KNOW WHERE TO RUN: AN AMERICAN ODYSSEY

By Lynn Petronella

NEW EDITION www.athlettes.com TO HONOR THE WORLDS GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT …BIRTH (TM)

EVERY CHILD is a ROYAL CHILD 

With wit and candor, Lynn Petronella, former world class runner and l980 Olympic contender traces the roots of her history and her interest in running and gives us a true picture of the behind the scenes look at what it was really like to be a part of the historical quest for the first woman's Olympic Gold medal in the first ever woman's Olympic Marathon in Los Angeles in l984. From her Italian/Irish roots in New York to her first road race high in the Rocky Mountains of Aspen, Colorado…to her becoming a national spokeswoman for Pepsi and role model for American woman runners in her national program RUN AMERICA RUN, Ms. Petronella takes us on a roller coaster ride full of hope, inspiration, heart ache, courage and friendship as she chases her American dream to the finish line. In the process she learns that the greatest athletic achievement of all time is truly birth--and dedicates the victory to womankind everywhere. It is truly an Olympic story for all time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Nov 6, 2003
• ISBN: 9781410799418

Lynn Petronella

Throughout her career, Ms. Petronella has been a noted sports journalist and spokesperson as well as a former world class marathoner. Her activities have included national race director and first ever-amateur athlete hired by PepsiCo to run the largest running program in the world, a 300 plus 10K race series DIET PEPSI RUN AMERICA RUN. When the Olympic games were cancelled in l980 Ms. Petronella went on to form her own organization ATHLETTES--the feminine Version of athlete--dedicated to the world’s greatest athlete--A WOMAN ® as well as get world wide attention for the Woman’s Marathon and assist Joan Benoit to be the first woman in history to win that historic event in l984. THE ATHLETTES FOUNDATION was started as a way of providing assistance to women and children in achieving their goals in life, 10% of ALL PROCEEDS from this Book and all ATHLTETTES products including it's GOLD MEDALS FOR MOTHERS and film KNOW WERE TO RUN, which will go towards that end to make America a better place to live. Ms. Petronella has worked with athletic committees such as the American Sportscasters Association, Womens Sports Foundation and The United States Olympic Committee in their fund raising efforts. With the tremendous influx of women into the sporting world and now that women make up 50% of the Olympic teams, Ms. Petronella's vision is finally become real!It is Ms. Petronella’s hope and inspiration that we learn to see all people as Olympic Gold medals and the women who give birth to them as the true Olympians in a larger game...the game of life. ATHLETTES FOUNDATION PMB 15029 N. Thompson Pk Pkwy B111 Scottsdale, AZ 85260 [phone] www.medalsformothers.com [e-mail]

Book preview

Know Where to Run

An American Odyssey

By

Lynn Petronella

© 2002, 2003 by Lynn Petronella. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the author.

ISBN: 1-4107-9941-7 (e-book)

ISBN: 1-4107-9940-9 (Paperback)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2003097584

This book is set in the context of actual events with references to real people many still living who may have a different perspective on events than the author. The author makes no claim to historical accuracy but is true to her memories of these events.

AuthorHouse-rev. 03/13/2009

IstBooks-rev. 11/03/03

Contents

SPECIAL THANKS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS TO

Foreword

The Two Wings of Humanity

American Woman

In The Beginning.

Two Steps Back

The Suburbs

The House

CHEERLEADERS

Senior Summer

Is Everybody Happy?

Go Wildcats

What’s Love Got To Do With It?

Love Is A Wonderful Thing And Other Tales Of Woe

Divorce American Style

The Accidental Tourist

Who’s Sorry Now?

Reversal of Fortune

What About Bob?

On The Road Again

Rocky Mountain Highs and Lows

Reborn On the Fourth of July

Leaving Normal????

Gee You’re Soooo Skinny!

The Boston Marathon-

Cinderella to Petronella

To Run Or Not To Run That Was The Question?

The World’s Greatest Achievement Is Birth ® Running A Marathon Is Easy!

Chariots of Fire

Born To Win ® 1981 London England

Athlete…To Athlettes!

Personal Bests

Run American Woman Run

Olympia: the First Women’s Marathon Olympic Trials

Gold Rush

Run

About the Author

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Lynn Petronella Run America Run 1978-1980

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Dedicated to the world’s greatest woman…the statue of liberty and to all the men and women who came to America and gave their lives to make it a better place to live!

