Gina Lucrezi | Photograph by Adam Williams
Editor’s Note: This is from the monthly column for the We Are Chaffee Podcast, written by Adam Williams. The column is published in two newspapers local to Chaffee County, Colo.: the Chaffee County Times (Buena Vista) and The Mountain Mail (Salida).
You might think you have a good sense for who Gina Lucrezi is by now. She has been especially visible in the community for the past year as she campaigned for and won election to the Chaffee County Board of Commissioners this past November. She was sworn into that role last month. You might even know some of the highlights of her life story.
Lucrezi founded Trail Sisters, the leading women’s trail running organization in the U.S., if not world. That passion extends from her standout running career – track and trail – as a National Champion and 10-time All-American at DeSales University, then as a professional trail runner and as a gold medal-winning member of the 2012 Team USA World Long Distance trail-running team in Interlaken, Switzerland.
She talked with me between the election and her swearing in for the We Are Chaffee podcast about those experiences and other shaping influences in her life.
We talked about her years of volunteer service and leadership for Chaffee County Search & Rescue North. We also talked about her being featured in “The Candidate,” a documentary that followed her recent campaign for public office, and how she learned to harness the power in her experience of ADHD. Among other things, as I like to say. There’s always more in a person’s story.
In fact, one of the things I love about hosting a community podcast and going deeply into meaningful conversations with guests is that, while we can’t go through a person’s entire biography, we can cover a lot more ground in an hour of talking than we can in some hundreds of words I write here.
That makes this column the appetizer. The entreé is listening to the podcast guest tell her story while you go for a walk, drive, cook, fold laundry or do something else. Podcasts are what we call a secondary activity.
And for those who are unacquainted with this longform medium, if your drive or walk are shorter than the length of the episode, push pause on it and return to listening when you’re ready. Be it in five minutes or five days, if you’re using a podcast player like Spotify or Apple. But I digress …
When I sat with Lucrezi, I wanted to know what lights the inner fire of a national champion athlete, an entrepreneur, a community leader and volunteer? And what is her why for public service, where the weight of responsibility is so consequential and the thanks probably too few?
What is it like to, essentially, interview for a job with 20,000 potential bosses, the residents of Chaffee County, throughout nearly a year of campaigning?
Lucrezi on the podcast:
“It was the longest job interview of my life. But I love meeting with people. I love learning more about what’s important to them, what do they see, what do they want to see in the future? And so for me, it was a lot of fun to get out there and meet with folks. I don’t know why anybody would run for something like this if they weren’t wholeheartedly involved in it and ready to just have that why and be excited.
“For me, it was sustainable future for generations to come, and I’m really passionate about the outdoors and preservation and protections for our lands, our water, our wildlife.
“And then, obviously, housing is a big thing here. And trying to find more affordable options and how do we collaborate across the entire valley in making that happen?
“The economy was another part of my platform and making sure that we have more year-round opportunities. We’re hot and heavy in the summer with tourism, which is great and that will always be a part of, I think, the economics of what makes Chaffee County run. But we really need to diversify that and have more. We can’t just rely on that all the time.
“I think those three things together … A lot of people come here because they love the outdoors, and to live here it’s really expensive. So how do we make the housing work? And when it comes to the economic side and owning a business, you need people to work in these businesses. But if they can’t afford a home, how does that work? And then how do you keep your business running?
“So everything’s intertwined. At the end of the day, for a sustainable future, in my opinion, we need to really work on our balance.”
Now on to the entreé. Get to know more about Gina Lucrezi on the We Are Chaffee Podcast. Listen at wearechaffeepod.com and on all podcast players (e.g. Spotify, Apple Podcasts). The show also airs at 2 p.m. on Tuesdays on KHEN 106.9 FM community radio.
Adam Williams is host, producer and photographer of the We Are Chaffee Podcast. Listen and subscribe to the monthly email newsletter at wearechaffeepod.com. Follow @wearechaffeepod on Instagram.
