Saturday, October 31, 2009

Diana Finkel: CIT coordinator to ultra-marathoner

Marc Hanna (1987-95) writes:

I was recently reminded of Diana Finkel when I came across her name in Sports Illustrated. Diana was my co-leader for the CIT's in 1994. She had endless energy and was one of those rare people who enjoyed absolutely everything she did. She couldn't sit still and couldn't stop smiling. During the camping portion she declared her role was to be the pack mule. It certainly wasn't navigator as she ateempted to start more than a few of hikes off in the opposite direction. She was also always up for a challenge, and I took advantage of that many times by saying, "I bet you can't........."

It seems her determination and deep gas tank are serving her well now since I recently saw her mentioned in Sports Illustrated's "Faces in the Crowd" section here.

She has become quite the ultra marathoner and recently broke the female course record in the Hardrock 100 by a whopping 2.5 hours. Two quotes of hers from an article on the race jumped out at me. On whether or not running 100 miles is fun - "Like I always say, it doesn't have to be fun to be fun." On how she was able to improve on her previous winning time by 4 hours and best the course record by 2.5 hours - "I didn't get lost as much. Last year, I got lost a lot. This year, I only got lost a little."

Below are two photos of Diana during her Frost Valley days.



The photo just above shows Diana with then-CIT Yoland Philpotts. Yoland was a FV'er from 1988 through 2003. Yoland writes: "After that CIT year with Diana and Marc, I went on to climb the counselor ranks and was VC of Pac in '99, CIT coordinator in '00 and again in '02. These days I'm in medical school at Einstein in the Bronx."