Training Day: A Diva Finds Herself on the Road to the NYC Marathon
THE STARTING LINE
"The marathon is something I've always wanted to do," Runolfsson says. "It's been a dream." That is not to say Runolfsson is a track star—she ran at different parts of her life, but never with any regularity. It was not until two friends were training for the 2004 marathon that she became inspired to give it a go, kicking her prep into high gear in March of 2005.
At first running three miles is a difficult challenge. After a few weeks though, five miles is a feat accomplished with little panting. She is on her way. Runolfsson is not selected during the New York City Marathon June entrance lottery, but a neighbor running for Team Reeve, the Christopher Reeve Foundation athletic team, offers her one of their extra slots, so she is in regardless.
With all that she has to keep track of herself, Runolfsson has an assistant come over a couple of days a week to help her stay on top of important things such as gift shipments and mail. "When I was younger and my life was less complicated, I'd appreciate that during the day was my time," she relays. "I'd play tennis, go to the movies, hang out… I look back on that with fond memories. Now there is always something to do. Now I need a wife! I am always saying, 'If I had a wife, I'd be great.'"
Then there is the running, which is turning out to be more time consuming than she imagined. Runolfsson typically runs three or four times a week, mostly in Central Park, where the mileage is clearly marked. Five to eight mile weekday runs culminate in a bigger trek, with friends, on Sundays. She also spends time at the gym, giving her body a total workout break just two days usually Wednesday and Saturday per every seven.
ANGEL OF MUSIC
All the strength training is also helping her manage her Carlotta dresses, which weigh 40 and 50 pounds. "They can still throw me off balance a little bit if I'm not careful," she says. "But I don't think, 'Oh my God, this is so heavy,' because now I'm fit."
LEARNING LESSONS
REACHING THE PEAK
TRAGEDY STRIKES
"Digesting this devastating news was one of the most painful moments of my life," she says. Dealing with her daughter's feelings and her own becomes Runolffson's top priority, with thoughts of marathon day falling away. She does not run or train at all for over a week after the tragedy. Completely exhausted, she develops bronchitis and considers withdrawing from the marathon. Then, on October 30, she chooses to resume her efforts, running five miles. She amazingly achieves her best result ever, nine-and-a-half minute miles. "I decided to run, trusting that the six months of training will be remembered by my body on race day, and also because I am living," she states. "I have been saying to Tess that we live and the best way to honor the death of a loved one is to continue to live a full life. Tony was 52; he crammed more life into those 52 years than most people do in 90."
The night before the marathon she gets ready with a big Team Reeve dinner. After which there is the inevitable difficulty sleeping, caused by a combination of nerves and anticipation. Then it's up at 6am to get ready for a 7:30am Verrazano Bridge arrival. To make the day more epic, Runolffson and her friends take the Staten Island Ferry to the starting area. Once there, it is time to put on number 26966, do some stretching and get ready for the 9am start.
"The waiting is nerve-wracking, but I am not a panicker," she says. "I am looking forward to having some free time once it's over. And at the end I will be celebrating with an incredibly chilled straight up vodka martini with olives. That's my carrot at the end of the road."
Endnote: Runolffson ran the 2005 New York City Marathon in approximately five hours and 10 minutes.
Runolfsson's life would be considerably calmer if she just trained and did Phantom, but that scenario bears little resemblance to reality. On an average weekday, the actress wakes at 7am to cook breakfast and get her daughter, Tess, off to school. After Tess is picked up outside their Upper West Side apartment, Runolfsson has some time to herself—reading and replying to emails, perusing The New York Times and fundraising for the marathon. Once a week she has an at-home yoga lesson, she frequently works with her friend Tessie on their scrapbooking business involving the digitizing and organizing of photos, Tuesdays she gives voice lessons featuring a yoga component to warm up her students physically and occasionally she schedules a social lunch. Runolfsson's weekdays are truncated by the fact that at 4pm, when Tess arrives at home, her focus is understandably turned to her daughter.
No matter what is going on during her personal time, a big part of Runolfsson's day, six days a week, is The Phantom of the Opera, a show she joined in November of last year. "It's a really fun place to work," she gushes. "And I think the running has enhanced my singing and my ability to keep going. I feel much better than I remember feeling in other shows. The show is actually the easy part of my day. The hard part is getting the run in, making sure my daughter is OK, eating right and all the other things—work is the place where I get to rest a little bit."
In late July, Runolffson discovers that her Phantom of the Opera co-star Hugh Panaro and his large black dog, Soot, are temporarily homeless, while he waits three weeks for his apartment renovation to be completed. Runolfsson offers him shelter. So now she, Tess, and their little white dog Heart have company. Panaro fits right into the family, joining in for dinner, dog walks, etc. "We're like a little village here," Runolfsson states. "There is always someone to talk to or laugh with. I grew up in the kind of house where there were people coming in and out, so I like that. We call Soot and Heart boyfriend and girlfriend. I think they're going to be very sad when Hugh moves out, and I think I'll be a little bit sad as well."
In August the heat is so stifling that most people choose to stay in air-conditioning, yet Runolfsson continues her outdoor efforts. She is increasing her running lengths as expected—even twelve miles is no longer a daunting distance. Unfortunately, she soon faces a setback. In preparation for a brief vacation to visit family in Los Angeles, she overdoes it in a major way. On the morning of a two-show Saturday, with the sun beating down, Runolfsson does a 10-mile run. She arrives at the Majestic drained, but goes on for both shows. After the evening performance, she heads home, packs, sleeps for five hours and heads off to the airport. During the flight she becomes increasingly ill and, by the time she arrives on the West Coast, she must enter a hospital where she is hooked up to a sodium chloride drip for a few hours. "I knew I wouldn't feel like running after my plane ride, so I thought I had to do it," she remarks. "But I was too dehydrated, it was just stupid. You live, you learn. I'm human. I can't do everything I want to do. I'm not super woman."
As the chill of mid-October sets in, Panaro, whose renovation has turned into an epic nightmare and who has since left Phantom to prepare for his title role in Lestat is still part of the Runolfsson household, Runolfsson's daughter is gearing up for a school walkathon and Runolfsson completes 20 miles, the most she will run before race day. Next Sunday she is only planning on doing 15 miles, then it is "an easy" 12 the week before the marathon. Runolfsson explains: "We build up to 20 and then wind down. I don't want to make up something—which is a trait that I have, I make things up and say it with confidence as if it is true—but I do believe it has something to do with the fact that after a certain point the stress on your body is so much that it takes you weeks to recover from that. On race day there are going to be crowds and adrenaline and so those extra six miles are not going to seem like anything. Mentally, I believe that is true."
On the Thursday following her 20-mile triumph, Runolffson has canceled her plans in order to say home with a cold-stricken Tess. The two are finishing a mid-afternoon craft project when the phone rings notifying Runolffson that producer Tony Adams, her husband from whom she has been separated for a year and a half and Tess' father, has been brought into Beth Israel Medical Center due to an apparent stroke. She calls Panaro home to look after Tess and heads to the hospital. Adams is pronounced dead there two days later, on Saturday, October 22.
Runolffson collected over $2,100 for the Christopher Reeve Foundation through her fundraising efforts. And now that she is running again, the actress has become even more focused on her ultimate goal. "The confidence it has given me in so many areas of my life is profound," she asserts. "If I have to crawl across that finish line, I will get across it."