LYNN — Truth be told, she wasn’t always a runner. Diane Casselberry, a math teacher and cross country coach at Lynn Tech, admits to joining her high school marching band to get out of gym class.
“I come from a long line of couch potatoes,” said Casselberry, who lives in Amesbury.
Fast forward to today. Casselberry has completed marathons (26.2 miles) on every continent, joining the “Seven Continents Club” this month after beginning 10 years ago.
Casselberry, 57, didn’t start running until she was 34 years old. She still remembers hearing about the globetrotting adventure for the first time.
“I’m kind of interested in that,” she said. “So, I looked it up and saw that there’s a club.”
After a few conversations with her daughter, Kristen (age 26), who has been running half-marathons on every continent alongside her mother, Casselberry decided to go for it.
“Now, you have to keep in mind that I’m a single parent. I’m a teacher in New Hampshire (at the time),” she said. “I have no money and make no money. I’m not one of these people who can just jet all around the world. I have a very tight budget.”
The next thing you knew, she was running.
“We kind of shoved them all in. We did Antarctica, South America, and Asia within seven months,” Casselberry said. “The reason is, because my daughter is getting her doctorate at Johns Hopkins. Once she starts that, it’s going to be very difficult for our schedules to line up and take a big trip.”
When asked which of the marathons was her favorite, Casselberry said there was something special about each one.
“Antarctica was amazing because we had to run in the middle of the night… When I went back and did Europe, running through the streets of Rome and Paris was unbelievable,” she said. “South America was beautiful. At the beginning of the race, three dolphins jumped up at the same time… And I loved Africa because we did a safari afterwards.”
But, of course, it wasn’t easy. Cambodia was 95 degrees with 96-degree humidity, forcing Casselberry to power-walk the last 20 miles.
Then, there was some Antarctic trouble.
“It wasn’t super cold. It was 28 degrees,” she said. “But I had just broken my ankle three weeks earlier. It was extremely rocky and extremely hilly, so I had to run with an ankle brace on.”
Casselberry – who has completed the New York, Chicago, and Boston (3x) Marathons, too – takes her training “very seriously,” and stays away from sweets.
“I don’t eat a lot of junk food. I don’t eat anything fried and I don’t eat anything creamy or dairy,” she said. “I just don’t like it.”
She has also written a book titled, “(Mis)Adventures of a Single Mom Triathlete.”
“It’s about some of the funny stories that happened to me when I was training, and how I coordinated my training with being a single parent,” Casselberry said.
Next on her list: coaching Lynn Tech’s cross country team. This will be her first year as an assistant alongside head coach John Hogan.
“I’m very excited for cross country,” Casselberry said. “It’s my sixth year at Lynn Tech. I absolutely love it.”
“She will bring her love of running and the great world of running to our team,” Hogan said.
And if you think joining the “Seven Continents Club” was Casselberry’s farewell to her craft, think again.
“The next thing that we’re doing is a half-marathon in all 50 states,” she said.
