A little girl who once raced neighbors living on her block in Oakland grew up to be a Gilroy resident, pageant queen and fit woman who still loves running.
New Gilroyan Nicole Robinson, 45, moved to South County’s Garlic Capital almost two years ago and is running the Big Sur 5 K to celebrate a New Year’s goal to race a little more than three miles every month.
The Big Sur 5K—a 3.1 mile race hosted by the organizers of the world famous Big Sur International Marathon—is April 27 and marks race four in Robinson’s year of races, meaning in about a week, she’ll be one-third of the way toward accomplishing her goal.
“I was a runner since I was a kid. It was just something I enjoyed,” Robinson said.
Robinson said she hopes to tie her love of running to the anti-bullying and teen suicide prevention platform that helped her win the crown as Ms. Elite United States Woman of Achievement 2014. The title is given to a woman who is at least 40-years-old and takes home top marks in a pageant that includes the typical beauty contests for swimwear and evening gowns, along with competitions that focus on achievement including an interview, speech or talent and platform of planned or completed community work.
“It recognized powerful women who achieved something,” Robinson said. “That’s what attracted me.”
Called a “renaissance woman” at work, Robinson holds a variety of titles and accomplishments: a masters degree in education earned as a single mother, a job as a math teacher at a San Jose middle school and the fitness guru title of personal trainer for Club Sports and Club One in San Jose.
For Robinson, running has been a longtime passion. Races around the neighborhood starting at the tender age of eight turned to 400 and 800-meter sprints with the track team in high school and then stopped midway through college when Robinson began teaching low and high-impact aerobics and water athletics.
“I had never in my life taken an aerobics class. I was teaching,” Robinson said. “That just goes to show you, when I set my mind to it, I just go for it.”
But while teaching schoolchildren and athletes took Robinson away from running for a number of years, she is coming back in a flurry of footsteps with her goal to run 5Ks every month this year.
“Just as a woman getting older, for me it was like the year of my health and I just want to focus on my health and well-being,” she said.
Robinson won’t be the only runner pounding out the miles in Big Sur.
As of the first week of April, 12, a total of 738 runners from all 50 states and 30 countries registered to run along the coast. They’re participating in a variety of events: a 21-miler, a 10.6 miler, 9-miler, 5K and 3K.
For Robinson, the event marks a return to the two things she came to love in Oakland: the ocean and running.
“Now, I’m actually adding my running back, which has always been my first love,” she said.
Learn more
To learn more about Robinson’s nonprofit foundation to help those with special needs or to contact her for an appearance, email her at si***************@gm***.com.
