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Senoria Clarke
By Randy Mayes

Senoria “Sunny” Clarke grew up in Kansas and excelled as a competitive swimmer from five to fourteen. By the age of seven she had won a silver medal. At that age she did not realize the significance of the gold medal and the meet trophy for the outstanding athlete. When she and fellow swimmer Mary Burger learned that these had higher prestige, their competitive sides emerged. Both decided that they would like to have a gold medal and a trophy. Focused on her goal, with help from her lucky pig, she achieved her goal in the backstroke. Sunny still has the gold medal with a peanut butter stained ribbon as well as the trophy displayed with her awards from national road races in her Chevy Chase, MD home.     

At the age of sixteen she began smoking because she was playing the grown-up sophisticate. At twenty-six she started running in a desperate attempt to stop smoking. “I did not think I could do the Jeff Galloway training program and smoke at the same time,’’ she says. Smoking one and a half to two packs of Marlboro Reds a day, she was unable to stop after trying countless times. For seven of those ten years she tried various methods, usually she tried to stop cold turkey.      

After graduating from the University of Kansas, Clarke attended Cornell Law School. While in New York she joined the Finger Lakes Running Club and competed in road races. Her sister Laura recalls having to drag her from behind the porta-johns where she was smoking, to the starting line of a race. Signing up for the 1990 Marine Corps Marathon, after being totally committed mentally and giving extreme effort physically, she placed in the top one-hundred females. In 1991, she accepted a position as an attorney with the federal government and moved to the Dupont Circle area of Washington, DC and ran with a group at the local Fleet Feet. At the MCM, she made the top one-hundred females again. Then a temporary setback occurred; a femur fractured clean through at the neck to the ball of the hip, requiring surgery and three long steel pins. She recovered and joined her friend Donna Moore’s lunchtime training group on the Mall. At the 1992 MCM she ran 2:59. 

In 1993, Matt Centrowitz moved to the area and became her coach. At the Georgetown Classic 10K she ran 34:34. The following year another stress fracture, this time in the foot, kept her from competing. In 1995, she came back and ran 33:44 at Sallie Mae and 16:20 for 5000m at the Boston Twilite Meet. In 1996, she was the first female at the Cow Harbor 10K (35:54) and ran 1:09:51 at the New Haven 20K, the second fastest American female time that year. She also competed in the marathon in Puerto Rico on the National Team.  

In 1997, she set a PR (56:24) at the Park Forest Ten Miler, which served as the USATF National Championships, where she placed fifth. She was chosen to represent the U.S. in Beijing at the Ekiden Long Distance Relays. She was temporarily set back again with a metatarsal stress fracture. 

However, she came back again in 1998, winning the Toyota IO Silver 5K in 16:38. Clarke won the Richmond Crestar Marathon in 2:48:51, and qualified for the 2000 Olympic Trials. This year, she ran 10:04.21 in the 3000m at the Colonial Relays, 53:10 at the Gate River Run 15K, and was the first local female finisher at Sallie Mae (35:08), narrowly beating Alisa Harvey (35:18). She is currently recuperating from yet another metatarsal stress fracture with water running and an elliptical trainer. The self-confidence she gained from her proficiency in competitive swimming, as well as her determination, have her scheduled to resume training soon to prepare for the Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials in February, 2000. In her third year running for Brooks she says, “The biggest challenge now is finding time for serious training with a professional career and a social life.”

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