Kerri Kinzell joined the Black Hills Runners Club in April of 2012. She holds a MSW degree in Social Work from the University of Wyoming and started employment at the Crisis Care Center in Rapid City in March 2012. The Center is affiliated with Behavior Management Systems. Her work schedule was 24 hours on and 48 hours off with every third week having five days off. The work schedule was starting to affect her health and running, so in December 2013 she switched jobs and is now working at the VA. She splits her time between Rapid City and Fort Meade.
Scheduling events initially was tricky with her work schedule, but hopefully now that will change. She did her first Trail Series in 2013. She had never run trail runs before moving to South Dakota.
Originally, Kerri was raised on a farm in Western North Dakota. She was introduced to running while living in Worland, Wyoming as an outlet and it just soared from there. She continues to maintain contact with those individuals who introduced her to running and who have inspired her to keep setting goals for herself.
Kerri’s husband Scott is a good support to her and encourages her to keep running as well.
Her advice to new runners is to get a mentor and to prevent injuries by doing strength training. Goals motive her and Kerri finds that she is more likely to stick with a plan if she has something to work towards. Kerri finds a mentor provides accountability and someone to run with on a regular basis. She stated; “if you know someone else is waiting for you to be there, it’s hard to not show up.”
Kerri’s job can be stressful at times, so she uses running as an outlet and release. She’s always had the desire to run, but never thought she could until she had the right training and supports. Although she can’t take time she wishes she had started long ago. Her only goal now is to look forward and to keep setting new goals for herself.