Betty Deer, 80, has been running in marathons across the country since 1986, the Indianapolis Mini Marathon this Saturday will be her last

The running began 48 years ago in a modest neighborhood in New Palestine. Betty Deer was a 32-year-old mother of two girls, a mother who, if truth be told, hoped a jog after dinner might keep those nagging extra five pounds away.

She set out from her driveway that first evening in 1974 and started jogging. A couple of neighbors spotted her and stopped Betty.

"Hey, we'd like to try running, too," they told her.

At first, they kept it short, about a mile and a half from the end of the street down to Sugar Creek.

"And then we'd get down there and it was like, 'Well now, you've got to figure out how to get back,'" said Betty. "How do we get back that mile and a half?" 

That was Betty Deer at 32. On Saturday, she will run her 34th Mini-Marathon at 80, a race she has finished in the top three in her age division the past 13 years.

It will be a bittersweet day, an end of an era. Betty has run more than 12 full marathons and too many half marathons and shorter distance races to count.

More than 50 medals hang in the den of her Greenfield home. Others are on the desk still wrapped in plastic. Many have been donated to sick kids at Riley Hospital for Children. Some have gone to Goodwill.

But on Saturday, Betty says she will cross the Mini-Marathon finish line one final time. 

"I wouldn't count on it," her husband Larry Deer quickly chimes in. He can hardly believe his wife of 61 years would really give up marathoning. "I don't think so. She might have another in her."

No, Betty says adamantly. When she runs long distances, right hip pain nags at her. The foot pain is there, too, and even the Asics shoes she has sworn by for decades aren't giving her relief.  

"This will be my last," she said. "It really will be my last."

The neighborhood jogs turned to running with co-workers after Betty clocked out at Community Hospital East, where she was a patient representative before going back to school to get a degree in social work.

"One of the ladies there said, 'You know Shirley runs the Mini. Why don't you do that?'" Betty said. "That's how it began."

It was 58 degrees, drizzling and overcast in May 1986. Betty drove to Indianapolis Motor Speedway where buses picked up runners and shuttled them downtown for the start of the race.

This was the 10th Mini-Marathon; the race began in 1977. It was Betty's first. She finished that race with the best time of her 33 runs: One hour and 59 minutes. 

She was hooked.

In the early days of the Mini, Betty ran the entire race.

"It was a mental thing in the beginning. I thought you had to run it," she said. The only time she would walk was to grab a paper cup of water, drink it quickly, and then start running again.

"But now I find out that I do just as well if I walk some of it," she said. On Saturday, she plans to run five minutes, walk 30 seconds, run five minutes, walk 30 seconds the entire race.

Her times have slowed as the years have passed. But it's all relative. Betty remains at the top of her age group. At 64 years old, she finished fourth in her age group, running the Mini in 2:07. Every Mini-Marathon since, she has finished in the top 3.

In 2019, Betty placed first in the 75-79 age group with a time of 2:41:27, beating the next closest competitor by a full six minutes and the fifth place finisher by 32 minutes.

"But I'm not fast. I'm not fast," she said. "See, I don't consider myself a competitive runner."

If not that, then what is she?

As running goes, Betty has been lucky. At 80, she hasn't had to have surgery on her knees or hip. She did have a thyroid issue and a couple of bouts with cataracts.

In the hundreds of races she has competed in, Betty has crossed the finish line every single time, though there was one Mini where she almost didn't.

It was the 10th mile of the race when she broke the third metatarsal bone in her foot.

"I didn't know what to do and I started walking, but it was painful," she said. "And I decided, 'Well, I might as well finish it.' And so I started running and actually it felt better after I started running. And I finished that race."

Betty doesn't have any rituals for the Mini-Marathon, no carb-loaded spaghetti dinners with garlic bread the night before. "It just depends what I feel like eating that night," she said.

In the morning, she usually has half a bagel with a smidge of peanut butter on the way to the race.

Her training consists of some type of workout six days a week. She runs three days, does spin classes and Pilates classes on two days and walks with a neighbor one day.

Betty saves her long runs for Sundays. To prepare for the Mini this year, she ran eight miles on Sundays in January, nine miles in February, 10 miles in March and 11 or 12 miles in April.

This week leading up to the Mini, she ran nine miles on Sunday, took a spin class and a Pilates class Monday and ran three miles Tuesday. She will rest until Saturday.

Now to run her final Mini-Marathon.

"The thing I've enjoyed most is running with my friends," Betty said. "If I'd stop running with them that would be devastating to me. So I'm going to keep running, just not to this level."

posted Friday May 6th
by Dana Husinger Benbow