LEFT: Melissa Perlman runs along the beach promenade in Delray Beach. RIGHT: Susan Magi and her daughter Jennifer ran the Key West half-marathon in 2022. Photos provided
By Jan Engoren
October, when the temperatures cool down enough to allow runners to enjoy their runs without the oppressive heat and humidity, is the start of outdoor training season for South Florida marathons.
All along State Road A1A and the greenway that runs alongside it, runners, cyclists, walkers, rollerbladers and parents with kids make this stretch of coastline a place to train, recreate, see friends and catch a sunrise or two.
Two Delray Beach women are among the distance runners who train along the A1A corridor.
One of them is a sub-3-hour marathoner, Melissa Perlman, 41, founder and president of BlueIvy Communications, a PR firm. Its clients include the Gumbo Limbo Coastal Stewards in Boca Raton and the Delray Beach Downtown Development Authority.
Perlman trains year-round but during the past few months has geared up for the Oct. 8 Chicago Marathon.
The other is a novice, Susan Magi, 58, a vice president of marketing for a hydrogen company in Titusville. She has done several half-marathons and is finishing the 18-week training for her first marathon — the Marine Corps Marathon Oct. 29 in Washington, D.C.
In April, Perlman completed the Boston Marathon, finishing ninth in the women’s 40-44 age group in 2:49:47, a time she hopes to beat in Chicago for a personal record. If she finishes in 2:37 or better, she would qualify for the U.S. Olympic trials for the 2024 games.
“I love to run early in the morning along A1A and see the sunrise,” said Perlman, a high school track star who did not run a marathon until 2018. “It’s so rewarding to see the views and feel the breeze from the ocean. I’m lucky to train here.”
On non-run days she rides her ElliptiGO stand-up bicycle down A1A from George Bush Boulevard to Palmetto Park Road, and strength-trains at Slash Fitness in Delray Beach twice a week with a high-intensity interval workout. Committed to her sport, Perlman says, “I make time for it. It’s a physical and mental priority.
“It’s not a hobby — it’s my passion,” she says.
Her coach for the past six years, Leah Rosenfeld, 35, is based in Arizona and uploads her training schedule online.
“Melissa is a coach’s dream,” Rosenfeld says. “She’s excited and committed to see where she can take this and test what her limits are. She’s all in.”
Noting that Perlman’s performance continues to improve, Rosenfeld has tweaked her training, adding double threshold workouts, meaning two hard runs some days.
Perlman believes training in the Florida heat gives her an edge when running in cooler climes such as Boston or Chicago.
And switching to a plant-based diet, heralded in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s documentary The Game Changers, helped her improve her times and recover more quickly.
“Set your sight on a goal and put in the work and planning to achieve it,” Perlman says.
While running, she listens to Audible biographies such as those of Michelle Obama and Tiger Woods, or Sandra Brown romance novels.
Magi came to the sport after her husband, Michael, 54, died from leukemia in 2020.
During the pandemic shutdown, she began running with her daughter Jennifer, watching the sunrise along the ocean.
“It’s hard to get up,” Magi says, “but, I love being up.
“Seeing the sunrise gives me a new inspiration,” she says. “Even on stressful days, I feel better once I get out there. I meet a lot of nice people on A1A; people cheer me on and encourage me.”
Her husband’s best friend, Uf Tukel, also a runner, encouraged her on her journey.
Magi was hesitant to commit to the 26.2 miles of a marathon, but once she realized she could follow Jeff Galloway’s Run-Walk-Run method for which he markets an app, she said she knew “this is my year to do it.”
Her goal, she says, is “to finish.”
She runs four days each week with one day of cross-training, including rowing and yin yoga. To keep her mind focused, she listens to meditation and spiritual tapes.
Up by 5 a.m., she feeds her pets, makes coffee and plays “happy music” — Kenny Chesney, Brett Eldredge’s Good Day, Travis Tritt’s It’s a Great Day to Be Alive — before heading out to run and see the sunrise.
What advice does she have for new runners?
“Never say never. Set your expectations. If you show up, that’s half the battle,” she says. “And … finish — that’s the other half.”
Jan Engoren writes about health and healthy living. Send column ideas to jengoren@hotmail.com
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