SPECIAL THANKS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS TO

PEPSICO, NIKE…JUST DO IT! AND MY DEAREST FRIENDS CHAD CONNOR, DAVID JADUNATH, DAVE ZERWECK, RANDA HANDLER, FRANK FAWCETT, VICTOR ASARO, KATHIE DANIELSON, SCOTT RODERICK, JOHN ABRANCETTI,-AND 1ST BOOKS VID BELDAVS FOR THEIR LOVE AND ENCOURAGEMENT TO TELL MY STORY…I DID IT!

Foreword

The Two Wings of Humanity

By Bahaullah (www.bahai.org)

The world of humanity is possessed of two wings, the male and the female. So long as these two wings are not equivalent in strength, the bird will not fly. Until womankind reaches the same degree as man, until she enjoys the same arena of activity, extraordinary attainment for humanity will not be realized. Humanity cannot wing its way to heights of real attainment. When the two wings…become equivalent in strength, enjoying the same prerogatives, the flight of man will be exceedingly lofty. therefore, woman must receive the same education as man and all inequality adjusted. Thus, imbued with the same virtues as man, rising through all the degrees of human attainment, women will become the peers of men, and until this equality is established, true progress. for the human race will not be facilitated.

The evident reasons underlying this are as follows: women by nature oppose war: she is an advocate of peace. Children are reared and brought up by the mothers who give them the first principles of education and labor assiduously in their behalf. Consider, for instance, a mother who has tenderly reared a son for 20 years to the age of maturity. Surely she will not consent to having that son torn asunder and killed in the field of battle. Therefore, as woman advances..war will cease.

American Woman

By Lynn Petronella 2002

They came before us on wagons and trains

Across mountains and praries on all kinds of terrain’s

Through winter, fall, spring and summer days

With white men and Indians pioneering American ways

Seeking land and freedom from places before

Following where no one had gone…seeking more

They risked life and limb through the wind and the rain

Through good times and bad…they fought on just the same

Their names have been lost into history for now

But let me remind you of what they did and how

Hail Annie and Emma and Sarah and Jane

Emily, Susan and many others to name!

They came before us sometimes all alone

Some richer some poorer to make America their new home

They gave birth without medicine Raised children in the wild

Had men who left them and never came back Some barely a child

They gained strength and courage from their American quest

From New York to the City of Angels…they did their remarkable best.

Off into the wilderness, no road to follow or cross

They went off on pure faith THEIR freedom was boss

Native plants, animals and people too

Made their adventure a difficult one in search of something new

They looked for land, gold, fur skins and more

Never knew what was coming around that next bend, behind that other door

Sometimes it was bloody and deadly this game that they played

But their thirst for their freedom was something God gave.

To pursue with their courage and faith this new land

To tame it and love it…it was HIS holy plan

For God had given America His beauty from above

Had adorned her with mountains, animals and people with His love

So with guns by their side and horses to tame

They rode across the prairie with God’s vision in their heads

To own land and till it to raise children free

To taste the fruits of their labors as God intended it to be

Away from a King who had taken his toll

They pushed on through the woods and night with guts and with soul

These pioneer women went on the attack

They stood by their men, they could never look back

Sometimes they were left all alone in the night

They learned how to use guns and even to fight

They learned that the freedom they sought had to be won

It did not come easily sometimes killing had to be done

They tried not to bend to the difficulties they saw

As they marched to their own beat on this foreign shore.

Come Irish, come English, Italian and Jew

The Germans and Swedish all in search of something new

The camaraderie of the journey forged bonds deep and strong

No longer their nationalities separate a new race was born.

Americans they called themselves not just Emily and Jane

The place of the free, the home of the brave

The sweat of their brow and cries of each birth

Bled new and vital energy into this consecrated earth.

New children born free in this land of the brave

With other journeys to follow, new lives to save

The women who fought through the brush and the night

Opened the day with a vision so bright

Freedom to think, speak and act in the manner they chose

For these rights these new Americans were willing their lives to lose

You say that sounds easy so simple for sure

But up until now other governments did these things abhor

So freedom rung through the blood of this new nation

A United States was now a creation

The sons of these women would fight for this land

And die for the victory to take freedoms stand

Then when all the war did subside

Americans rebuilt their nation, with new American pride

Bound by a cause that ran deeper than blood

Bound by the land their emotions did flood.

