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By Alex English

Paula Pridgen, a skin cancer survivor, hopes to be an inspiration to others and has something to prove in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Marathon.

In 2013, after joining the Charlotte Running Club, Pridgen sprained her ankle the week before she tried to qualify for the 2016 Olympic Trials. She elected to run and finished with a time of 2:56:00.

“I was limping really badly and once I got off my foot, I was literally on crutches,” Pridgen said.

Pridgen attempted to make her comeback after the stress fracture but continued to have shin pain for years. Her doctor suggested that maybe she should just stick to half marathons in the future.

In 2015, almost one year from her first diagnosis of melanoma, a seemingly normal-looking mole was removed at the recommendation of her oncologist. Pridgen was surprised when it was diagnosed as melanoma in situ.

“It was caught so early on that some doctors don’t even classify it as [melanoma],” Pridgen said. “However, I lost a little confidence in my dermatologist, which was a bit of a mental struggle for me thinking there could still be another one they didn’t catch.”

That didn’t stop Pridgen from pursuing her passion, however. In 2017, she ran her first full marathon, since her initial injury, in Chicago. She finished in 2:48:20, which represented a big step on the road back.

“It just helped kind of get my confidence back and finally put down a marathon because it had been four years. It wasn’t [a] qualifying time but it proved I could still hang,” Pridgen said.

This passion came to Pridgen relatively recently, as she did not run competitively until 2012 when she joined the Charlotte Run Club. In 2014, it was through this club that Pridgen would meet her fiancé, Franklin Heath.

Pridgen typically trains at night because in the day she works as a Consumer Finance Supervisor at Southern Loans. Once she’s off the clock, she usually spends time with her fiancé raising their golden retriever named Sunshine.

“You just have to decide what’s a priority,” Pridgen said. “Work is obviously one and after work you have to run. You just have to plan to work around that. Your family and your friends know.”

Heath is very understanding of Pridgen’s busy schedule and the dedication that comes with it.

“You don’t get a masters in accounting or start a running career after the age of 26 without working hard and focusing on your goals,” Heath said. 

Pridgen wouldn’t change any of her misfortunes, for she is now able to inform and inspire others as both a runner as well as an advocate for skin checks.

“It’s so, so, so important to get those skin checks because if you get it caught early the survival rate is really high,” Pridgen said. “People think it’s so rare and I think that everyone needs to be aware because it’s deadly if you don’t catch it.”

Pridgen has a rejuvenated spirit and passion for the upcoming trials.

“Your body will fail you at times, but I think it made me want to spend more time doing what I love doing and make me appreciate when I’m healthy even more,” she said.

Leading up to the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Marathon, Atlanta Track Club partnered with the Grady Sports Media program at the University of Georgia to profile some of the competitors in the 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials. The authors of these stories are undergraduate students enrolled in the program and have been lightly edited by the Club. See all of the stories at https://www.atlanta2020trials.com/news/uga-trials-project.