Franklin Teacher to Run
The Franklin Special School District is proud to have a teacher who has qualified to run in the prestigious Boston Marathon. Elisa Baughman, 38, teaches 7th grade language arts at Freedom Middle School. She is one of 25,000 runners across the world who will participate on April 20, 2009, in the 113th Boston Marathon, the world’s oldest annual marathon and one of the world’s most prestigious road racing events.
Marathons have been marked events in Mrs. Baughman’s life, with important memories attached to each one. A runner since high school, she ran her first marathon in Chicago in 1998, an important milestone that she wanted to reach prior to her 30th birthday in the same year. In 2000, she ran the Music City Marathon with her then-fiancé, Rob, who proposed to her after the race.
After a one-year break to give birth to her son, Noah, Mrs. Baughman got the bug again and ran in the 2002 Detroit Marathon with her husband and 1-year-old son cheering her on. Two more children and six years later, she decided to devote more time to running again and qualified for the Boston Marathon by running in the 2008 Louisville (KY) Marathon.
“I got back into running after my youngest child, Allie, turned 1 and I knew I wanted to do another marathon,” she said. “I started with some half-marathons and knew I wanted to run a full. I looked into the Boston and found out that you had to qualify with a certain time in order to be able to run it, so I would say I got the bug after running in the 2008 Music City half marathon and began really training so I could run (the Boston Marathon) before turning 40.”
For Mrs. Baughman’s age group, she had to complete a marathon in 3 hours and 45 minutes, a feat she accomplished in October during the Louisville Marathon by finishing fifth in her age group and averaging an 8:37 mile.
Her fellow teachers, students and school principals are excited for Mrs. Baughman and will be cheering her on from her hometown as she runs in April.
Elisa Baughman can be contacted by email at baughmaneli@fssd.org or by calling the school at 794-0987.
