Marsha Demaree

Marsha started running competitively at age eleven in jean shorts and converse sneakers. By the time she was in 9th grade she had been in 10 different schools and lived in seven different National Parks throughout the country. She went on to run her freshman year of high school on the boys’ cross country team. The following year, as Title IX was sweeping the country, her high school started a girls’ cross country team in 1978. She ran four wonderful years for Radford University, a division I school in southwestern Virginia, where she continued her love of running. In the winter of 1986 she met Roger, her husband, at mile two of a ten-mile race. With her first teaching job she also coached high school cross country and track. In 1988 she took a long hiatus from running and didn’t came back to the sport until her four children started running for the Junior Striders in Maryland. Marsha has competed in distances from the mile to marathons.

Marsha has coached hundreds of runners with HCS Next Step programs where she has also served on the Striders’ Board as the Special Programs Director. Her goals are to stay healthy enough to run and to pass her love of running on to the runners she coaches. Throughout all this running Marsha has made the best friends along the way. These runners have brought so much joy into her life. And for this, she is forever grateful.