The Rough Runners Spotlight is on a dear friend of mine, Jennifer Owenby. Jennifer is quite an accomplished human being. She is a mother of two, tough as nails ultra runner, a very talented artists and she’s an occupational therapist specialising in hand therapy.
Jen is married to ultra rock star, Scott Owenby. Together they make quite an impact in the ultra running community as great runners, awesome volunteers, always there supporting and willing to help at all local events.
Jen has run quite a few Rough Runners events and when she’s not running in one of our races she is almost always there willing to volunteer her time and efforts. Point in fact, She has come out to the Daufuskie Island Marathon and Half as a volunteer and a runner more than a few times. She has been a bar tender at DI Marathon as well as a massage therapist.
When I said that Jen is tough as nails, here is one example of that: in 2018, she ran our retired race, A run through the Woods 15k, where she broke her toe when she tripped over a pesky hidden tree root but continued to push on until she finished the race! That is some grit there! Jen has run every distance between 5k and 100 milers. She has run 100+ miles in two races and has the belt buckles to prove it.
Last year, Jen made the top three finisher awards for Stevi’s Roost 48 hour ultra. Let me tell you, they were a hit! The runners loved these awards especially our 1st place finisher, Bo Millwood who finished with 158 miles!
I can continue writing about this awesome friend and human being but let me let Jen tell you who she is with the answers she provided to the questionnaire I provided to her for this current RR spotlight…
- Where are you from? Vermillion, SD
- How long have you been running? I started running in middle school. I had periods of stops and starts. I have been consistently running now for 17 years.
- What brought you to running? I was a fitness instructor for close to 30 years. In 2007 one of my attendees encouraged me to run my first 5 K. I was 39 years old and I took 2nd in my age group, and I guess you could say that got me hooked.
- What was your first race? That first race was the Trick ot Trot 5K in 10/2007.
- What is the longest distance you’ve run in a race? The longest distance was at 7 Trials in 2022, where I ran 103 miles
- What is your favorite distance to run? My favorite distance is 50 miles.
- Please list your running milestones. I am cheap so my races are all close to this area. I guess I would start with my fastest 5 K at the Shamrock Run in 2008. My first 50 miler at Farm Daze was pretty awesome, I was so surprised that I took first place female in the 12 hour at that race. My 2, 100 mile buckles are also very special to me.
- What is your profession? I am an occupational therapist. I specialize in hand therapy. I work with people who have had fractures, burns, amputations, mutilation injuries, along with the usual carpal tunnel, tennis elbow and general hand and wrist pain.
- How often do you run per week, per month? I average around 25-30 miles per week. Montly milage is from 100-150 depending on if I’m training for a race.
- How do you make time to train, run? Since I have a long commute to and from work I find I run on my days off. I try to get my long run (12-16 miles) in on the weekend, starting early am.
- Please list three of your upcoming running goals and/or races. I am registered for a 6 hour race in Florida the first week of August. In December I’m registered for the Itty Bitty 50 miler in Charleston. I am also planning to challenge my self with a distance max at Stevies Roost
- What is your running shoe of choice and why? I like to keep a mix. For road I like Saucony endorphin speed. I like lone peak by Altra for trails. I also have a pair of carbon plated Altra vanish that I really like for road or flat soft trail.
- Aside from running, what are other pastimes of yours? Drawing and painting has been my favorite pastime since I was a child. I am self taught and still learning and studying to improve my technique. I also enjoy reading in the evening as a way to relax.
- Last year, you made the top three finisher awards for Stevi’s Roost 48 hour ultra. You are making the top three finisher awards again for this year’s Stevi’s Roost. Please tell us about those awards, how you made them, the inspiration to make them and, how does it make you feel that runners you may not know have your artwork hanging on their wall as a proclamation of their running achievement at Stevi’s Roost. My inspiration for last years award came from the buckle image. I really enjoyed making last years awards. I had an idea of embossing the Roosters out of metal and from there my husband had the idea of making 2nd place a chicken and 3rd the baby chick. So I ran with that thought with painting on wood panels. I recently had four of my paintings on display at the Savannah Recycled Art event. The completed works had to be 70% from recycled material. So, knowing Dan’s love of the environment I decided this year my awards would be from recycled materials. The Roosters are made of recycled paper products, such as taco bell sauce packets, magazine paper and the wood is from an old pallet. Second place, the windmill is also made from recycled pallets, metal cans, wire and yarn.. I have not decided on the third place awards but I can say they will be painted on the leftover pallet wood. I am honored to have the recipients of the rewards show them off in their homes. A lot of thought and love goes into each of these rewards. Each reward is truly a labor of love for my craft!
- Anything else that you would like to share? I would like to thank Rough Runners for allowing me to create each award. It is, as I already said, a joy to create each award!
It is folks like Jen Owenby that make our running community so wonderful. Jen has invested her heart and soul to our running community and we each reap the rewards of having such an awesome person run with us and among us.
Thank you, Jen! You are awesome and we love you tremendously!
Happy training! Happy Running!
