In high school, P.E. wasn’t Carly Wehberg’s favorite class if running was involved.
“Man, did I fake the heck out of being sick to get out of gym class on the mile run day,” said the North Augusta resident who finished the New York City Marathon on Nov. 1. It was her sixth marathon in four years. She’s also run 13 half-marathons and dozens of 5K and 10K races.
“If you had told high school Carly that I just completed my sixth marathon, she would have laughed in your face,” she said.
Weight control was the main reason she started running at the age of 24 in 2017. Her doctor bluntly said she was overweight.
“I wasn’t a fan of that term,” she said.
So, she laced up some running shoes and found her path. After moving to the Augusta area from Maryland, she got a job at Orangetheory Fitness and eventually discovered the Fleet Feet running group, where her interest in running events was piqued.
“I learned you can pay to do this free sport and get medals and t-shirts,” she said and laughed. “Members would sign up for local races, and we’d all run it together. I kept doing it.”
Running challenged her, and marathons and half marathons were a natural progression.
“I’m doing something that felt like it was always impossible for me to do. It just became something that sounded like I wanted to do it. I want to show my kids if something seems impossible to do, if you put the work in, you can do it,” she said.
Her kids, Presley, 5, and Parker, 2, have been part of her training. Sometimes, she’s taken to the North Augusta Greeneway with a double stroller or a single stroller if she ran after she dropped Presley off at school. Presley also runs with her at times.
Her first marathon was the Chicago Marathon in 2022, and a new goal surfaced – to run in the major marathons of Chicago, New York City, Boston, Berlin, London and Tokyo. She competed in the Berlin Marathon last year.
She’s also completed a couple of Disney marathons, and as a Disney adult, running through the Disney parks makes her heart sing. She’s finished the runDisney Dopey challenge at Walt Disney World, which includes four consecutive days of runs – a 5K, 10K, half marathon and full marathon – for a total of 48.6 miles.
But New York was different from any race she’d ever experienced. \
There’s only word – unreal,” she said.
More than 61,000 people finished the marathon, and crowd estimates were around 2 million.
“I have never experienced absolutely control chaos and the support and cheers. I probably cried six times from absolute joy,” she said. “Course wise, it was the hardest marathon I’ve ever run, but I think I smiled more than in any race…I enjoyed the marathon more than a Disney marathon and that is saying a lot for me.”
And the spectators provided an indescribable boost. They gave runners candy and tissues for runny noses on the crisp November day. They brought their dogs out for runners to pet. There were marching bands and other live musical performances. Some of her Fleet Feet friends also made the trip to cheer her on.
“It was just insane,” she said.
While the other three major events are still on bucket list, Wehberg said some will get trickier to accomplish. Some events require time qualifications, and she has to improve on that. Some have a lottery system to gain entry. Trips to London and Tokyo will be expensive, and she said she “doesn’t have London and Tokyo money right now.”
In the meantime, she plans to run the Palmetto Peach at the end of the month, and in January 2027, she will take part in Goofy’s Race and a Half Challenge at Disney which is the half marathon and the full marathon the following day.
She’ll also run the 5K there. It will be Presley’s first 5K, and Wehberg is excited for that.
Comparing her high school self to now, Wehberg has to laugh because now what she avoided she does for fun, well most of the time, that is.
Some days she has to make herself run, but she does anyway.
“I don’t even know what I get out of it. Somedays, it‘s hard, and I don’t want to do it, but I do it anyway. It feels good and awful at the same time,” she said.
Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for more than 35 years. She’s won multiple Georgia Press Association awards, is the recipient of the 2018 Greater Augusta Arts Council’s media award and was named best local writer by readers of Augusta Magazine in 2024 and 2025. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here
