Tales and Topics from the Panhandle to the Keys – Lakeland Runner Takes Big Strides from Florida Senior Games to Boston Marathon
Lakeland Runner Takes Big Strides from Florida Senior Games to Boston Marathon – Volume 1, Edition 16
By Nick Gandy
Don’t you love it when you try something for the first time and the experience is a great one?
That’s how Lakeland’s Janet Lamoureux got hooked on competitive track and field and the Florida Senior Games.
After winning four medals in seven events at the 2015 Florida Senior Games, in the 50-54 age group, she returned for the 2016 Games to qualify for the 2017 National Senior Games.
“I won a lot of medals and thought this is the coolest thing ever,” said Lamoureux. “Then everyone started telling me you can do this all the time.”
Since her debut, Janet has competed in 72 events and won 55 medals. Those are just in the Florida Senior Games. That doesn’t count the local Florida Senior Games Series Qualifiers, including the Polk Senior Games and the National Senior Games.
She’s won so many, she even volunteered to recycle some of her medals and turned a handful back to the Florida Senior Games staff at the 2025 Games in Pasco County.
She’s been to the 2017 National Senior Games in Birmingham, Alabama, the 2019 Games in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the 2022 Games in Fort Lauderdale, the 2023 Games in Pittsburgh, PA and the 2025 Games in Des Moines, Iowa.
After years of running just about every event in the Florida Senior Games and a host of field events, she took up Power Walking.
Her latest challenge is running marathons. When Janet decides to do something, she does it big.
Her training bumped up a notch after the 2025 Florida Senior Games and on April, 20, she was among 30,000 or so runners at the start line for the Boston Marathon.
Her first comment about running the Boston Marathon were positive.
“It went extremely well,” she said. “It was a great crowd, almost 26 miles of people cheering. The time passed quickly. You didn’t have time to think about all the hills.”
Her 3:50.36 time of running through the streets of Boston was the equivalent of a Lord of the Rings trilogy movie, or a prime time network college football game.
To reach the famed Boston course, she ramped up her training shortly after the 2025 Florida Senior Games. To qualify for the Boston Marathon, she ran in the BQ.2 Marathon in Geneva, Illinois, outside of Chicago, in September, 2025. During that 26.1 mile event she was hit with familiar occurrence all marathon runners experience.
“I hit the wall and spent time in the medical tent,” she said. “It hits you at mile 20. That’s when your body wants to give out.”
Fellow marathon runner, Jose Sotolongo, the former director, Sports & Entertainment Tourism for the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau, who has run in 16 marathons, including five Boston Marathon’s knows the feeling.
“I expected it, especially in Boston where “Heartbreak Hill” is at mile 21-ish. I knew it was coming so I incorporated tough “hill training” to coincide with the end of each of my long runs.”
Training in the flat lands of Miami, that meant utilizing bridges. “If my schedules called for a 20-mile run, the last six would be on the bridge. 18-miler, same thing; 12 flat and six bridges.”
Janet’s sub-four hour time at the Boston Marathon now puts her in line to be at the starting line at what she called, “World Major Races.”
She can pick and choose from the Chicago, New York City, Berlin, London and Sydney, Australia Marathons.
“I want to run in the Berlin Marathon, in September,” she said.
Known for its flat, fast course and the finish near the Brandenburg Gate, the Berlin Marathon is a premier World Marathon Major with 55,000 runners. The international running community is a guest in the German capital with millions of spectators and 80 live bands celebrate the sport along the course.
Don’t think all of this national and international competition has gone to Lamoureux’s head. She still keeps her Senior Games competitions on top of her priority list, after all she is the 2024 Florida Senior Games Female Athlete of the Year.
“I already qualified for the 2027 National Senior Games in South Carolina,” she said.
At the 2026 Polk Senior Games, she competed in her normal variety of track and field events to qualify for the December Florida Senior Games. She also tried her hand at Bag Toss, Bocce, Darts, Horseshoes and Shuffleboard.
“I’ll be in the Florida Senior Games and I’m also going to the Ohio Senior Games for qualifying purposes,” she said. “You never know if you get sick, or injured, and not be able to qualify for all the events of the National Senior Games.”
That type of meticulous planning shows the discipline and determination it takes to avoid “the wall,” and cross the finish line after a 26-mile run.
Nick Gandy is a 40-year sports communications professional who has worked with the Florida Sports Foundation, the state of Florida’s lead sports promotion and development organization, since 1998.