When Donna Gardner Rowland and her husband, Charlie, recently completed a 10-day ascent through the storied Annapurna mountain range in Nepal, it represented one of several physical elevation peaks in her adult life.
Yet there are those who would contend she reached even greater “heights” as a teenager and she didn’t even have to leave sea level to achieve those.
Those would be back in 1974 and 1975 when the Pennsbury High School cross-country runner won the first two Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association state girls championship races ever contended.
The 50th anniversary of these two amazing accomplishments is as good a time as any to catch up with the running great, who, after helping to put girls cross-country on the map, went on to compete for Penn State.
It came as no surprise to learn the Rowlands were vacationing in Hawaii when the initial telephone conversation was initiated. These two adventurers travel the world in search of new experiences. Charlie, also an accomplished runner for Pennsbury back in the day, continues to pedal thousands of miles annually as a world-class cyclist.
Looking back on those days in the ‘70s, Donna acknowledges she was entering a brave, new world, although it didn’t seem like a very big deal at the time.
She was quick enough to train with some of the boys on the team. There really wasn’t a girls team to speak of, so she made do with what she had.
By the time that first state championship meet at a Penn State golf course rolled around in 1974, all the girls from across the Keystone State were in the same boat.
“I don’t believe there were a lot of runners, probably less than a hundred,” Rowland recalled. “A lot of schools didn’t have any runners yet. Council Rock was the only school in the area that I believe had a full team and there were a couple runners from Neshaminy.”
The first title race was only a mile and a half. These were back in the days when female runners were advised not to “over exert.” Keep in mind, the first women’s Olympic marathon didn’t take place until 1984 when USA’s Joan Benoit won at Los Angeles.
Rowland got a jump on the field right out of the gate. It was almost like a track meet on an oval.
“I had a big lead,” she said. “A mile and a half was so quick. We went down a hill, along a flat part, then a long uphill, with a little bit of an incline up to the finish. Mary Rawe of Camp Hill came in second. She was closing on me on the straightaway but I had built a big enough lead … I could always run the hills.”
Training with the guys team was really beneficial for Donna. There was Charlie Rowland, Leigh Jones, Jim van Blunk, Russ Hagerman and Frank Munro among others. It was a golden age of running in Bucks County.
“A big training week was before districts,” Donna said. “I remember running from the high school to Yardley Golf Course and then back. I worked myself into pretty good shape because in the summer I had probably never run more than 2 miles at a time.”
Rowland ran 8:26 for the 1.5-mile course at Penn State, and considering the rolling terrain of the golf course, a pretty darn good time.
The following year the state meet was divided into big and small schools. Rowland won the big schools and Rawe the small schools. The two would later become teammates at Penn State.
After college, Donna and Charlie went on to raise a family, which includes three children and now seven grandchildren.
She chuckles when the subject of 50 years come up and there’s mention of being in the right place at the right time.
“If there hadn’t been that chance, I just would have played field hockey,” she said. “But the opportunity became available.”
And running has done so much for her. It brought her together with her future husband and helped create the foundation for their family.
“It (an active lifestyle) has been a big part of our life together,” she said. “We’re active people (they’ve even conquered Africa’s 20,000-foot Mt. Kilimanjaro). It motivates us to keep moving, keep a healthy lifestyle.”
When she won that first title, did she consider herself a pioneer of sorts?
“I was just the right person at the right time,” she said, “and someone recognized some talent in me.”
Race calendar
Sunday
BCRR Winter Series Terrible Tyler 15K (9.3 miles), 9 a.m., Tyler State Park, Newtown-Richboro. Contact www.bcrrclub.com.
