Girard native ready for Beantown

Fran Kozlowski wanted to complete a marathon before she turned 40. She did and in the process qualified for Boston.

By JOHN KOVACH

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

Girard native Fran (Migliozzi) Kozlowski always has been interested in nutrition and physical fitness.

The 37-year-old registered dietician at Cleveland Veterans Hospital also has made some giant strides as a distance runner the past few years while competing in half-marathons and other shorter races.

But Kozlowski, a Girard High (1990) and Kent State (1996) graduate, achieved her biggest running success thus far by completing her first marathon on her first try.

And in the process, she qualified for today’s Boston Marathon — with more than eight minutes to spare.

In fact, when Kozlowski, who now lives in Painesville Township, completed the Presque Isle Marathon in Erie last September in about 3:36 — approximately eight minutes faster than the Boston Marathon qualifying time of 3:45 — she even impressed herself.

“When I first ran Presque Isle, I thought I would complete it but never thought my time would be that good to qualify for Boston,” Kozlowski said. “I trained very hard for it. “

And although she never ran into the proverbial brick wall that marathon runners often encounter when running 26 miles and 385 yards, she nevertheless encountered her difficulties before and after the race.

“Afterwards, probably the last couple of miles, were the most difficult. It was a mental issue at that point. But after completing the race, I hit a roadblock and got kind of sick, but during the race it went smoothly,” said Kozlowski, who has been on a planned mission to improve her endurance.

“I began distance running a couple of years ago. I had both of my kids, I was active and it was just another goal to achieve. So I kept it up a notch and began running [to] the future,” Kozlowski said.

“I’ve never been [to Boston] before. I always just wanted to complete a marathon by [age] 40 and I accomplished that, and it is an honor to run [at Boston].”

However, she pointed out, “I heard the course is difficult [but] as long as my time is under 4 hours, I will be happy.”

Her objective is “to qualify again [for Boston] with 3:45 or less.”

Kozlowski will be joined in Boston by her sometimes-training partner, Steve Babyak, a respiratory therapist from Mentor and a 1985 Cardinal Mooney graduate, who will be running his second Boston Marathon. But they won’t be together at the starting line.

“Occasionally, we run together. We ran together [recently] in [the Joey Winterburn Challenge 5K in Girard], and then we ran a long run together in Mill Creek Park,” said Kozlowski, who won the Winterburn women’s division in 21:04. Babyak placed third overall in 18:14.

But at Boston, “They put you in different starting times, so Steve will be starting before me because he had a better [qualifying] time. He will start a half hour before me.”

Despite that, she said she won’t feel alone.

“I have run in many races myself so I am used to it.”

Babyak, who attended Youngstown State and graduated from Cleveland State in 2002, covered Boston in 3:17.57 last year in his debut there but hopes to better that this year.

“This year it will be about running a fast race as compared to the previous year in which the main goal was to finish,” said Babyak, who has been training with Paul Dunleavy of the Ironman Warehouse in Struthers and Matt Cunningham, an area bodybuilder.

Kozlowski said that she has received a lot of support from her mother, Virginia Migliozzi. of Girard and her three sisters, Maria of Liberty and Christina and Gina both of Girard, but that none of them will be at Boston.

However, she will be with her extended family.

“I won’t be by myself because I will be with a family of runners,” she said.

kovach@vindy.com