Running is life.
“Keep it moving, whatever you do,” Leland resident Leslie Maclin said.
Maclin is an avid silent sports enthusiast and masters athlete who believes that active, dynamic movement is the key to health and wellness.
She recently completed the Bayshore Half-Marathon (her 16th half-marathon) and will run the Betsie River Valley Trail Half-Marathon this fall. Annually, she completes 25+ local and regional running races at 5k, 10k, 10-mile, 20k, and half-marathon distances; often landing on the podium in her age group. Maclin is active in the Traverse City Track Club, where she competes in the club’s Grand Prix Series.
In the club, they earn participation points for every race they run.
Leslie raced in the top of her age bracket at the Bayshore Marathon last month. Even into her 60s, she is still running for her family and the next race.
“I’m not running for the finish line, but I’m running for my family. That’s the ultimate finish line,” she said.
Maclin has had a life of running after getting into the activity at the University of Kentucky in the 1980s.
She partly got into running thanks to her father, who got caught up in the Forest Gump running movement of the 1970s.
Maclin is also moving through life as both of her children now live in San Antonio and Pittsburgh, and she hopes to see them back in Leelanau this summer.
Besides running, Maclin maintains an active lifestyle with paddleboarding and cross-country skiing in the winter.
Along with an active lifestyle, Leslie has been a proud pescatarian for over 20 years, eating only fish and vegetables.
She says her usual send-off to running friends is the motto of “happy trails.”
James Graham, a former Traverse City Track Club president, tries to stay active every day at the ripe age of 78-years-old.
Graham, who was left with a broken hip after an incident in Traverse City in May, was in the hospital for four days, but is on the path to recovery and will break out the running shoes again.
“It certainly has given me a little speed bump in my running, but I’ll get back to running. People get hips replaced. It’s pretty common. I’ve known many runners. Some of them I’ve had two hips replaced,” Graham said. “I’m coming along, and within an X amount of weeks, I’ll be back running and racing ... Wellness for me is making sure that I do my activities.”
The Traverse City Track Club spans five counties and encourages people to get active. Even though the majority of the group meets in Traverse City, there are plenty of trails and races for runners to participate in Leelanau County.
“We have a lot of good races in our county. Leland has a great race. Glen Arbor has a really huge race, and Northport has their race on July 4th ... There’s stuff happening out here. You just don’t see it at the scale you see it in Traverse City.”
Graham was president of the Traverse City Track Club for eight years from 2014 to 2022 and has served on the board for a decade. He still helps organize the weekly group runs in Traverse City. Graham was named the national running club president of the year in 2018 called “Roadrunners Clubs of America.”
“I took it to be quite an honor . . . One of the other pieces that’s great about Leelanau County is that we have a wonderful trail system,” Graham said. “It really makes running so much better with the Tart Trail system.”
Graham, who lives in Suttons Bay, runs on the Tart Trail three or four days a week, anywhere from three to five miles. Graham admits the 10K’s are more of a marathon challenge for him in this part of life compared to when he was younger.
“It’s the closest thing to a silver bullet. It’s not the answer, but at the same time, you get out and run, it’s going to give you a really good fitness base. Another plus is that you sleep better, you eat better. You get all the benefits of exercise,” Graham said. “Then there’s the social side of it too. Going to races is a big social thing. We joke that group runs are cheaper than therapy. It’s good to get out there with people, and the running community tends to be very accepting of each other ... It’s nice to go to areas where you have an affinity group, and people appreciate each other for that,” Graham said.
