Still on the Run
This is part of a continuing series of articles spotlighting former Butler County area athletes and what they are doing now.
ASHBURN, Va. — Erin (Cranmer-Hart) Knutson fondly remembers her senior track and field season at Slippery Rock High School in 2004.
It was the first time she really felt free while running.
“I'm I very in-my-head person,” Knutson said. “I was just not in my head as much that spring. I don't know what it was. Something just really clicked and everything just came together. I was doing really well and having fun.”
She ran a time of 4 minutes, 59.95 seconds at the PIAA Track and Field Championships at the end of that season to finish third in the state.
Knutson moved on to Bucknell University, where she was a two-time Patriot League champion in the indoor mile and still holds top-10 times in the Bison record book for the indoor mile and the outdoor 1,500.
“I really loved indoor track,” Knutson said. “It was funny, because I didn't like it in high school. Maybe because in college it was the pure mile and the shorter track made it more intense.”
Knutson said because she ran cross country in the fall, indoor track in the winter and then outdoor track in the spring, she was at times worn out by the end of the school year.
That somewhat diminished her love for outdoor track.
That and the 5,000-meter run.
“The 5K can be tough,” she said, chuckling. “That's a lot of time for me to think.”
Knutson, 33, is also a member of the Slippery Rock High School Athletic Hall of Fame.
“It was incredible,” Knutson said when she found out she was going to be inducted two years ago. “It was a big honor and one I never was really expecting. It was such a surprise.”
These days Knutson still does a fair amount of running.
Only it's a different kind of running: chasing after her two young sons, Graham, 2, and Finn, 1.“I think (Graham) skipped crawling and went right to running,” Knutson said, laughing.She and her husband of five years, Brian, are both avid runners.In fact, their first date consistent of a jog.“Then we went for ice cream after,” Knutson said.Knutson's husband is in the U.S. Army and for a time she worked for the Army as a civilian.The family has moved around quite a bit because of their careers, going from Maryland to Kansas to North Carolina and now to Ashburn, Va.Still, they try to find time to run.After Knutson graduated from Bucknell, she ran in a number of half-marathons.The couple then ran in the Marine Corps Marathon once.She hopes when her two sons get older, they will also take to running.“Brian and I are very outdoors kind of people,” she said. “We love camping and doing outdoorsy kinds of things. I kind of hope (Graham and Finn) will take up running.”Knutson said she doesn't run as much as she once did, but said she can occasionally put the boys in their strollers and go for a jog.Running has long been a big part of her life.“It was just a natural thing,” Knutson said. “You eat, sleep and run.”She said she figures it always will be.“I always try to get out and run when I can,” Knutson said. “I think if you're a runner, it's always a part of you.”
