Southwest Atlanta Elite Runner, Wife and Mother of Three on Winning Streak

It is 6:30 a.m. and Euleen Josiah-Tanner is about to finish mile one with four other runners who trek through Cascade Heights before work once or twice a week.

For everyone else, the 8:50-mile pace is a bit too fast—or, at best, a goal pace. For Josiah-Tanner, however, it’s just a slow warm-up and time to catch up with friends.

“O.K., I need to knock out some (mile) repeats,” the elite 37-year-old runner and greater Cascade area resident says before taking off to begin eight 5:50-pace miles up and down Cascade.

"Don’t forget," Tanner says with her trademark timid smile. "Train hard, win easy.”

If your morning commute takes you down Cascade Road, you’ve probably seen Euleen.

She’s the tiny, lightening-fast runner—sometimes in a weighted vest—with a mass of thick locks who zips down the southwest Atlanta roadway while other community joggers work their way up and down the hills to fight aging and a few extra pounds.

You may slow down just to watch her; you might find yourself honking your horn as a show of support. No matter how your respond, it’s hard not to cheer and embrace the drive and discipline of Euleen Josiah-Tanner, one of the Atlanta metro area's fastest athletes.

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Born in Guyana—the nation on the northern coast of South America that received worldwide attention in 1978 after the Jim Jones-lead Jonestown murder/suicides—Tanner came to the United States in 1996 to study and attempt to gain a spot on the U.S. Olympic team. She didn't make the team but she did settle down in the city as a student and banquet server at the Georgia World Congress Center.

At the GWCC, Tanner rose the ranks to the position of assistant manager. She also met the man who would become her husband, Raymel Tanner, now a steward supervisor at the St. Regis hotel in Buckhead.

The two live together in a modest brick home in the Westlake area of greater Cascade. Unlike some families concerned with acquiring material things, the Tanners are a frugal family with a focus on raising happy, well-rounded children. The couple get by with one car and Josiah-Tanner stays at home with her children—ages 11, 7 and 2—and is active in her children's PTAs.

Tanner says her husband and extended family strongly support her athletic goals and her attention to her children's education and development.

"A vital part of my success is the support from my family," Tanner said recently after a six-mile run one rainy morning with members of her club, The South Fulton Running Partners, sponsors of the popular 7K Sickle Road Race every April. "My mother Yvette Josiah and sister, Elizabeth, especially remind me to keep doing what I love doing and to never give up."

Doing what she is doing is not an easy task.

On average, Tanner runs about 115 miles a week. She also does 200 push-ups, 200 sit-ups and 200 pull-ups a day. Every four or five weeks, Tanner competes in a 5k, 10k, half-marathon or other distance. She wins first place female—and, at times, first place overall—at almost every race she runs.

After a run last week with her friends Charima Young and Monique Jones—themselves two fast distance runners by most people's standards—Josiah-Tanner reflected on her 2012 training and running goals. Inspired by the success of female runners in their late 30s and 40s such as American Deena Kastor, 38, and Russian Yekaterina Podkopayeva, who ran competitively into her mid-40s, Tanner says she has not given up on Olympic gold.

"My plans are to continue to train at the highest level and get into a high-level training camp this year," Tanner said. "My plan is to gain a spot on the Olympics team and bring back a gold medal to Atlanta."

Josiah-Tanner's 2011 wins include:

First Place Overall, 2011 Atlanta Hunger Walk 5k

First Place Overall, Sickle Cell 7k

First Place Female, Smyrna Jonquil City Jog 5k

First Place Woman, Roswell Possum Trot 10k

First Place Overall, Atlanta HBCU 5k

First Place Woman, St. Kitts & Nevis Caricom 10k

First Place Overall, Decatur 5k for Hope

First Place Woman, Guyana Courts 10k

First Place Woman, Peachtree City Classic 15k

Note: Cascade Patch Editor Janita Poe is a member of The South Fulton Running Partners.