Raleigh runners hit the pavement to pay tribute to Susan Karnatz, one of the victims of this month's mass shooting. | kinkate/Pixabay
Raleigh runners hit the pavement to pay tribute to Susan Karnatz, one of the victims of this month's mass shooting. | kinkate/Pixabay
Most everybody who knew who Susan Karnatz knew about her love of running, but few would have guessed that a violent death would interfere with her journey.
On Saturday, they mourned and celebrated Karnatz, one of the five victims of the mass shooting in Raleigh earlier this month.
"I've heard that even somebody in Ireland, you know, posted about running for Sue and people all over the country, so it's really resonated with a lot of people,” Jack Threadgill, president of North Carolina Roadrunners Club (NCRC), said in a WTVD report.
Karnatz lost her life on the Greenway, when police said a 15-year-old shot and killed her in a mass shooting in the Hedingham Community of Raleigh.
Friends said she was supposed to run 7 miles the day of her death and she only finished 5.1. The other 1.9 miles were being finished by friends, family and running buddies during a memory run Saturday.
"I ran especially hard this first 1.9 miles,” Threadgill said. “I know it's meant a lot to Tom and his family to see that."
Karnatz and her husband Tom met at a Roadrunners Club function — "Running brought them together,” Threadgill said — and they have been active ever since.
Threadgill said there are many broken hearts among the Raleigh running community, a tight-knit group.
”It's definitely a shock and especially where it happened, that's certainly a popular Greenway,” Threadgill explained. "I’ve run there many times and mostly, most runners in this area are very familiar with it—just kind of says that can happen anywhere, unfortunately."
Threadgill said Karnatz will be remembered as a talented runner. She completed the Boston marathon four times. She even passed the passion of running to her three sons.
People were able to leave tributes to Karnatz and memorable messages to her family during the North Carolina Roadrunners Club's 15th annual American Tobacco Trail Run Saturday.
NCRC came to life in 1979 out of a local sporting goods shop in Raleigh, NC, and continues to be the Triangle's connection for running.
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