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Susie Fullerton wins women’s walk on her first try

Photo by Jeff Baughan Susie Fullerton prepares to cross the finish line after leading all women in the two-mile walk competition.

PARKERSBURG — A first try here Saturday morning turned into a women’s race walk win for Susie Fullerton in the Parkersburg News and Sentinel Half Marathon.

“I just decided Wednesday to register, come down and race here,” said Fullerton. “I’m from Wheeling, so I do the Ogden (Newspapers Half Marathon Classic) up there. But now I’m glad I came down here today.”

She described the Parkersburg half marathon course as “interesting because I didn’t know what to expect. But my brother had walked this before, so he told me there were hills, but nothing like the steep hills in Wheeling. So this wasn’t bad as far as hills go.”

Still though, Fullerton thought “it was very humid today, but not real hot. Thank goodness, the clouds were covering the sun most of the way. But still, it was hot.”

Fullerton, 60, said that “about three times someone told me I was the first woman walker. So that was nice because in Wheeling, no one ever told me where I was and I finished second in the Ogden this year.”

Her time Saturday was 2:37.40. “I didn’t pay attention when I came across the finish line,” said Fullerton. “They shocked me when they pulled that ribbon across because I didn’t really expect to be the first woman.”

Race walking “on and off for maybe 10 years now,” Fulleron “used to run. I ran the Ogden in my younger days several times and then I kind of didn’t when I was raising kids. And then when I got back into it, I decided to get back into it in the walking aspect. I’m way into that better than the running.”

Previously, “many times I placed first in my age group at the Ogden and in the Debbie Green 5K in Wheeling this year, I was the sixth woman overall and a couple of years ago, it was the fourth women overall,” said Fullerton. “So I never won, so this is a first.”

Fullerton “enjoys race walking” and even as a full-time nurse, she’s able to find time for it “on the weekends and in the evening. I probably walk about four to five days a week and try to at least walk five (miles) at a time, and on the weekends, I usually do a 10-mile walk. That’s my practice.”

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