From Teal Burrell and Miles to the Trials: "Nina"
By Teal Connor Burrell
Last week, our team suffered another devastating loss: on June 3rd, our teammate Nina was killed in a house fire.
Nina was one of those people that seem to defy the laws of time and the limits of energy. She worked her butt off at absolutely everything she did, and she accomplished a lot in her short 25 years. Last month, she graduated from Georgetown with a Masters in Arab Studies and she was gearing up to head to the Middle East on a Fulbright scholarship. She walked onto the Dartmouth track and cross-country teams in college and joined GRC after graduation. Although she struggled with injuries during her time on GRC, she was an absolute fighter. At practice she would latch onto the pack and not let go. It was sometimes obvious how hard the pace was, but she fought with everything she had to stick to it. Dreaming big doesn’t get you anywhere without a work ethic to match, and Nina had the biggest.
It’s not fair that Nina won’t have a chance to go after her goals—both in running and in her career. Her Fulbright involved studying women’s running in Jordan, hoping to promote the sport as a way to empower women. As part of her Masters studies, she spent a year in the Middle East, originally settling in Egypt in the summer of 2013. When unrest broke out, she was forced to evacuate to Jordan but wrote us that she didn’t want to leave; she felt safe and wanted to stay to continue her studies. I think that attitude sums up Nina – her work ethic, her bravery, her optimism. She always saw the absolute best in people, and she worked incredibly hard to help people however she could.
While in Jordan, she ran—and won—her first half marathon. In her email after the race, she wrote about how she was excited that she ran well, but noted, “The best part of the day was sharing it with the people I love most here in Jordan.”
Isn’t that the best part of all running? Races are celebrations of hard work, and they’re best shared with the friends that have logged those miles with you, that have shared your dreams and aspirations, that have stuck—huffing and puffing—on your tail through every lung-busting interval. Running has given me some of my best friends—people who make the victories seem sweeter and the defeats sting less.
Which makes it devastating to lose one of those friends. Please keep Nina’s family, friends, and teammates all over the world in your thoughts and prayers.
We’ll miss you, Nina. May we remember you always by trying to live more like you did: bravely, positively, with a heart full of kindness, always willing to help however possible.
Dream as big as Nina did,
Teal
Video: Nina's Post-race Interview from the 2014 Dead Sea Ultra Marathon
عدائة محترفة وخلوقة احبت الاردن كثيرا وفرضت احترام الناس لها الله يرحمك يا ( NINA BREKELMANS )
Posted by Lutfi Mohammad Saleh on Saturday, June 6, 2015
GRC Remembers Nina
Our teammate Nina
By Charlie Ban
Posted on the Georgetown Running Club Blog on June 5, 2015
After making her mark in Kentucky, Mexico, New Hampshire, Egypt, Jordan and Washington, D.C., Nina Brekelmans was about to head back to the Middle East, ready to take on the world when a fire in her Dupont Circle rowhouse June 3 claimed her and a neighbor. She was 25.
She had finished her Master’s in Arab Studies at Georgetown less than three weeks earlier and her parents, who are living in China, were on hand for commencement.
She was due to return to Jordan, to work on a Fulbright grant studying women’s athletics as a means of encouraging confidence and self esteem. Her high school friend and GRC teammate Mary Grace Pellegrini said that on the verge of her new life, Nina was primed to change the world with her energy, talent, intellect and raw determination.
“She was at a happy stage of her life,” Mary Grace said. “She had a sincere and deep love for the people of the Middle East. It’s where she felt at home.”
While in Jordan during part of a one-year language and cultural immersion fellowship (she started in Egypt until civil unrest prompted Americans to leave), she won her first attempt at a half marathon at the Dead Sea, taking home some prize money, meeting members of the royal family and generally being treated “like a star,” Mary Grace said.
“She was an absolute dynamo,” she added. “And she was so proud to wear her GRC shirt on the podium.”
About the half marathon, she said, "for once in my life, I am quite pleased with the result, as well!"
That gave some insight into the standards that she set for herself. Despite taking up the sport in earnest only a few years before, and having won the Cross Country on the Farm 5k in 2012 in Derwood, Md., she was only starting to be satisfied with her performances when she won on a competitive stage.
