Detroit races aim to help women with heart health

'Women Run the D' race held this weekend

DETROIT – There are races this weekend in Detroit that mean more to some woman than just completing the miles.

Januari Street is on a mission to not repeat what happened to her father. Her father, Richard Street of the Temptations, died last year.

"My dad passed from three pulmonary embolisms to the heart. So he had three heart attacks in the same breath," Street said.

Street is only 32 years old, but she has had four strokes in the past year and a half.

"When you know it's in your bloodline you have to do what you can," she said.

What is she doing? She's training to run a race -- specifically, this weekend's Women Run the D race.

"Finishing means the most to me," Street said.

She's been training indoors and outdoors for months.

"Now, I say, 'I'm really going to beat the odds. OK, you are overweight, get running.' Even though I have never done a 5K, I am going to try," she said.

Jen Schwartz has had a pacemaker since she was 26 years old. Now 41, she is also training for the race.

"I had a racing heartbeat. I had been on medication for a number of years. My beats-per-minute would be over 200 when I was just sitting here doing nothing," she said.

Schwartz ran her first 5K last year, then a 10K and now she's going for the half marathon. It's her hope that her accomplishments will show others with a heart condition that it's not impossible to run and stay in shape.

Mary Culbertson is the race director for Women Run the D.

"Women's heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women and, you know, I think it gets overshadowed so often and we don't think about it," she said.

For Street, it was her father who got her to the starting line. She knows he will be cheering her on from above.

For more information on Women Run the D and the races, click here.


About the Author:

Karen Drew is the anchor of Local 4 News First at 4, weekdays at 4 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. She is also an award-winning investigative reporter.