The doctors at the Santa Cruz Dental Group know Antoinette "Toni" Casselberry has her own way of doing things. She's definitely not your average dental hygienist and she's also not your average woman over 50.
"The doctors know that I have this thing in me and they're OK with it because the patients love hearing my stories," Casselberry said smiling. "The first things patients ask is, Are you still running?' and How are your knees?'"
As soon as she takes off her lab coat, Casselberry, a New Orleans native who has lived in Bonny Doon since 1969, turns into a super runner with dreams and goals out of this world. A few years ago, she set a goal to do a marathon in all seven continents. So far, she's completed marathons in Antarctica, Ireland, Iceland, Australia and the U.S. She completed her latest one in May in Madagascar.
"So many people think when you turn 40 and when you turn 50, you're getting old and you just can't do things anymore," said Casselberry, who wouldn't give her exact age. "It's like the more older I get, the more things I do."
Casselberry's to-do list has definitely grown over the years, and now she's doing things nobody else has done. A good example is running a marathon in Madagascar, an island that doesn't have one.
"It's fondly called the eighth continent because it's so unusual," Casselberry said. "I thought when I would do my marathon in Africa, I would do Madagascar, but they just didn't seem to offer one. For
whatever reason, they don't offer one."
No marathon? No problem. Casselberry visited the island country east of Mozambique with ornithologist Akos Hivekovic. Hivekovic planned to visit Madagascar to conduct research and spread awareness of environmental issues and child trafficking. When he invited Casselberry along, she said she would agree under one condition: that he design a marathon for her.
"It just goes to show you, you can do anything that you put your mind to doing," said Casselberry, who has been running with the Santa Cruz Track Club since 2002. "I went to run a marathon there and they didn't have one. But we made one happen."
For 22 days, Casselberry, Hivekovic and a team of 13 ornithologists, environmentalists and photo journalists conducted research in Madagascar, but May 25 was dedicated to Casselberry's marathon. Hivekovic set up kilometer markers that spread 26.2 miles across the island.
Casselberry hired a man from a village to ride a bicycle alongside her to help carry her food and water during her marathon. The man also helped as a translator, as several people wondered what they were doing.
"The people would ask him, What are you doing running with this white woman?'" Casselberry said. "I would say, Je suis feu femme!' which means I'm a crazy woman in French. And he would say he's my bodyguard going through the villages."
Casselberry ran through three villages and became very fond of the people waving and smiling as she ran. She knew they had never seen someone run a marathon.
"A couple of people from the villages would start running with me," said Casselberry. "They would run a half mile or so just to watch me. It's just heartwarming to make a connection with people you've never seen in your life and you never will. I feel like I was an American Goodwill Ambassador."
At six and a half hours and 26.2 miles, 75 percent of which she estimated was uphill, Casselberry won her first marathon. Well, technically.
"I won a marathon. I finally won a marathon!" Casselberry said in an e-mail to Peter Huemer, webmaster of the Santa Cruz Track Club. "But he knew, basically, I was the only one running the marathon."
Post-race, Casselberry returned to spreading awareness and conducting research about the state of Madagascar's environment and children.
"Everything she does, she does, not just for herself, but she does it to benefit a cause," said Marilyn Olsen, operations manager at 24 Hour Fitness, who helps Casselberry with her training. "Her love for children is what drove her to Madagascar."
Just two months after completing her marathon in Madagascar, Casselberry is already thinking about where she'll run next. She says she believes the next continent she will take on will be Asia sometime next year. Until then, she is going to run a marathon in Pennsylvania in October in the hope of qualifying for the Boston Marathon in the spring.
"She's going to defeat age one continent at a time," Olsen said. "She's not going to be held back by the calendar. She's a dreamer, but she doesn't just leave it up in the sky. She turns it into reality."
