Kelli McGlennen Selman - Michael's Blue Light Special

Kelli was born in La Grange, located in northern Indiana. Not to be confused with the LaGrange in our fair state.  Indiana LaGrange was founded in 1846 and by the 2010 censuses had grown to a population of 2625.  Kelli’s father was the principal at the town middle school while her mother was a homemaker.  Kelli graduated from Prairie Heights High School in LaGrange.  After graduation, Kelli moved to Florida to assist her grandmother who had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s.  While there, Kelli attended Clearwater Junior College while being a care giver for her grandmother.  After graduation, she moved once again, this time to Clarkesville, GA, where she continued her education at Piedmont College.  She graduated from there with a degree majoring in Special Education and Sociology.  After a failed marriage, Kelli found her student activities complicated by the burden of supporting herself and two young children. 

One day, while traveling through Clarkesville, Kelli was involved in a serious motorcycle accident.  She was a passenger at the time of the accident, and the result was a serious head trauma and a broken leg requiring a metal rod to be inserted.  She also sustained several other less serious injuries.  The right side of her brain was so damaged that consulting neurologists felt that she might never be able to care for herself again, much less participate in any athletic events or finish college.  Kelli stayed with her family in Florida for a full year while undergoing rehab for her brain injury.  Rehab consisted of retraining Kelli’s brain right side to execute tasks that the trauma had short-circuited.  After a tedious year, Kelli returned to Clarksville where she gained employment at the near-by Wal Mart in near-by Cornelia.  Although not completely recovered, she felt that most of her co-workers only had half a brain, hence she could be able to function at work.     

Wal Mart came to the rescue as Kelli worked full time there while attending Piedmont College.  After earning her degree, she continued her employment.  Versatile Kelli flourished at Wal Mart, rising to department supervisor of several lines of merchandise. Her favorite department was lingerie.  I presumed that she met her current husband Michael Selman while he was cruising the lingerie section of Wal Mart.  I was wrong!  Kelli did meet a close friend named Nancy Woods at church, who was likewise undergoing a painful divorce.  Nancy and Kelli could be observed running together warming up for Run and See races as well as Black Bag races in the Athens area.  They ran together constantly in Clarkesville during the week.  Kelli continued her career at Wal Mart for several years, and transferred to the location in Suwanee after she met Michael, then relocating to Alpharetta to be with him.  Her sons matured to their current ages-30 and 31 respectively.

Kelli met Michael Selman at a Frog Hop 5K in Athens in 2009.  She travelled there with Nancy and her new husband, Mark Kelley.  After the race, Kelli joined Michael for lunch but forgot to advise Nancy that she was not riding with her. Nancy was so pleased that Kelli had found an attractive male friend that she was not offended.  Michael and Kelli have been together ten years, having met the day after Valentine’s Day.  Kelli resigned from Wal Mart seven years ago.  Michael had found his Blue light Special in Kelli, and they both no longer needed Wal Mart.  Michael’s vocation is in consulting and training on medical software systems, which requires a lot of travel.  Kelli now works at Unique Sports full time, while putting in a few part-time hours at Big Peach Running Company in Alpharetta, where she worked full time for almost 7 years after leaving Wal-Mart.  Occasionally, she is able to travel with Michael.             

Needless to say, Kelli’s favorite race is the Frog Hop 5K, with Lanier Under the Lights in second place.  She has cut back participating in organized racing, having done between twenty to thirty in 2018.

Bob checking out from the back of the pack.  Watch for the profile on Rosie Barber’s main squeeze husband Doug Barber, and the profile of Pace Academy track coach and keeper of Kenny Duncan’s cone collection Jolie Cunningham.