Heidi Tucker

Family:

Heidi is an EIP teacher in Reading and Math for 3rd, 4th, & 5^th graders who are below grade level. Her husband, Ross, now flies for Air Tran after a 20-year career in the military. He loves to run even on bad knees. Heidi has two children, Ross and Margaret. Ross is a freshman at Auburn University and ran cross country and track for Harrison High School. - WAR EAGLE! Margaret, a sophomore at Harrison, currently runs track and cross country.

What is your background in running?

Heidi started running in her mid twenties. Ross had just entered the military, and she was living back in Florida near family while he was going through training. Heidi’s sister and brother-in-law were big marathon runners. They talked her into running a 5K race. She remembers struggling to train for the 3-mile race. The race was over the new Sky Way Bridge in Sarasota. The race was indeed 3 miles long, however they ran about 2 miles to get to the start and then, it felt like ten miles, at the end of the race to get back to the start. Heidi decided at that point that she should probably train for more than 3 miles. She has been running ever since, mainly to stay in shape and for the love of running 10K races. As Heidi and Ross’ children have grown, running has become a family event. They train together, run races together - it is a family tradition.

What is your favorite running trail?

Heidi always ran on the road, until they moved to the West Cobb area. She remembers driving on Powder Springs Road and wondering why people would drive all the way over to Kennesaw Mountain just to run. Then they started running one summer with the Harrison Cross Country team at Cheatham Hill. She fell in love with those trails, saying, “It is absolutely the best place to run. My husband and I both have worked with our children to prepare them for their high school running careers at the Mountain. We have fond memories at each and every turn, hill or open field”.

What do you think is the most pertinent issue in running today?

West Cobb is becoming one large subdivision. We need to fight to maintain some green space for our quality of life. We have fantastic nature landscape in this area for running and walking trails, and we need to do everything possible to provide places for families and future runners to have a location to run or walk.

What other organizations, teams, or other activities are you involved with?

Heidi is the President of the Harrison High School Cross Country Booster club.

What do you hope RunCobb will accomplish?

Heidi hopes that RunCobb will become a viable voice for the development of quality running trails in the area, encourage schools to develop runners at an early age, and spread the word that running is the perfect exercise.