“Against all odds.”

Ann Turbyne was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time. When she was a freshman at Winslow High School in the spring of 1972, her physical education teacher, Ernie Gilbert, realized she had the physical and mental attributes to achieve success in the shot put. Ann was also fortunate to have the parents she had, Alexander and Pauline Turbyne. In order to facilitate her throwing, Ernie wanted her to lift weights. At this point in time, women didn't do that sort of thing. But, because it was important to Ann, her parents supported her 100%. Ernie treated Ann no differently than he treated all her male counterparts in his gym. She went through the same workouts six days a week along with practicing the shot put everyday. Ann did not miss a training session during those four years in high school. At her first track meet in April of 1972, after only three weeks of training, Ann threw 35 feet 6 1-1/2 inches, breaking the Indoor State Record.

During her high school career, Ann was State Champion in the shot put for four years and State Champion in the discus for three years (she learned how to throw the discus her sophomore year). Her junior year, she attended the Junior Nationals in Gainesville, Florida. When she went to weigh in her shot put, the meet officials confiscated it and said she could have it back at the end of the meet. To her surprise, she found out a 4 kilo shot put (81bs. 13 oz.) was being used and not the 8 pounds. She still managed to place 3rd without having practiced the heavier weight shot put. Her senior year (1975), she broke the National High School Record in the 8 pound shot with a throw of 52 feet 6 Winches. She also practiced with the 4 kilo shot put to prepare her for the Junior Nationals. In June, after graduating in the top 10% of her class, Ann not only won the Junior Nationals, but also broke the National Record with a throw of 48 feet 4 ¾ inches. She also placed 6th in the discus and 6th in the Senior National competition. Since there were only 9 inches separating her from 2nd place and 2 feet from first, Ann decided to postpone attending the University of Maine at Orono where she had been accepted (early decision) the previous fall. Also during her senior year, Ann competed in a men's powerlifting meet in Nashua, New Hampshire. Ann broke the Women's World Deadlift record with a lift of 410 pounds, while earning fourth place in the meet. She was the only female lifter in the competition.

Ann continued her training, hoping to make the 1976 Olympic Team that would be going to Montreal. In February of 1976, Ann won the Indoor Senior Nationals at Madison Square Garden in New York City with a throw of 51 feet 2 inches. From this meet, she was chosen for the Senior National Team to go to Leningrad, Russia and compete. When she returned home, her training continued with her hopes set on making the Olympic Team in May. Unfortunately, in April, a month before the Olympic Trials, Ann fractured her right wrist while lifting in the gym.

Ann's family doctor told her it was time to retire, that wrist fractures don't heal well. Ann continued to do fitness types of training, waiting for her wrist to heal. In the spring of 1977, her wrist still had not healed. She went to Dr. Schneider at the Hand Rehabilitation Clinic in Philadelphia. He put her in a Fiberglas cast for four months and it healed. She was able to return to throwing during the indoor 1977-78 season. By the time the Senior Nationals came around in June of 1978, she was throwing over 51 feet again. She placed second in the Nationals and was selected to be on a National Team competing in San Francisco against a Soviet Team She also won the Women's Senior National Powerlifting Championships in her weight division.

Ann's training continued. That summer, she won the first National Sports Festival which was held in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She was also asked to stay on at the Olympic Training Center to be evaluated and tested in hopes of helping her training. They would go over the results with her coach, Ernie Gilbert, later that fall. When Ernie attended the meeting, it showed in the electronic testing of the 50 yard dash. Ann beat everyone, including the sprinters, for the first 10 yards. In all the tests done, Ann came out on top. Her success was attributed to the weight training program she had been on since she first started throwing.

