By CHRISTINE BOATWRIGHT / Staff Writer

CHELSEA – Motivated by her sons and a healthier future, Laura Nuyt decided to start running in May 2011. After finishing two 5Ks, an 8K, a Warrior Dash and now a Mercedes Marathon relay, Nuyt has no plans to slow down.

Nuyt, a Chelsea resident, is a Verizon sales trainer who travels throughout the South as part of her job.

“I have a guy I work with who started running and lost quite a bit of weight,” Nuyt said. “He motivated me because I was with him a lot for training in Alabama and Georgia. Instead of going back to the hotel and being lazy, I started running with him.”

Nuyt said she started slow, but now runs several days a week.

The mother of 10- and 12-year-old boys, Nuyt said she wanted to be able to keep up with her active sons.

“(They) are really active in every sport – football, baseball and basketball. I figured if I want to keep up with them, I need to get in shape. It was another motivation to get healthy again,” she said.

“I turned 40 in January, and didn’t want to be that mom who was 40 and wasn’t in shape,” she added.

Nuyt stays motivated using Motoactv, a fitness tracker from Motorola.

“You can put music in, and it will keep up with how far you run, which songs you run better to based on your timing,” she said.

For the Mercedes Marathon relay Feb. 17, Nuyt joined four coworkers to run the 26.1 miles. Nuyt ran 2.95 miles before passing off the relay to one of her teammates.

“We do run the whole marathon, but it’s done in legs. We finished in 2 hours and 33 minutes, so we did really well. It was my first taste of the marathon, so I set a goal that day to do the half marathon next year,” she said.

Nuyt said her family continues to motivate her, as well as a healthier lifestyle.

“My motivation is that I don’t want to go back and weigh 35 pounds heavier ever again,” Nuyt said. “I continue to eat well and run several times a week. I want to keep in shape and feel good about myself.”