Quest to finish race becomes starting line for new outlook on life

NEWTON - Newton’s Jacqueline Kaufman recently reached a goal and proved a lot - not just to her family and friends, but most importantly to herself. At 39-years-old with renewed self-confidence and a revamped body thanks to her months of diligent training, Kaufman completed the 34th Annual Long Beach Island Commerative 18 Mile Run, on October 8th, in 3:14:15 Kaufman was never a runner. In fact, rather than the “traditional“ sports like soccer and tennis, Kaufman chose crew and rowed from grades 8 to 12. Her home town of Bellville shared a boathouse with Nutley and Kearny teams on the Passaic River, so she did a lot of rowing there, but her favorite place to row was in Philadelphia on the Schuylkill River. When she was a freshman in high school, at Belleville High, her team won the Stokes Championship in Philly, and because they won, they were allowed to run up the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum while the theme of “Rocky” blared from the bus. That was Kaufman’s introduction to running, but her running career didn’t begin until over 20 years later. Crew and any sport took a back seat when she went to collage. She graduated from Rutgers College of Pharmacy in 1990, then married Danny Kaufman. They had two boys, Nicholas and Matthew, and Jackie Kaufman’s life was busy, balancing her job as a pharmacist and the kids. There was no “Jackie time.” Then, Kaufman was faced with one of the hardest quests of her life. Her husband, who is a member of The National Guard, was sent to Guantano Bay, in Cuba for a year in 2004. Kaufman was suddenly a temporary single parent, and though she and Danny e-mailed and talked every day, Kaufman had to handle a year of one disaster on top of another solo. While Danny Kaufman was away, the water tank conked out, the basement flooded, there was an invasion of carpenter ants at the Kaufman home, the transmission went on the car while visiting friends in Pennsylvania, mice moved into her car’s air bags resulting in $4,000 worth of damage, the lawn mower broke and the breaks on Danny’s truck failed. On top of that, one night their McDonald’s bag was too close to a candle and it ignited the centerpiece and the dining room table. “We were able to extinguish it with some soda.” That year, Jackie Kaufman had to handle the everyday ins and outs of working while simultaneously raising two boys then ages 7 and 9. “It was quite a year, but it was the best thing that happened to us,” she said. Kaufman learned a lot about herself and said her boys “gained a lot of independence.” Kaufman knew that a bunch of her high school friends went to Long Beach Island every fall for a “Girls’ Weekend,” but she’d declined the invitation in the past. A more independent Jackie Kaufman accepted the year Danny was away, and in October of 2004, she left her sons with her Mom in Jersey City and headed to the shore. It was that trip that planted the seed to set a goal so lofty, it shocked not only her family and friends, but… Jackie herself. Girls’ Weekend coincided with the running of the LBI 18-Miler, a more than three-decade-old race that goes from Holgate, at the South end of the island, to the finish in front of Barnegat Light, at the north end. She had a great time with her friends and was very intrigued with the race. Kaufman went back to Girls’ Weekend the next year (2005), and after seeing the race for the second time, couldn’t get it off her mind. On March fifth, 2006, Kaufman turned 39 and announced she would run the 2006 LBI 18-Miler. One of the things that helped her “go for it” was that her sons, had part-taken in The Bears Youth Running Program in fall, 2005, so Kaufman had been around running twice a week from September through November. When Kaufman said she planned to run, her friend since high school, Annie Williams, who lives in West Milford, said she’d do it too. “We were on the crew team together,“ Kaufman said, “And we’d done some running together back then.“ The months rolled by, and suddenly, it was July. Kaufman realized October was just around the bend, but her training was nil, so she met with one of her sons’ running coaches for advice and a schedule. The first thing she learned was that her tennis sneakers weren’t’ going to cut it. She purchased her first pair of running shoes and started following the schedule which combined the speed and endurance workouts she’d need to complete the 18-miler. “My feet were very happy in my new running shoes,” she said. Though Kaufman’s first speed workout sent her into major oxygen debt and during her first “long run” she said “I felt like my legs were going to disconnect from my hips, she was determined. As the weeks went by, Kaufman got stronger and faster, and learned about one of the best kept secrets in the area, The Paulins Kill Trail, where she could do her long runs with low impact. Her furthest distance run was 15 miles, and when she repeated the speed workout she’d done back in July again in late September, she felt like a different person. Kaufman lost 15 pounds, dropping back to her high school and college size, and her cholesterol that was was 239 three years ago fell to 158. But above and beyond the physical changes, there were mental ones as well. Kaufman’s Girls’ Weekend came up the week before the 18-miler this year and a traditionally conservative Jackie Kaufman shocked her friends by not only opting to join the crew in a trip to Atlantic City but by letting them dress and doll her up to go out dancing with them. Her new confidence gained from the running trickled into all aspects of her life. Kaufman did have one set back. Her “partner in crime” for the 18-mile run, Annie Williams, learned with just a few weeks to go that she had to go away on business the weekend of the race. The old Jackie Kaufman may have also bowed out. The new Jackie Kaufman said “no way.” On Sunday, October 8th, without Annie Williams at her side, Jackie Kaufman stood by the starting line long before the start of the race. She was excited, well-nourished and ready to go. The race was “great,” she said. “I had nothing to complain about-it was flat and I had trained on the hills of Sussex county.” She said there was a breeze, but instead of seeing it as adversity, she said, “therefore the sweat wasn’t dripping in my eyes.“ Kaufman said added, “The time went by so quickly, I didn’t dwell on the miles done or to come. I talked to everyone, including the cheering fans. I don’t know if they realize how much we need them. I told everyone racing that this was my first big run and received lots of encouragement along the way. “ The most beautiful thing about Kaufman reaching her goal isn’t that she finished the 34th Annual LBI Commemorative 18-Miler, it’s that her goal became not an end, but a beginning of a whole new world for her. “I love this running thing,” she said. “I am strong. I am woman. I am a runner. Imagine that. Now it’s time to set a new goal and I’ll know that I can accomplish that too.” Kaufman plans to run the Navesink Challenge, a 15-kilometer race, the Sunday after Thanksgiving in Middletown, NJ, the set her sights on The 2nd Annual Long Branch Half Marathon in April. She’s in for LBI again next year and, “You never know after that. I might just do a full marathon.”