Special to The Democrat

If you want to catch Jennie Moroney these days, you’d better wear running shoes.

Moroney, a native of Natchez, recently completed her second consecutive New York City Marathon.

She finished the 26-mile trek through the city in an impressive 3 hours and 40 minutes, which qualifies her for the highly competitive Boston Marathon in April of 2000.

Moroney managed a pace of 8:24 per mile while making her way through all five boroughs of the city: Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx and Manhattan.

Although there were over 30,000 runners participating, her time placed her among the upper sixth of those who finished the race.

This year, nearly 3 million spectators lined the streets to applaud the runners and Moroney found her family cheering section in Brooklyn.

On hand to cheer her on were her uncle, Jim Moroney, and her sister, Cris Moroney Hughes (both natives of Natchez); her Aunt Judy Moroney of Brooklyn, Jay Hughes of Oxford, and her cousin Will Spencer of Holyoke, Mass.

This latest success in the Big Apple, however, only scratches the surface of Jennie’s impressive record.

She has run in both the Houston and San Diego Marathons with her other sister, Patrice Moroney Garcia.

Together, the sisters participated in the Lukemia Society’s &uot;Team in Training&uot;, where they ran in San Diego to raise money for Lukemia patients.

Garcia says her sister, Jennie &uot;could have easily qualified for the Boston Marathon long ago. But every time we ran together she would wait on me to catch up. I’m not at all surprised at Jennie’s success – just very proud.&uot;

While Moroney Jennie looks forward to running in the Boston Marathon in April, there is at least one hometown person who &uot;knew her when.&uot;

Moroney, who graduated from Cathedral High School, ran track under Cathedral athletic director Roy Garcia in the early 1980’s.

Regrading her humble beginnings Garcia states:

&uot;Jennie was the star of the team,&uot; Garcia said. &uot;She ran like a deer. I loved being her coach. It was so exciting to see the talent in such a young athelete. She has grown up with an attitude of ‘the tougher it gets, the tougher she gets’. To see Jennie come this far is heartwarming&uot;.

Moroney will train for the Boston Marathon over the next five months in Houston, Texas, where she currently lives.

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