Melinda was born and raised in Toccoa, GA. She graduated from Stephens County High School. Melinda excelled playing the clarinet in the high school band and for three years was selected for the All State Band as well as attending the Governor’s Honor’s program. She was selected as the student conductor for the marching band her senior year. Melinda subsequently attended and graduated from the University of Georgia (UGA). She earned a position in the Redcoat Band but became unable to participate because she had to work on weekends while at UGA. Melinda majored in education and is currently an Early Intervention Program Teacher at Hazel Grove Elementary in Mt. Airy, GA.
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Melinda began running at age six. Every day she would do her best to run away from school. The custodian of the elementary school she attended, Mr. Sullens, was assigned the job of catching her. He had long legs and could run fast for his age group. One day she made it out the door, through the parking lot, and to the highway before Mr. Sullens caught her about fifty yards down the road.
Melinda’s parents divorced when she was five years old. Her father didn’t want to raise her and her mother could not do so. She ended up being uniquely qualified for her vocation by being raised by grandparents as well as aunts and uncles. Melinda has always felt that she had a hole in her heart because she didn’t have the love of her parents. Sometimes she just runs through the pain because she wishes she had parents who loved her. As the years go by the hole in her heart has grown smaller as it is being filled with the love of others in her life.
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Melinda has been married to husband Mark for the best twenty-eight years of her life. Mark is supportive of Melinda as her running coach and drives her to races. When she is at the two mile point in a 5K, she knows she is headed back to Mark and that he is always waiting for her at the finish line. They have two sons, Kelsey and Hayden. Kelsey is twenty-five years old, a Georgia Tech graduate like his father, and a civil engineer. His wife Emilee is a school teacher like Melinda. Hayden is age twenty-two and will be attending Pharmacy School at UGA this fall. As they say in Georgia the parents and children are a “house divided” with the inhabitants having both Tech and UGA pedigrees.
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Melinda’s post elementary school running began in 1990 when she participated in a few 5K races. Her best 5K time was 19:29 in the 1997 Lake Hartwell Dam race. She stopped running for years due to health reasons, but continued to walk, jog, and hike regularly. Two years ago the running lure bit again and has endured to this date. Melinda discovered series running and the point system in February 2013. She placed second in the Black Bag race series with 497 point. Her 2014 goal was to achieve a finish time in under twenty-four minutes in a 5K race. She achieved the goal on May 2nd with a 23:53 time at the Night of Neon 5K in Commerce. Her favorite race is the D-Day Currahee 10K as one can tell by the lead photo of Melinda at the turn around atop Currahee Mountain. The site is three miles from where she grew up. It is also near the same road where she started her running career at age six! Melinda especially enjoys trail runs and running in the woods. Melinda humbly states that she has met “some very kind and amazing people” on the series circuits and is “looking forward to getting to know them even better”.
Bob, checking out from the back of the pack. Look for the profile on mountain man Clarkesville’s Jerry Cunningham and on Athens’ Caitlin Cohn.