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About Carleth's Run Club

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Carleth's Story

Carleth Keys is a marathon runner and influential running content creator from NYC. With a background in news reporting, she now shares her passion for long-distance running and her global adventures on her social media platforms. Carleth's engaging and educational content inspires others to overcome challenges and achieve their seemingly impossible goals.

As a marathon enthusiast, mother of two, and creator of running-related content, I use my social media platforms to share my marathon training experiences, racing tips, and my global running adventures. I find joy in offering others informative and engaging content that fosters genuine online relationships.

My path to becoming an influencer and content creator began when I developed a passion for long-distance running. For 15 years, I worked as a news reporter and anchor in the US, until motherhood led me to relocate to Spain to raise my two wonderful children. It was in Madrid that I trained for my inaugural marathon: the 2019 TCS New York City Marathon. This event marked my return to the US after five years of living overseas, and I was instantly captivated by the thrill of crossing the finish line.

However, when the pandemic struck and all races were put on hold, I persisted in my running journey by recording, editing, and sharing my runs on social media. My engaging content attracted thousands of keen and aspiring runners, and soon enough, brands began to take notice. Today, my community of fitness enthusiasts spans over 150 thousand across various platforms. My ultimate goal is to inspire others to pursue their dreams, no matter how unattainable they may appear.

Why Carleth's Run Club? 

I love providing you all with tips to train for my favorite distance, the marathon!  While in Berlin with Destination Marathons, I met some great people who were all training and looking to reach sub 3 hours.  We decided that I needed to help you, and my audience further and that's how CRC was formed!  Not only do I have great coaches to help you crush your goals in your next marathon, I am going to be right there with you with each workout.

Meet The Run Club Coaches

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Melissa Cooney

Melissa Cooney is an accomplished runner, having run 17 Marathons  (4 Majors) and a PR of 2:52, just ran a 3:08 comfortably in Berlin, knowing she wanted to have fun and finish strong!   Melissa traveled to Berlin with Destination Marathons in 2023 where met Carleth, Jess and Ben.  With Melissa’s running and sponsorship background,  she knew she found something special with these three and Carleth’s Run Club was born!  Bringing people together is Meliss’s specialty and can’t wait to see how we can help.  She is an RRCA Certified Marathon Coach,  Sells a Sponsorship Software full time and is sometimes called the “Sponsorship Fairy Godmother”.   She has two young girls at home (yes they run with her!) and she makes training work for her and her family now.   She is looking forward to joining Carleths Run Club and both educating and learning from everyone!  She is excited to continue to travel with Destination Marathons and make more memories and meet new people!

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Ben Lundell

Ben grew up in Dubuque, IA playing multiple sports before concentrating solely on tennis.  At Gustavus Adolphus College, Ben was a D3 All-American and part of an Indoor National Championship Team.  Following his undergraduate studies, Ben pursued a career as a dentist at the University of Iowa College of Dentistry.  At the end of his first year, Ben developed a blood clot in his left leg.  The damaging effects from the blood clot combined with the commitment to his dental studies made it hard to exercise.  It was in his 4th and final year of dental school that Ben took up running as a way to lose weight, get back in shape and feel better overall.  The challenge and difficulty of running ignited a desire to further improve his health and see how far and fast he could run.  Since starting running as an adult in 2011, Ben has run numerous races of all distances from the mile to the Marathon.  During this time, he has run 12 road marathons while slowly but steadily lowering his marathon PR from 4:58 to 2:48 (4:58, 4:30, 4:20, 3:38, 3:26, 3:20, 4:29 (pacing), 2:56, 2:53, 2:49, 3:14, 2:48).  This improvement in running performance was brought about by a passion for learning every aspect of running and training.  Ben, along with Jess, completed Road Runners Club of America (RRCA) certification and started Crown Running.  Crown Running focuses on coaching runners of all abilities, creating an inclusive running community and providing support for elite runners through the Crown Running Elite team.

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Benjamin Saah

Ben began his fitness journey when he moved to the United States from Ghana. As an immigrant, he was faced with many challenges in a new country. As he learned to adjust, he relied on fitness and running to cope with day-to-day life stresses. 

Fitness and running became his daily therapy. Through this process, he learned more about myself. He transformed my health, body and mind. He became healthier, happier, fitter and stronger. The changes in my body boosted my confidence. He started to believe in himself and that gave me a new outlook on life. Since then, fitness and running has become his lifestyle.

Ben's purpose now is to inspire, empower and motivate others to believe in themselves through fitness and running. His goal is to give you all that he has learned during his fitness/running journey to help you reach your goals.

He has run TCS NYC Marathon 3x and 2 other marathons.

Starting in late 2019, he started a marathon challenge which ended in 22 marathons in 22 weeks.

Certification: USATF level I & RRCA

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Jess Hruska

Jess grew up in the country, just outside of Dubuque, IA. She was involved in a variety of things before finding her true passion in running. Jess has always been a hard worker and had a huge desire to train hard to be the best she can be. She will tell you that she was a late bloomer though, running her PR’s in her 40’s and still feels there is more in her. Jess ran cross country and track at Wartburg College while getting her undergraduate degree in fitness. Her coaching career began as an assistant coach at UW LaCrosse, while pursuing her masters degree in Exercise Physiology with an emphasis in human performance. After graduate school, she did a variety of things such as adjunct teaching at local colleges, teaching and coaching various fitness, running, and yoga classes, and coaching people one-on-one, while raising her kids. She has run lots of marathons working her way from a time of 3:28 down to 2:49:06. She races every distance from the 5k to the marathon and has even won a few trail 50k’s. Together with Ben, she got her run coach certification through RRCA (Road running coach of America) and began Crown Running. Along with one-on-one coaching, she also leads running and yoga retreats, as travel is huge for them!

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