Michelle Watson, President

Michelle has always been active in sports. From the age of 5 her Mom encouraged her to do one sport per year along with her older sister. She has tried ballet, gymnastics, basketball, softball, ski racing and taekwondo. After High School, Michelle started running with her brother and sister for fun. They would go on long runs in the Summer heat down to the old Columbia River Gorge Highway and back home (10 miles).  She didn’t start doing any running events until 2003. Her friend asked her to do the Portland Marathon and she said, why not? I run often…I can do this! ….2 weeks before the event! 26.2 miles later she had completed her first marathon! In 2005 after a close friend passed away from Leukemia, she decided to fund-raise for Making Strides Happen for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and run the Nike Women’s Marathon raising $1,200 for LLS.

Michelle decided to take a break from Marathoning for a while, but would soon go back to it once again in 2009 when she joined Team In Training. While training for an endurance event, TNT raises funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to fight blood cancers.  She completed the 2009 Honolulu Marathon and got a Boston Qualifier! After being a TNT Mentor and Captain, she has since been a Run Coach for Team In Training LLS for 13 years now.  She loves that she can use her passion for running towards a good cause and make a difference.  Michelle and her husband have helped raise over $70,000 for the local Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Michelle joined Team Athena in November 2013 and joined the Board of Directors as President in 2015. The energy and support that she endured was really something special and reeled her in….she just can’t get enough of the Team Athena spirit and the friendships that have formed along the way! She looks forward to every Tuesday track night to be inspired, motivated and driven to give it her all running circles with her teammates.

Michelle has completed 21 marathons, a handful of half marathons, 19 Hood To Coast Relays/5ks/8/Ks/10ks/15ks and 4 trail 50Ks, 8K Snow Shoe Race on Mt Hood, her first Triathlon in Kona, Hawaii and Half Ironman in Cabo in 2022! :) Her ultimate goal is to run all of the major marathons (Boston/Chicago/Berlin/London/Tokyo/New York-4 down, 2 to go!). In 2015 she ran in memory of her Mom (Bea) at the Boston Marathon April 2015, whom passed in 2014. She says that day was unforgettable and healing....her Mom was with her every step, all the way to a PR... she is her forever angel.  Michelle looks forward to running the Berlin Marathon in 2025. 

Her Mom’s favorite quote and her mantra in life, “Good better best. Never let it rest. Until your good is better. And your better is BEST.” Life is precious …every day is a gift and should never be take it for granted. Laugh too much….love too much…be in the moment...because the littlest moments become forever precious memories.

Jessica Zdeb, Secretary Treasurer/Membership Coordinator

Jess got into running her freshman year of college. After a childhood of swimming, plus a brief stint of rowing, she was initially very sad to lose the team aspect of these sports. However, running bridge loops along the Charles River in Cambridge, MA soon won her over.

Lots of snowy solo runs later, Jess ran her first marathon in her junior year, then five more over the next two and a half years, including Boston in 2004 and 2006. A bit burnt out on the distance, she turned to shorter races and to just running for the fun of it. Part of the fun was getting to know her new hometowns in the next ten years: San Francisco, Oakland, and Washington, DC. As a city planner who works on active transportation, Jess loves to get to know cities this way when she travels, too.

In DC, Jess started going to November Project and loved this group workout (check out this free fitness movement yourself!), though she still had yet to join a running team. Enter moving to Portland in 2016: a new city, looking for a way to meet people, and to continue chasing PRs. Team Athena was welcoming from the first test workout before she even moved here. Now Jess looks forward to Tuesday nights at the track and the amazing group of women she shares it with. With their support, and Shawn’s coaching, she ran her first marathon in 11 years at CIM 2017 and her first 50k trail race this year. Jess looks forward to welcoming more women to this group and cheering them on as they run in circles on the track, on the roads, or on the trails.

Anna Shih, Communications Chair

Anna got into running in high school after realizing that she lacked hand eye coordination but was required to participate in a team sport. She spent most of her high school and college years denying that races could be longer than 6 kilometers (and ideally 1500m or less). Maybe this was a result of living in the snowy northeast and being terrible at running on treadmills, or maybe it was the result of how fun a 200m interval can feel. Either way, moving to the Pacific Northwest and running in Forest Park has really expanded Anna’s perspective on race distances and locations.

After running her first marathon in 2021 and wishing for more people to run with during that time, Anna joined Team Athena in spring of 2022. She is going strong on trying out different types of running events in the Pacific Northwest and has loved having a group of women to train with, be inspired by, and race alongside. She acknowledges that she wouldn’t run nearly as much in the winter without the rest of the team, and looks forward to helping the team support and develop other runners!