Family, friends and supporters in general may not have been able to single her out for cheering last Saturday, as she'd chosen to swap her familiar, fluorescent practice wear for more anonymous, all-black attire.
But aware she was nonetheless in the 2016 First National Bank of Durango 'Thirsty 13' Half-Marathon, those in the know knew quite well Erin Dunavant's underlying objective for competing last Saturday truly stood out.
"There was a little method to the madness, you could say," she laughed Monday, back on the job as the Town of Bayfield's director of finance, having survived the event starting at Hesperus Church and ending 13.09 east-southeast miles away at Ska Brewing Company in Durango's Bodo Park. "I do a little running in the summers.but I had never wrapped my brain around doing anything of this distance."
But the mind-over-matter aspect came second; another mind mattered more in that of the BHS alumna, also a recognizable prep- and college-level volleyball and basketball official around the Four Corners region.
"I decided to do this back in early spring, but the story starts a little before that," she confirmed.
"My friend Jared (Pettit) - who was actually the marathoner, the guy who liked to run, wanted to run - was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He went through a lot of treatment, a lot of fighting - they were actually able to discover the tumor because...he passed out while on a run down in Corpus Christi (Texas).
"So he was looking forward to being able to get back to running, we talked about that a lot.
"He passed away in April," she continued, "and over the course of him being sick I learned a lot about him, about myself, and a lot about just stepping out of your 'box' and doing things that you didn't think you could. So I ran a 5K back in early spring - one of the best times I'd ever run, and hadn't really trained at all - and decided, 'Surely I can run a half-marathon with a little help!'"
"So I went out and got a little help with some guys here in the area, who have some experience with distance-running and that kind of thing, and got a training schedule."
Dunavant trained on the tracks at Bayfield High School and at Joe Stephenson Park, running the more trail-like dirt roads of Saul's Creek and Forest Lakes - "those are good places for hills" - as well as paved ways such as County Roads 501 and 516, while cross-training with bicycle rides and swimming at the SunUte Community Center in Ignacio.
She proceeded to build a base of about 350 miles' worth of running (by her calculations) and about 250 in biking to prepare.
"If you look at 13 miles initially you're thinking, 'People must be crazy! One mile's far enough! Three miles is, what I do when I go to race; anything other than that is just torture!'" she recalled. "At the beginning for me it was, 'Can I do 13 miles?' And then it became 'Can I do 13 miles...in 10-minute miles? Nine-minute miles? How fast can I do it?'"
Even faster than she'd thought was the answer.
Dunavant placed 94th overall out of 450 finishers, 44th amongst women and a strong 18th in her 30-39 age group (which had 115 finishers) with a time of one hour, 56 minutes, 17.49 seconds. Pacing not only the 30-39s, Selina Sekulich of Farmington led all women and took fifth overall with a 1:24:35.55 effort.
"I was nervous, obviously, having never done it before, and Coach's advice was not to run 10 miles in training so I'd never actually run the full 13 until that day!" Dunavant said.
"But you were never far from people...doing the same thing that you're doing on a beautiful course - the weather was perfect, in the low 50s when we started and ended in the low 70s when we finished - so there's lots to look at.
"There were mile markers, little notes with funny sayings and stuff on them throughout, people sitting at the end of their driveways waving...that kind of cool stuff, all along the route."
"Mile 12 to Mile 13 was a little bit of a struggle, probably the biggest I had.
"But I...could see the brewery within range so I knew I was almost there! So it went well; I was shooting for under two hours, so I was really pleased," said Dunavant.
"That was a little faster than nine-minute miles, which was kind of where I had my brain."
But she never forgot the motivation deep in said brain: A friend who knew nobody should squander theirs.
"One of the things really important to Jared was that every person who wanted to have an education have the ability to do that," she said. "There was a rumor in his family about setting up a scholarship fund; I decided that if I ran and raised...for a scholarship fund, I could help. Two birds with one stone!"
Setting up a GoFundMe.com account online, www.gofundme.com/edunavant, Dunavant picked a random goal of $5,000 to generate and is thrilled by the results to date.
"Right now I have about $1,500 that I've raised," she stated. "I set up a 'GoFundMe' where people could do it that way - I sent out a lot of messages via Facebook and e-mail - and I've had some other donations outside that. So I'm going to go to First National, open an account there and leave it open to where people can go ahead and donate straight to that account until the fund's ready to receive the money. Then we'll transfer everything!"
"I set $5,000 just arbitrarily, kind of not knowing what to expect. So I'm just going to leave it at that for right now, I think. Whatever funds that go into that can be used maybe not next year, but the next year, you know?
"They'll sit there, gain interest, and can be used in the future."
Crossing the finish line brought Dunavant an unexpected encounter, and an unexpected 'face' for her cause.
"A really sweet lady...had donated some money to me - I didn't know her; she had just heard me talking about what I was doing - ran the race as well, and when she finished I went and visited with her a little and told her how excited I was for her to finish. She got really teary-eyed and said, 'You know, I have a friend who's struggling with cancer right now, and your story really touched my heart.'
"And I was like, 'O.K., no crying! Everybody, no crying!'" she recalled, trying with a laugh to again restrain any waterworks.
"It's really nice to know that there are other people out there and it touches them, they feel a piece of that - whether they knew Jared or not! Which is ultimately, for me, the idea! To be able to bring something about that he really believed in and wanted to happen."
"Running is pretty popular in this area," Dunavant added, indicating a sparked interest in exploring not only her capabilities on two feet but perhaps also two wheels, "so I think there's definitely some possibilities...to give back, you know, to any group or situation!"
DID YOU KNOW: Back in mid-March, Dunavant was part of a high-school hoops first in New Mexico.
Picked from the New Mexico Officials Association's Farmington section, she joined Yolanda Osuna of Albuquerque and Candace Aragon of Las Cruces in officiating the NMAA Class 5A Girls' Basketball State Championship between Gallup and Roswell - the first time in the state an all-female crew had worked such a game.
Additionally, fellow Coloradan Joye McHenry, known well in Dolores/Cortez/Mancos circles, was chosen from the NMOA's Farmington area to be the if-needed alternate for the finale.
