporter drank an oversized latte. Her family usually sits down to identical meals. She laughed and said, “That’s just easier.” She clarified that the diet is not obsessive, sharing, “We eat our fair share of candy, chips, and cheese.”
If you see Rush being shadowed by some cows along a fence line, don’t worry, she’s got experience. However, there’s always lessons learned and re-learned, a message she extends beyond running. Reality is it’s not always fun, and it’s sometimes hard to get out the door, and occasionally, “the entire run stinks.” Part of her experience seems to be tenacity with touches of humor. She offered that, “I still go out too fast sometimes and crash. Or I don’t drink enough water, forget sunscreen in Arizona, put my bib on upside down, eat the wrong things at the wrong time, overdress, underdress, and fail to stretch. Not a robot – just a human – so I’m okay with all of this.”