Name: Tana (Lesarlley) Kaskalla – Shiwi Runner
Sport: Running
Hometown: Albuquerque, NM
Age Group: 40-44
Number of years competing: 20+
B.E.S.T. Coach Dorota Gruca
Racing Career Highlights:
- 2009 Boston Marathon: 3:24
- 2011 & 2012 Duke City Marathon Women’s Champion: (3:06/3:10)
- 2014 CIM: 2:55 – 65th female/Top 100
- 2015 Chicago: 2:57 – 90th female/Top100
- 2017 Boston: 2:57 – 70th female/Top 100 female
- 2018 Jim Thorpe Native American Championship 5k/ National Female Champion – 19:13
- 2018 RnR Las Vegas: 1st Elite Masters (1:22)
Tana (Lesarlley) Kaskalla, is a 40-year-old distance runner, mother of 2, full time employee and a part time student at Central New Mexico CC. She was born and raised in Zuni, NM and currently resides in Albuquerque, NM where she works as an Accounting Technician with the U.S. Department of Interior. Her passion for running started at St. Anthony Indian School, while running for her late Coach and relative Cathy Naktewa. The drive and discipline that comes along with the sport is what’s kept her achieving her goals. Her running career started while attending Gallup High School and continued when she eventually made it onto the 1st women’s cross-country team at Trinidad State Junior College in Trinidad, Colorado. From that point on, she has been an avid runner and became competitive with the sport in 2008 thus completing 10 marathons to present. Aside from running and going to school, Tana enjoys reading, spending time with her family and hiking with her dogs, Taz & Woofer.
Tana says that turning 40 has had its challenges; however working with her Coach (Dorota Gruca) for the past 2 years has opened a whole new world of racing for her. Coach Dorota has seen her at her weakest and strongest, and continues to push her when she wants and needs that push and knows just how to reign her back in when she’s had enough. Working with her Coach has helped her train harder and smarter and has also given her the feeling of being more confident in herself. Tana trusted that with her Coach’s help, she would become a more fit runner and learn more important lessons about running. Tana also feels, that as a mother, it is important to set a good example for her kids that at any age, you can set goals and achieve them with pride and effort.
Tana is destined to continue her tradition of running to represent her Zuni Tribe and to hold the truthful words of her late father, Everett Lesarlley and late grandpa, Emmett Bobelu: “Run with a strong heart, win with a strong mind.”
PR’s before 40: PR’s after 40
5k (19:04) 18:44
10k (39:05) 38:22
Half Marathon (1:23) 1:22
Marathon (2:55)