Air Force veteran, 79, wins 5K race — her 1,208th one

At age 79, Mary Kaplan has already run a 5K race in every state in the union and has run at least one race in each of the 254 counties in Texas.

“I run to win, and at my age, that’s not too difficult in most cases,” she said.

She added another ribbon to her collection Sunday, winning in her age bracket in the Elf Run 5K at the Children’s Rehabilitation Institute TeletonUSA with a time of 32:49.

“It was fantastic, the weather was perfect,” Kaplan said. “There were lots of folks dressed up. They were all in elf costumes and Santa Claus costumes.”

She donned a green shirt but did not partake in the costumes, running as the oldest of the race’s roughly 270 participants, according to race organizers.

“She actually ran a mile before the race,” said Lisa Marie Barocas, CRIT’s marketing director. “She wanted to warm up.”

The retired Air Force nurse has run in more than 1,410 races and won more than 1,200 of them. Included in all the ribbons and trophies are three memorable cartoonish figures.

“I used to run in the races at Crawford, when President Bush had a race up there. I’ve got three bobbleheads of George Bush from the races up there,” she said with a chuckle.

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Kaplan, who lives near Marble Falls, figures she’s run between 75 and 100 races in San Antonio, where she lived for about six months after retiring from the Air Force in 1996.

She has fond memories of the city and seeks out races involving a good cause.

“I look for races that seem to give their profits to a good organization, and I think the Elf Run is just that,” she said before the run.

Kaplan is also the founder of the Tx 254 Running Club, which has about two dozen members, some of whom are intent on running a race in every county in the state, as she did. Others have less lofty goals.

“There are no rules except one rule that says there are no rules,” she explained. “Whatever distance you want to run or walk in a county, you can count that. There are no dues or officers. We correspond by e-mail.”

In some of the state’s rural counties, the Tx 254 Running Club has had to organize the first 5K races ever held there, so the members could add them to their list.

Kaplan, who these days covers a 5K between 33 and 36 minutes, runs almost every weekend and sometimes multiple races on a weekend. Her husband, Hal, accompanies her and takes care of logistics.

The club’s latest goal is to run 5K races in uniquely named Texas towns.

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“So far we’ve run in Bangs, Black Ankle, Weeping Mary, Very Best, Tarzan, Rainbow and Uncertain. There are just so many of them,” she said.

And when it comes to pet peeves on race day, Kaplan has just one.

“I hate the dogs. When people run with their dogs and don’t control them, they get in your way, even when they are on leashes. That’s the worst. Kids you can avoid, but dogs upset me,” she said.

John MacCormack is a staff writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | JMacCormack@express-news.net | Twitter: @JohnMacCormack