By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Catherine Hall had never done anything athletic, so she decided if she was going to train seven months and log 500 miles in preparation for walking a 26.2-mile marathon at Walt Disney World in Orlando Jan. 9, she would go for "the full Mickey."
Hall, a 1977 Dowagiac Union High School graduate, competed in 91-degree heat to receive a gold medal topped with the familiar mouse ears for burning 3,000 calories.
Had she settled for half a marathon and "trucked' for the duck," her medal would have depicted Donald instead of Mickey.
Sixteen-minute miles were required.
Hall ran the last two-tenths of a mile with nine seconds to spare for a time of 6:59:51.
There were 26,000 participants.
The theme park partially closes to accommodate fundraisers by a number of charities, from cancer to juvenile diabetes.
A distance of 26.2 miles took them four times through the theme parks, including EPCOT Center, the Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom and Universal Studios.
Hall, 46, is the same age as her mother, Cerese Hall of Prairie Ronde, when she suffered a stroke that left her paralyzed on her right side.
Not expected to live to 50, Cerese turned 70 in December.
Catherine's youngest sister, Melanie Deford, lives in South Bend, Ind.
January is usually a cool month for the marathon, but with the temperature at 91, "People from the north were dropping like flies. At one time there were more than 150 people in the medical tent getting IVs. I was so thankful I trained in Florida during the hottest months, July through October. I knew what to do. I knew how to handle myself. I used to laugh when I saw marathoners dump water on their heads. I dumped the water on my head. I truly don't care if I never drink another Gatorade or see this goo that's a very thick carbohydrate sugar replacement as long as I live."
She participated in the American Stroke Association's "Train to End Stroke" marathon "to raise money for stroke research. For the next Train to End Stroke marathon (in Hawaii) I'm one of the mentors. I might do a half-marathon, but I don't know if I'll ever do a full one again.
Catherine attended Southwestern Michigan College for her nursing degree.
She married, moved with her husband and subsequently divorced.
She was living in West Virginia one winter when 34 inches of snow fell. "I had to have the fire department dig me out so I could get to work," Hall said. "I was the director of an ER (emergency room) and an ICU (intensive care unit). I decided that was it. I was going South, and besides, my dad's parents lived down there. As a nurse, you can get a job anywhere."
Then she developed a severe latex allergy which prevented her continuing in bedside nursing.
Instead, she works for the American Heart Association doing quality improvement programs and secondary prevention for cardiac and stroke.
Not only is latex found in gloves, but also strawberries, kiwi, bananas, papayas, peaches, mangoes and nuts, as well as "anything rubber, anything that stretches and petroleum products."
Living in St. Petersburg meant evacuating her apartment twice last year for hurricanes. She has lived in Florida since 1997. "My home was okay. The nice thing about a hurricane is that you've got days of notice. It's not like a tornado. I've been down there for a long time and this is the first time we've had one. We actually had four, but my house is fine except for some water damage. You learn to live for a time without electricity. Cordless phones won't work, so you have a regular land line. And it's okay to read during the day, but it's hard to hold a flashlight in your teeth and turn pages, so a book light is a necessity."