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SEE MORE Click here to watch the pilot episode of "Run For Your Lives," a reality show starring Francesca Conte and Russell Gill. |
Success, says Francesca Conte, is having a job where running isn’t restricted only to the lunch hour. It’s no wonder then that, while the 37-year-old has logged more than 2,000 miles running in ultramarathons around the country, she counts among her biggest accomplishments the decision to open Charlottesville Running Company with her partner, Russell Gill.
“I love the marriage of my [love of running] with the store,” she says. “Because I truly love what I do, I don’t mind working hard at it.”
After earning her Ph.D. in Biology from UVA, when many graduates would pursue a teaching track, Conte says, instead, she went after her running career. “And,” she says, “it has worked out very well!”
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Francesca Conte, with her partner Russell Gill, runs Bad to the Bone Edurance Sports. |
Indeed, her list of achievements stretches long: She’s finished first in more than 10 ultramarathons since 2001, many of them 100-milers in less-than-ideal conditions like blistering hot deserts. Notably, in 2008, she won the USA Track and Field 50-mile championship and in 2009, she placed second among the female runners at the Coyote Two Moon 100-miler—so named because the athletes, through the course of the marathon, run from sun up to sun down, seeing two moons.
What’s the driving force behind all this success? Conte says the answer is simple: passion. “Running gives me freedom through space,” she says. “There is no other place I would rather be than running on a trail in the mountains, where everything feels perfect and just the way it should be.”