In the spring of 1979, she did her student teaching at Winslow Junior High. That May she again won the 1979 Women's Power lifting Championships. In June, she placed second in the Senior National Track and Field Championships with a throw of 55 feet 9 1/2 inches. She was selected to compete on a National Team touring the Soviet Union and Europe that summer. She was also selected to compete in the Pan American Games in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The Pan American Games were one of her most disappointing meets. She placed 4th, missing the bronze medal by one and one half centimeters. Later that fall, she was chosen to compete in Mexico City at the World University Games.

As the year changed to 1980, Ann's training continued and it looked promising that she would be one of the shot putters representing the United States at the Olympics in Moscow. In January, for the third year in a row she won the Women's National Powerlifting Championships held in Los Angeles, California and televised on NBC. In this meet, she squatted 454 pounds, bench pressed 264 pounds, and deadlifted 468 pounds. Her bench, deadlift, and total were all World Records. Those lifts are still ranked in the top 5 all time best lifts in the country. She went on in May to win the Women's World Power lifting Championships. In June of 1980, Ann threw 56 feet 8 ];2 inches for second place in the Olympic Trials. This throw enabled her to fulfill her dream of making the United States Olympic Team. Unfortunately, due to political reasons, the United States boycotted the Games and Ann (and many others) were unable to compete. .

Ann decided to retire in 1980. She worked in Dallas, Texas for an orthopedic surgeon, as a strength trainer in his rehab clinic. In 1982, she returned to Winslow to teach elementary physical education in Albion and Clinton, and coach track at Lawrence High School. Here she met her husband, Chuck Andrews, who was the head track coach. Members of the Lawrence Track Team bought a gift certificate to the Manor and told Chuck to take Coach Turbyne out to eat. They were married in July of 1984, and the track team was invited! They now have two daughters, ages 12 and 9.

Since retiring, Ann has coached numerous high school teams and also coached a few people privately. She wants to give back to the sport what it has given to her.Tennyson was born in Youngstown, Ohio in 1953 and attended school in Philadelphia at the Philadelphia High School for Girls. She played varsity field hockey all four years. Her team was the Philadelphia City Champions three years. She also competed in swimming and diving four years as her team won two city championships, while she collected individual honors in diving. She also played lacrosse three years and softball her freshman year.

She went on to Penn State where she earned her bachelors in 1974. She received her masters in counselor education in 1977 and then her BSN in 1989 from USM. Finally, in 1981, she earned her MS in exercise physiology from the University of Pittsburgh.

At Penn State she was on the cycling team and took 2nd place in the road championship in 1976 and 2nd in track sprint in Pennsylvania. She was also 14th in the 1976 USCF National Championship (43 miles) in Louisville, KY. As a member of the Raleigh Racing Team, she was one of just two women among the men in the Century Road Club of America.

She first started running in the winter of 1976/77. "I read that the top male cyclists were running up to ten miles per day in the winter. I thought that women should train as hard as men if they wanted to be as good, although, at that time women were not expected to do as much and were discouraged from training "too hard". I stress fractured within four weeks of beginning to run as I was fit but not from a weight bearing sport. I worked with Charlie Maguire, NCAA 10,000 meter champ in 1973, in grad school and he, told me I'd never be any good so I tried harder to prove to him women could run OK."

'The major excitement of my running career was that when I started no one knew what women were capable of. There were no teams to run on in high school or college and any sport participation was with men and only one or two other women at most. The men were wonderfully supportive of women's efforts on the roads but society and most non-athletic women were always discouraging female runners. There was no Olympic distance to try for in running or cycling so everyone questioned whey I did it.

"New England was far ahead of the rest of the country (except CA) in opportunities for female competition with Liberty AC nurturing the Joan Benoits and Lynn Jennings early on.

"Knowing nothing, my first race was the February, 1977, Nittany Track Club Marathon where I qualified for my second race, the Boston Marathon. At that time there were roughly two women from each state in the U.S. running. There wasn't anyone who knew anything about women and marathons so we learned by trial and error (mostly errors)!

