Member of the Month: Betty Horstmann!

If simply declaring that Bohemia Track Club star Betty Horstmann is one of the fastest road racers in the metropolitan area isn't enough, then here's proof to back it up: Betty was recently awarded the Metropolitan Athletic Congress' Overall Female Champion for its 1997 Grand Prix Series of races. She did this by winning her age group (50-59) in every single MAC race she attended. And not only did she receive a notable award, but was given a significant paycheck to boot!

But wait, there's more: as an integral member of Bohemia's Lady's Masters Team, Betty received an additional MAC certificate and monetary award, assisting the team to a First Place finish in its division. Considering her presence as a Super-Master (50+) runner (after seeing her one finds this very hard to believe) on an excellent Masters (40+) team, one realizes how darned fast she really must be.

Following last year's victorious season, when she won her age group in nearly every race, Betty has started the new year by winning her age group at the recent Aspire 10K and Brooklyn Half Marathon. Considering she usually appears in over twenty races each year, and has been running for over twenty years, that stacks up to quite a few medals and trophies. Betty modestly states that she has "a couple of boxes" of awards in her attic.

Although she only started running, and later racing, while in her thirties, Betty has always been healthy and athletic. Even though her high school, John Adams High in Ozone Park, didn't have any team programs, she did go on to major in Physical Education at Brooklyn College, and she excelled at the varsity level in field hockey, softball and basketball. After college she and her husband Fred moved to Long Island where she first taught Physical Education at Dowling before becoming employee- and then owner- of a greenhouse business in her home town of Bayport. Equipped with a Masters in Liberal Arts from Stony Brook University, Betty has since been teaching History at Bayport Middle School, and truly enjoys being a positive influence on the kids, whether as teacher or cross-country coach.

Her job close to home allows Betty to run every afternoon with her friend and motivator Kathy Esposito. Regardless of the weather, their mutual comraderie inspires them to get out on the roads every day. Betty's 40-50 mile training week is a mixed bag of activity: most weekdays she and Kathy will literally run "whichever way the wind blows" around the neighborhood. On Saturday mornings Betty and as many as ten local friends link up to do a neighborhood run; the same crowd meets on Thursdays at a nearby school for speed workouts. Betty has made running- especially with friends- an important part of her daily routine. As she says, "a day without running is a day without sunshine."

Aside from work and running, Betty loves reading bestsellers, enjoys travelling and hiking (particularly though Civil War battlefields), and has a passion for maintaining her fair-sized garden. She'll soon have lots more time for hobbies: Betty plans on retiring in two years. Along with her currently semi-retired husband, she plans on perhaps doing some travelling around the United States, saving time to visit friends. Having once been chased by goats while jogging during one such visit to friends in Massachusetts (and then having been laughed at by the locals), Betty may be leaning more towards sightseeing.

Coincidentally, Betty picked up the running habit twenty years ago when tennis was at peak popularity. While waiting with husband Fred at the local overcrowded court, they realized the track was empty and decided to alternate jogging to pass the time. Eventually they stopped bringing their racquets and let the kids play in the long jump pit while they exercised. After her first race (a 12 miler!) in 1980, the rest became history. Having stayed healthy while her competition has disappeared over the years, Betty clearly stands alone as the premier racer in her division. By the way, she passed her athleticism on to her kids, who were high school standouts in football, track, basketball and cross-country.

Betty is a veteran Bohemia Track Club member, having been a very active individual and key volunteer for the past 14 years. In appreciation of her contributions and achievements, Betty was recently chosen as one of the four original inductees into the BTC Hall of Fame. Add her recent recognition as an outstanding regional road racer to an already distinguished career and Betty has proven- as she continues to prove- that she is simply one of the best.