Holualoa’s Laura Ankrum is as amazing as they come.
By day, she is a veteran family practice physician at West Hawaii Community Health Center. On weekends, she’s a dedicated Sunday school teacher. But for the remaining hours — which often include early mornings, late afternoons and the wee hours of the night — her job is far from over.
Ankrum takes on her number one role as “Household CEO” as she manages and juggles the active schedules of her three athletic boys and a triathlete husband, who is employed as an emergency room doctor at North Hawaii Community Hospital.
In addition, Ankrum herself is a competitive runner often found in the winner’s circle at most local running events.
To describe her as “amazing” may actually be a bit of an understatement.
She is the epitome of what every mother aspires to be — a strong, caring and resilient woman radiating unconditional love and patience that ultimately inspires and nurtures her children to be their best.
To her 13-year-old son Aiden, she is everything.
“She is the ultimate best,” he said of his mom who spent Mother’s Day morning as his run relay partner. “She’s always there to support me no matter what I do — swimming, running, school. It’s just amazing how great she is to our family and how thankful we are for her. We have such a great bond.”
I caught up to the supermom after Sunday’s Peaman Spring, Sprang, Sprung Biathlon that featured a ¾-mile swim and 3.1-mile run.
Ankrum, who was born and raised in Flint, Michigan and moved to Kona with her family in 2013, shared how her passion for running began at an early age, the positive impact the sport has on her life, what she hopes to pass on to her sons, and what she is most proud of in being their mom.
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Q: How does it feel to be a mom of three very active boys, Alec (15), Aiden (13) and Archer (10)?
We are definitely in a busy year in sports and it’s been so enjoyable. I did a lot of sports when I was younger and I was primarily a runner. And I don’t think I would still be running if it weren’t for my boys. They are so inspiring. They have so much fun in what they do and seeing their smiles on their faces when they get out of the water, or when they finish a race, or when they improve their time — it’s so rewarding as a mom and athlete to see your sons be competitors and be able to experience what I experienced.
Q: Where does your passion for running come from?
I started running at age 10 and ran all through high school and college. I love it everyday. I had a 5th grade teacher who was a runner and we didn’t have a physical education class because our school was poor and had made a lot of cuts. But she wanted us to still get exercise so she had a group of four of us from that class really engaged in running and we were all best friends. We ran all through high school and we eventually won a state championship together.
For me that was so enjoyable as a child and so if my children could experience any of that feeling of working together as a team and building those kinds of friendships, that would be so rewarding.
Q: You also qualified to run in the 2000 Olympic Marathon Trials. Coming from being an elite athlete of that caliber to later, a mom of three boys, how did that transition go for you?
I love it. It’s been a great transition for me. I think it’s because I’ve always loved the sport from the first time I ran.
You go through ups and downs as a runner. I went through a point where I tore my hamstring in two places and I could barely walk. That was in 2013. I’ve never had any running injuries but I have to admit, I’m a bit accident-prone. I fell while I was running on a trial and ripped up my hamstring. So I wasn’t really sure if I’d be able to ever really run again. So for me to come back from that now, it’s fantastic, and on top of that to enjoy it with my sons, it’s just priceless.
Q: What values would you like to pass on to your sons?
It takes a lot of hard work and dedication and I think you can apply it to anything in life and that’s an important skill for them to have. There are a lot of distractions in today’s world and for me, athletics have always kept me centered. And so I feel that it does that for a lot of children as well as my boys.
Q: How does it make you feel to see your three boys excel at their individual sport?
(Alec, a standout runner in cross-country, track and field and local road races; Aiden, an elite swimmer among Big Island youth; and young Aiden, who shines at both swimming and running.)
I’m proud. It’s more than I’ve ever dreamed of. I saw a lot of athletes in my career doing sports for a lot of different reasons and they didn’t enjoy it. It always made me feel sad to see someone who didn’t enjoy running because that’s always been my sport. So I’ve never wanted to push my children. I’m so glad that my boys enjoy the sports they do and that makes me so happy.