"What a thrill to participate in the Bonne Bell series and then the Avon series. Finally, we got to meet each other instead of winning our "division" of hardly any women in local races. In the 1982 NYC Marathon, I had my first experience of running in a women's "pack" of about 15 that formed in the first few miles and lasted at least halfway. We all knew each other"

Among her best running performances was a course record run at the Casco Bay Marathon in Portland in 1981, clocking 2:49:36. She was RRCA Southern Region Champion. She ran 2:47:36 at the Rocket City Marathon in 1981. But her greatest moment in running came in the fall of 1980 when she decided to run in the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington.

"November, 1980, was to be my last marathon because I had given up on ever breaking three hours after five tries. I had three lists of splits for OK, good, or a "great" performance written on my arm. At 10K I was so far ahead of my "great" split list that I decided just to stay behind a woman with a long braid who was running (and chatting) with two men. By 13.1 I had passed the "women’s pack" and had never even heard or considered the split I heard. I began to hyperventilate and had to calm down. At 23 miles I passed Sue Peterson of CA who was the pre race favorite. A huge Marine met me at the fmish line and pinned a heavy medal on my singlet and I was led to stand on the 3rd place awards podium. I had been following Laura DeWald who ran 2:35 at the 1981 Boston Marathon and competed on many USA teams." Tennyson beat Peterson by nearly three minutes in her third place finish of 2:46:28. .

Another of her top three career races was the 1981 Avon 20K in Washington when she ran with Lorraine Moller of New Zealand and beat Laura DeWald and Nancy Meiszzak, both 2:30 marathoners~ Her performance won her a trip to the Avon International Marathon, the first all women’s marathon. And finally, Tennyson's ran in the 1981 Bonne Bell 10K where she recorded her career best 35:48.

Her career PR's include: Mile, 5: 13; 1500 meters, 4:55; 5K, 17:09; 5 miles, 28:32; 10K, 35:48; 10 miles, 59:53; 13.1 miles, 1: 18:36; marathon, 2:46:28. She also ran 1: 16:37 for 20K and 8:32 for 50 miles.

In the Mt. Washington race in 1981, she placed 2nd among women. She qualified and ran in the first ever marathon championship for women, the Avon International Marathon in 1981. Tennyson was 5 ft. 5 1/2 in. and weighed 112 to 124 in her running prime.

"I love to run trails for hours in the mountains, but can't get there very often," said Tennyson. Looking back, she believes that opportunities to run earlier in high school might have changed things somewhat. "I probably would have been best at the mile if I had the opportunity in high school." Clear evidence of her potential on the track are her only performances on the track which were done without any track training whatsoever. In 1982, she took 3rd in the BAA Invitational mile in 5:13, and in 1983, she won the 1500 in 4:55 at the Derner's Track Classic at Bates.

Over the years she has belonged to the Nittany Valley Track Club, the Allegheny Nike Club, Moving Comfort Racing Team, and the Harpswell Harriers, which she founded. Among the special honors she has received was being p.amed to the top 100 female road racers (international) in 1983 by The Runner magazine. .

Tennyson and her husband Steve, who moved to Maine in 1981 when he took a job in Saco, gave something back to their sport when from 1992 through 1995 they managed Team Maine for Maine USATF. "Marj handled the women's team and Steve the men's," said John LeRoy, who nominated Tennyson to the Maine Running Hall of Fame. "I remember this as a great period for Maine's elite women. Three or four women qualified for the Olympic marathon trials and one met the qualifying times for the track. The Team Maine women won the national team title at Freihofers in the 5K at least two consecutive years. Marj was instrumental in obtaining sponsorship from Poland Springs which provided uniforms and travel for the women."

Besides that, Tennyson had given much of her time to young local runners. She took one group of 11 and 12 year olds to the nationals in Junior Olympics in 1998 and took second place.

Tennyson, who currently teaches high school, has spent her professional career in life and health sciences as an exercise physiologist, APRN and counselor/psychotherapist. In her free time she has served as Maine correspondent for New England Runner Magazine.