Jan Sharon still vividly remembers what it felt like to be among a select group of race walkers in the 1987 Long Beach Marathon.

Maintaining a brisk pace, she completed the event in 5 hours and 20 minutes.

For the working mother of three, crossing the finish line was a triumph.

"Just to finish the race was good for me," the Coeur d'Alene woman said.

To prepare, Sharon logged 15-mile training walks every other day along California's coastal highways when she wasn't earning a living cleaning houses.

She arrived at the starting line in excellent condition for what would be her only marathon.

"I always wanted to do everything once," Sharon said.

Race walking was only one of her many pursuits.

During those years, she was also into bodybuilding and cycling, and even tried hang gliding.

"I was like an Energizer Bunny," she said.

Today, at 81, Sharon lives in a cozy one-bedroom apartment in a senior living complex. She remains cheerful and outgoing, greeting neighbors with a wave and stopping to chat whenever she can.

The toughness and determination that carried her through a marathon are still evident.

She now relies on a walker to get around. One knee has already been replaced, and another knee replacement surgery is on the horizon. Injuries she suffered decades ago while clearing houses in California continue to affect her. In one accident, an armoire fell on her, eventually leading to multiple spinal surgeries.

"They had to basically put me back together again," she said. "I couldn't even move for two to three months."

Through it all, Sharon has never lost her sense of humor.

Back in her bodybuilding days, when she had the chance to meet Arnold Schwarzenegger, she weighed a solid 118 pounds.

"I won't tell you what I weigh now," she said with a laugh.

She still smiles when recalling one memorable encounter with Schwarzenegger at a gym.

"He came up and flicked me on the side," Sharon said. "I told him, 'I don't care who you are. You don't touch me until I give you permission.'"

According to Sharon, the future Terminator star responded: "Oh, you're a feisty little chick."

"I'll always remember that," she said.

Sharon, who grew up in Michigan, began bodybuilding around 1980. She was among the first women to embrace the sport in the early 1980s and did so without steroids.

"They offered steroids all the time," she said. "I didn't want to look like a man. I wanted to be kind of chiseled, but not overly muscular."

She achieved exactly that.

"I intimidated the hell out of my ex-husband," she said, chuckling.

Over time, the sculpted physique faded as family responsibilities and work claimed more of her attention.

But her adventurous spirit never disappeared. The mindset that carried her through 26.2 miles nearly four decades ago remains unchanged.

"I still have that inner me, the competitive part," she said.

Today, Sharon plans to join a gym and work herself back into fighting shape. She knows there will be days of doubt, so she draws inspiration from her grandson, Nicholas Sawyers, who died Dec. 14, 2025, at age 29 after a battle with cancer.

The two were close.

"He was competitive. He liked to do new things," Sharon said. "I have that same spirit."