Sarasota Music Half Marathon to honor Sharon Butler

Paige Butler, 22, hopes to follow in the footsteps of her late mother, Sharon Butler.

On Feb. 7, when she crosses the finish line for the second Sarasota Music Half Marathon, she’ll be doing just that by carrying on her mother’s athletic legacy.

“My mom, she honestly was crazy,” Paige Butler said. “She just loved working out. She got me going when I was 13, and I did my first triathlon.”

On Sept. 6, 2015, Sharon Butler, 54, was riding her bicycle in Brentwood, Calif., where the family moved in 2014 after 16 years in Sarasota, when she was struck by a 28-year-old drunken driver. She died instantly.

“When I first heard, there was shock and disbelief,” Paige Butler said. “One of the first things that went through my mind is that my mom would have felt so bad for this guy because he was 28 years old… I could hear her say, ‘I would feel so awful for that guy because his life is ruined for making that mistake.’”

"If my mom was defined by anything it would be her always saying 'I can do better,'" Hillary Butler said. 

Sharon left behind her husband, Jim, and her four children, Hillary, Matthew, Paige and Bailey. By running in the Sarasota Music Half Marathon, Paige Butler will raise money for Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).

“There are so many people she touched in Sarasota, and now they can honor her this way,” said Paige Butler. “A lot of people are coming out to run it, and it’s exciting.”

Family friend Barb Lancer contacted Sarasota Music Half Marathon co-owner Tony Driscoll and asked it would be possible to honor Sharon at the event.

“I approached the family first and said we would like to do something in this community that would honor her memory,” Lancer said. 

Driscoll agreed, and they set up a promotion to help raise money for MADD (see sidebar).

 

From the time the Butlers  moved to Sarasota in 1998, Sharon was active in tennis and then triathlons. She completed three Ironman triathlons and was known in the community as a fierce competitor.

“She was always ahead of me a little bit,” said family friend Eve Goldberg. “She had four kids, and I had three. It was reflective of our relationship.”

Goldberg and Sharon competed together for the first time in 2002, in the annual Sharks Siesta Key Triathlon. Goldberg and Sharon  had decided to take up training at ages 40 and 41, respectively, to prove they weren’t “over the hill” and made a tradition of running it together.

In October 2015, less than a month after Sharon’s death, Goldberg ran the Sharks Siesta Key Triathlon alone for the first time and also won — another first for Goldberg, who says that probably wouldn’t have happened if her friend were competing.

“I’ve never won, because I was usually racing with Sharon,” Goldberg said.

Hillary Butler is proud to see her sister take on the challenge of the Sarasota Music Half Marathon, which her sister will follow with a half-Ironman triathlon in April. 

“I think that my mom would be really moved by it and I think she would be really proud of my sister for even attempting it,” she said. 

 Goldberg won’t be able to compete in the Sarasota Music Half Marathon, but she plans to train for her first full Ironman triathlon. She’ll complete it with Paige Butler, who originally planned on participating in a full Ironman with her mother following her graduation from college in 2017.

“My one regret was not doing the full Ironman with her, and now, I’m going to do it with her daughter,” Goldberg said.