Southwest Virginia runner travels world while pursuing passion

ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) – A typical work day for Keya Price is spent in the halls of Louis Gale hospital, working in the ICU, providing nutrition support to patients.

“I went to Virginia Tech. I took one intro to nutrition class, and fell in love with it, and knew that’s what I needed to do,” she says.

Also, during her time in Blacksburg, Price fell in love with a new hobby that’s become an important part of her life.

“I wasn’t very interested in running in high school, I was a volleyball player, I was a cheerleader, I did tennis, I was a dancer, and then I got to tech, and didn’t have any of that anymore. So it was like, Okay, now what? And I started running. I signed up for my first 5k my freshman year, and have kept going.”

Since then, running has taken her places too, including across the world to participate in an exclusive event for a select 58,000 runners.

“Not a lot of people know, unless you’re in the running community, but there’s this thing called the Abbott World Major Marathons, and there’s six of them, so it’s a huge goal for a lot of people to get all six. It’s a lottery system for international runners to get in. So I have been applying to the lottery to get into these races for several years, and Berlin was the first one that I got.”

So at the end of last month, Keya and her husband boarded an international flight to Germany to compete in her first overseas Abbott world majors marathon, where she ran a personal best.

“The racecourse is very flat, unlike where I train here in Roanoke, so it made for a pretty fast day also at the time, I’ve been used to training in 95-degree heat here and crazy humidity, and we get there and it’s 45 to 50 degrees, which was amazing. So, it made for a great race experience. I got to see the whole city by foot, and I actually PRed my marathon time because the conditions were perfect, so I took 20 minutes off my fastest marathon, which was awesome.”

Price will continue her quest to compete in all six marathons, as she has already completed the three options in the United States. She’s grateful for the many miles running has helped her cover.

“I’ve had a goal my entire life to travel and see the world. And the fact that I can take something I’m very passionate about, take my family with me, and kind of all of us get to experience all of this and put it together, is we’ve come full circle. It’s great. I felt like I grew up and was always told, chase your dreams. It matters and you really can do it.”

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