Linda Honigford has always hated running.

        She hated it even when she was a scholarship basketball player for Northern Kentucky University in the late 1980s. All that running up and down the court was a pain, but at least it had a payoff: Linda could shoot the ball. She loved that.

        And the power forward put on quite a show. Her 1,482 career points rank sixth on NKU's all-time scoring list.

        Linda could count on two fans being in the bleachers for every home game. Her parents, Jerry and Carol Honigford, would hop in the car and drive the 2 1/2 hours from their home in Ottoville, Ohio, to NKU.

        When they entered the gym, Linda says, “My mom would always give me a little wave.” Her way of saying, “We're here.”

        And that's what Linda remembers most about her mom: She was always there. She didn't work outside the home when Linda and her five siblings were in school, so she was always there to take them to their practices and games. Always there, laughing and smiling. Always healthy, too.

        Until five years ago when a stroke killed Carol Honigford at age 55.

Linda Honigford joined Train to End Stroke to honor her parents. (Dick Swaim photo) | ZOOM |

        Linda and her family were devastated. Two years later, they were dealt another blow when Linda's 59-year-old father died of cancer.

        Now 34, Linda lives in Oakley and is a manager for Xerox.

        She isn't sure how or why she received the brochure. It arrived in the mail one day.

        It told of Train to End Stroke, a marathon training program benefitting the American Stroke Association (ASA), a division of the American Heart Association.

        Did we mention that Linda really hates running? Even as a college athlete, she says, probably the furthest she ever ran in conditioning drills was three miles.

        Anyway, she went to a Train to End Stroke meeting last November. The next thing she knew, she was huffing and puffing through her first training session.

        “I ran about a mile and a half,” Linda says, “and I was just toast.”

        She decided to take on this 26.2-mile challenge because, for starters, it would force her to get in shape. Also, friends who had done it said it was a great experience. And the marathon site wasn't bad, either: Keauhou-Kona, Hawaii.

        But the main reason she chose to run was because of the marathon's fund-raising component. Her goal, set by the ASA, is $4,700; 70 percent will go toward stroke research and educational programs, an ASA spokeswoman says; the rest covers Linda's expenses.

        She has raised about 60 percent of her goal.

        And since that first training run, Linda has steadily improved. When she ran seven miles, she told herself, “You know what, I can do this.” A couple of weeks ago she conquered 12 miles.

        She keeps a calendar in her kitchen. It features pictures of Hawaiian beaches. If all goes as planned, she will cross the finish line sometime in the afternoon of June 23, then head to a sandy paradise with palm trees.

        But the beach isn't her main motivation.

        The money she raises will help educate others about ways to lessen their risk for stroke, the third-leading cause of death in the United States.

        So she'll run this marathon for herself. And for people she'll never know or meet. And for the memory of her parents, Carol and Jerry Honigford, who were always there for her.

       For information about Train to End Stroke, call Amy Howe at the American Stroke Association, 513-281-4048. Or visit the Web, www.strokeassociation.org. To help Linda Honigford reach her fund-raising goal, donations in her name can be sent to the ASA, 2936 Vernon Place, Cincinnati 45219.

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