A flag with it’s stars and stripes was now born

By Betsy our new country would now be adorned

A woman would make that red white and blue for all the world to see

Because without these American women…we would never be truly free.

In The Beginning.

All of us are raised to consciously and subconsciously absorb our ways of thinking, acting, speaking, believing and becoming by those we grow up around. This is the story of one woman’s fight to reinvent herself, her life, her hopes and dreams, far beyond anything that she had ever been taught to believe in.

This is a story about growing into one’s own skin and breaking those old patterns to find a freedom, joy and higher vision of oneself by embracing and becoming part of a chain of events and unique twists of fate that had never occurred before in history. This is about knowing where to run into one’s OWN life.

I was born to two very proud, happy and productive middle class parents, in a middle class neighborhood. Rose Tomasulo (of Italian and Irish descent) and Horace Petronella (Italian with a strong French/European mix) mom was a nurse…who loved babies, dad an ear, nose and throat doctor who fell in love with mom at a Halloween party.

The story gets changed as to who fell in love with who, but the bottom line was. there had to be something going on for them to have had my brother Richard, me almost a year to the day later, a set of Irish twins Sue and Rob

II months after me and their whoops here comes another one. pride and joy…Ron l5 months after that!

I was born on a cloudy day in Manhattan on the 17th of December in l954 to the strains of The Naughty Lady from Shady Lane a song that sung the praises of a little girl that blows into town and takes the town by storm, never to have that town be the same ever again…and she’s only 9 days old!!! Who would know how prophetic that would turn out to be! The same year Roger Banister broke the four-minute mile! I brought a twinkle to my dad’s eye and a smile to my mothers face. She seemed very grateful to have me around, especially as I was another female. It seemed there was always so much activity going on.

Both sets of grandparents lived within 20 minutes drive and were always near for baby-sitting, or helping out. There were diapers to change, laundry to clean, meals to fix, baths to be taken and all done with the efficiency of a Swiss time clock…Looking back on old photos of all of us so neatly groomed and clean makes me wonder how they did it.

As I grew up I realized what a big chore we all were and I became increasingly close and protective of the other four in the brood.

My mother says I was naturally the little mommy and leader. I often wonder about that. I identified with my mother so closely, watched her so intently, absorbed the love she had for us so passionately that to think of not being the little mommy never entered my mind. It even extended to my extensive doll collection and I continued to hone my mothering skills on the boys at school, much to some of their dislike!

I saw first hand what motherhood was all about. It was cooking, cleaning, loving, laughing, and crying. It was messy! It was fantastic birthday parties, creative Christmas’ and joyous Easters full of games, toys and lots of friends…four of whom happen to be from the same parents…my three brothers and my sister. I felt the intensity of her commitment to her children and her family in everything she did. She went all out whether it was Christmas a birthday party or taking us to school, my mom was there for us 100% and we grew and flourished under her watchful eye, even if the discipline was strict at times.

We were an inseparable lot those first few years of life before kindergarten (in those days you didn’t leave home until you were five and I am grateful for those years of being home and learning life’s lessons around the house). None of us went to school until we were 5, old enough for Kindergarten.

We had grown up those first five years under the watchful care of my parents playing at home and learning about life from the black and white TV we would gather round to watch Romper Room and Jack La Lanne. The

Reviews for KNOW WHERE TO RUN

[susan7keefe-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Inspirational and empowering.The story starts long before the birth of its author Lynn Petronella, with her grandparents’ arrival in America. The memories of their belief in the American dream, and fervent desire to do the best for their families, were values that the young Lynn absorbed.Starting as an enchanting glimpse into her childhood and their families close bond, we follow the evolution of this eldest girl in a family of five children. What follows is her honest, no holds barred recollections of her younger life, adventures and the events, which were the catalysts in shaping her life.The author has strong links to the Boston Marathon, a fact that has prompted her to offer to donate 100% of both the Paperback and Kindle edition of this book to the Boston Marathon Victims and rescue workers from April 2013 until the end of 2013.A successful marathon runner, trainer, promoter and business woman, this story is truly empowering, a celebration of everything it is to be a woman.Her determination to succeed despite sometimes enormous obstacles, and her open admiration for what she, herself, calls the greatest athletic achievement of all time – birth, makes this book a compelling read, whether you are an athlete or not.