Second Wind
Marathoner, Wife, Mom and Business Alum Comes Back After Tough Times
ABOUT 20 YEARS AGO, Claudia Shannon ’97 tended
bar at night, tended her kids during the day and felt depressed
over
a recent divorce. The lack of a college degree was keeping her
from better-paying jobs. “I got so angry at
my life one day,” she says, “that I put on some track shoes and ran through that
anger. And it
felt good!”
The next day and the next, she rose at
4:30 a.m. to run. Not only did her self-esteem
increase, but so did her miles. Soon she was
up to 10 miles a day — and going fast. At age 32, she placed fifth in her first 26.2-mile race,
the women’s Emerald City Marathon. Eventually,
she placed second in the women’s Big Sur Marathon with an astonishing time of
2:50,
just about one half hour behind the men’s marathon champion.
Shannon is a poster
child for what can be accomplished by a student over 40. Born in
1952, she may have been the oldest Seattle
Pacific University athlete who was an academic
all-district selection. In her senior year, as a 45-
year-old mom, she ran 5K and 10K races in
track and was a member of the cross-country
team that took 14th at nationals. By then, she
was remarried — to two-time Olympic boxer
Robert Shannon — and working full-time at an insurance firm while excelling
in upperdivision classes in the School of Business.
Robert Shannon had convinced
Seattle Pacific coach Doris Heritage to recruit Claudia for both cross country
and track. She won
her first two SPU cross-country races — one
in an Alaskan blizzard. “Claudia’s amazing,” says Heritage. “She gives everything
she’s got
every time, and she never quits.”
Claudia Shannon credits Heritage for being
a mentor, helping her to understand
more about God. “Doris isn’t exclusionary,” says Shannon. “She’s curious about
the world.
Religion has opened her world, not closed it.” Shannon found advantages to running
for the
University rather than for herself. “I learned a sense of community with the
SPU women’s
team,” she says. “We had a bond.”
Today, Shannon works in insurance law at Safeco.
As a senior commercial claims adjuster, she tries to even the balance of power
between
parties. “I wanted to change the world,” says
Shannon, “So I went to law school. But I found that in law, you can change things
only a little bit. What you can do is protect vulnerable people. SPU reinforced
the idea that being good
means giving when it’s really tough to give.” That’s good for everyone’s self-esteem.
— BY MARGARET D. SMITH
— PHOTO BY JIMI LOTT
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From the President
Americans today are searching for a new tone for their lives. “We
are talking here about another set of values — not the giddy sense
of entitlement that emerges out of exuberant times,” says President
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My Response
After 25 years, Joyce Quiring Erickson, retiring professor of English and
dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, reflects on glossy brown
chestnuts, home and the Promised Land.
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