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Castelamare Family Turns To Running For An Outlet
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Published: February 28, 2008
LAND O' LAKES - It's one thing to have a coach tell his or her players how hard to train and how much to run, knowing that coach was incapable of such tasks.
Conversely, River Ridge volleyball coach Heidi Castelamare can tell her kids to run to Tampa if she wants and if need be, would be right there in the pack running.
Castelamare has run in three marathons and ran in her first half marathon during the Publix Super Markets Gasparilla Distance Classic earlier this month.
"I've always run," she said. "My mom was my high school track coach and I lived on the beach in Michigan, so what's better between beach volleyball and running on the beaches. That's what I grew up doing. I've always been an avid runner."
This is the third time she has run with her running group, which includes River Ridge principal Jim Michaels, assistant superintendent for middle schools Tina Tiede and Heather Bell, wife of Pasco County's supervisor of athletics Phil Bell.
But there was an additional runner in the group, who likely was the most important for Castelamare - her daughter Brooke.
Running is a family tradition, which is also big with older daughter Brittany, who plays volleyball at the University of South Florida.
"I think running, Brittany, Brooke and I will always have that in common. We like to run and train," Heidi said. "It is a bond for us. You just know with the mental stress and relief that you have from running. Sometimes Brooke gets stressed out about school or normal high school situations and she'll go, 'Mom, I just need to run.' It's a positive outlet for her instead of being negative and complaining."
The 13.1-mile run is the longest Brooke had run, and as touching as the idea of mom and daughter running side by side, pacing each other, sounds, Brooke crossed the line in 2 hours, 7 minutes, 35 seconds. Heidi finished in 2:12:29.
While running, Heidi is just another athlete in a pair of shoes, focused on the finish line. It provides the perfect opportunity to shed her many other titles.
"I use it more as a mental tool. That's my time to release and think about stuff," said Heidi, who also uses running to combat her hyperthyroidism. "It's doing something for myself instead of coaching or being a mom or the wife of a coach.
"You do a lot of things for other people a lot of times, so I've always used running as time for myself for thinking and my training."
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