Mary Lou Carlson, inspiring late-in-life runner and Lake Harriet fixture, dies at 95

After years of walking around Lake Harriet, Mary Lou Carlson picked up running in her 50s and set a goal for herself — run around the entire lake, near her Minneapolis home.

She started jogging a few blocks. Soon, the mother of two had conquered the 3-mile run and decided to complete a marathon. Then another, and another.

Over a two-decade running career, Carlson ticked off more than 300 races and 35 marathons, including the first 20 Twin Cities Marathons — and along the way inspired others to embrace an active lifestyle, no matter what their age.

"She was full speed whatever she did," said her son David Carmein, of Mound.

Carlson, 95, died April 4 of cancer. A memorial was held for her last week and included a run/walk around Lake Harriet in her honor before she was buried at Lakewood Cemetery.

Mary Louise Enger grew up in Minneapolis and attended Washburn High School and the University of Minnesota, where she met her future husband, Howie, a World War II veteran who went on to work in real estate.

Carlson worked as a medical technologist before staying home to raise their two kids. She made their clothes, joined other mothers in a choir and volunteered as an election judge. Later, she worked at the Melpomene Institute for Women's Health Research in St. Paul.

When her husband started running in 1980, Carlson — then 53 — donned pedal pushers and tennis shoes to try jogging, too.

"Our whole lives have changed since we started running," she told the Star Tribune in 1985. "When I saw the transformation in him after he started running, I had to try it myself."

She trained hard, doing speed workouts and running two laps at Lake Harriet at 5:45 a.m. most days. Soon she was a fixture at local races, often winning her age group.

"Turns out, she had a knack for it," Carmein said. "She loved winning."

In 1984, the 57-year-old Carlson qualified for the Boston Marathon after running the Twin Cities Marathon in 3:37 — one of her top three lifetime highlights, after getting married and having kids, she said.

"I did it for health, but it turns out it's more for the psyche," she said in 1997. "You get more self-confidence when you run a race."

Carlson loved racing so much that she convinced her son and daughter-in-law to reschedule their wedding in 1987 so it didn't conflict with Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, where she would go on to win her age group at 60.

Racing wasn't just about the competition, though. She was enthralled by the whole experience — the cheering crowds, the different foods at the finish line, the socializing. She'd catch up with friends as they trained, and she joined the Northern Lights Running Club and Minnehaha Marathoners. The chatty runner was once scolded for spending 26.2 miles talking.

Friends and family members said Carlson also was relentlessly joyful — often laughing and flashing a wide smile, whether at the end of a grueling marathon or biking alongside her daughter as she yelled "Wheeee!" and flew down hills like a kid.

"It kind of embodied who she was ... she was in the moment," said her daughter, Nancy Carlson, of Minneapolis.

The Carlsons, then in their 60s and 70s, biked across Europe for a month, and she also biked with the Hot Flashes, a women's cycling group organized by former state Rep. Phyllis Kahn.

At the age of 74, in 2001, Carlson ran the Twin Cities Marathon for one last time, becoming one of 89 runners who had done every Twin Cities Marathon since the race's beginning in 1982.

Besides her son and daughter, Carlson is survived by two grandchildren.

"As she was running, younger women would come up to her and tell her she's an inspiration," Nancy Carlson said. "She was a really good example of how to live your life, be happy and do what matters to you."