Jennie Finch is ready to take on her next role in life: Marathon mom.
The mother of two will run in November’s ING New York City Marathon, but you’ll have to wait if you want to catch a glimpse of the former softball star pounding the pavement in the five boroughs because she’ll be starting dead last.
Like former Giants wide receiver Amani Toomer a year ago, Finch will be the last runner to start the 26.2 mile trek. Her starting position is the byproduct of her relationship with Timex, which will donate $1 to the New York Road Runners youth programs for every person she passes on her way from the Verrazano Bridge to Central Park.
Toomer set the bar pretty high for the 2004 Olympic gold medalist, passing some 25,000 runners last year while covering the course in 4 hours, 13 minutes, but she says she’s up for the challenge.
“I’m hoping to pass Toomer,” she said, “[Beating his time] is the goal.”
The transition to marathon running hasn’t been easy for Finch, who ran her first half-marathon when she was 20 weeks pregnant. “I was feeling it for a week,” she said of the after-effects.
Finch and her husband, minor-league pitcher Casey Daigle, welcomed their second son, Diesel, to the family in June and since then she’s balanced the role of mom and aspiring marathon runner.
“When I was playing softball, a mile-and-a-half [run] was my entire workout,” she said. “Now, a mile-and-a-half is my warm-up and cool down.”
The 31-year-old said marathon running was always something she’s wanted to try, and she’s now up to 10 miles in her training program. Who knows, maybe she’ll duplicate the success she had in the pitcher’s circle on the road-racing circuit.
“It keeps my competitive juices flowing,” she said.