Nina came to competitive running later in life than most of her teammates. While an undergrad at Dartmouth, she rowed on the crew team, but a run at home in Louisville during a semester break with Mary Grace opened a new door for her.
“I told her ‘Nina, you’re running really fast, you’re in great shape,’” Mary Grace said. “I told her she could probably walk on to the team at Dartmouth. She played soccer (and tennis) in high school but would have been one of our best cross country runners.”
So Nina showed up to the Dartmouth home invitational, cheered on by professors, friends and crew teammates who knew they’d lose her from the team if she ran too fast. She did, and became a harrier for the Big Green.
“Her career at Dartmouth was limited by injury, but she ran some very solid times in college,” said GRC Coach Jerry Alexander. The highlight of her collegiate career came in Boston, where she ran a 9:56 3000m. “She was essentially a very talented beginner when she joined GRC in the fall of 2012. She was really committed to continue her development with GRC, and was training extremely well.”
Injuries plagued her throughout her running career, but they only affected her body. She remained determined throughout and committed to her teammates both new and old. She beemed with pride when she had a chance to watch college teammate Alexi Pappas race in Alexandria last fall at the .US National 12k, and even though she loved her experiences in Egypt (before relocating to Jordan during her language fellowship), she regretted missing out on celebrating teammates’ successes.
“It's been really fun to follow your racing results and see massive PR after PR. Wish I were there to enjoy these moments with you!” she wrote to her teammates.
Mary Grace remembered her as a devoted and genuine friend.
“Nina would remember things about people that they’d just mention in passing,” she said. “She knew I had a great race at the Penn Relays, and she found a poster for the meet while visiting her brother at Penn and gave it to me."
That handoff meant carrying the vintage poster with her across the eastern United States over a few weeks.
"That’s the kind of thing she’d do for her friends. She was a wonderful friend and so sincere."
And despite those injuries, she was determined to do something with her running. As she left for Cairo she told her teammates she wasn’t going to let inconveniences keep her from the sport she had grown to love.
“I do plan on training in Cairo,” she wrote at the time. “Through the heat, pollution and traffic, and probably getting shouted at.”
That was typical Nina.
“She was always challenging herself,” Mary Grace said. “To excel at academics, to go after the most competitive scholarships in the country, to learn another language. With Arabic, she was really on another level, truly exceptional.”
That future was going to take her away from D.C., but not before she made an impression on her teammates.
“Nina was very, very proud to be part of GRC,” Jerry said. “She was willing to do whatever it was going to take to hang with the girls, and she was a great teammate in every sense of the word.”
I'd hear her wheezing as she'd push to keep up with her far more seasoned teammates and initially thought it was an indication of some weakness, but I realized quickly that it was indicative of her strength and focus to do what it took to be a better runner, to push herself harder.
We’re left to only imagine where she would have topped out and the impact she would have had in the Middle East and beyond.
“She was ready to go out into the world and make a difference,” Mary Grace said.
Duluth News Tribune Feature
Georgetown Running Club members come to Grandma's Marathon mourning death of teammate
By Louie St. George
Published by the Duluth News Tribune on July 13, 2015
Runners long have tailored their training to avoid “heavy legs” on race day.
If only there were a running plan designed to prevent heavy hearts.
Members of the Washington, D.C.-based Georgetown Running Club will arrive in Duluth this week for Grandma’s Marathon toting the latter.
For the second time in less than three years, the GRC is dealing with the sudden passing of a beloved teammate. Nina Brekelmans died June 3 in a fire at her Washington, D.C., rowhouse that also claimed a neighbor. She was 25 and full of ambition.
Brekelmans recently earned her master’s degree in Arab Studies at Georgetown University. After previously spending a year in the Middle East as part of a language and cultural immersion program, she was preparing to return to Jordan later this year on a prestigious Fulbright grant. There, her mission would be empowering women through athletics.
“She was very devoted to the idea of lifting women up, in Jordan in particular, through the ability to be an athlete,” GRC coach Jerry Alexander said last week.
A memorial for Brekelmans was held Wednesday at Georgetown, during which her humility once again was underscored. Brekelmans, originally from Louisville, Ky., never flaunted her many accolades. When she announced she was heading back to Jordan, for example, Brekelmans didn’t mention the Fulbright. And her professors at Georgetown were under the impression that running was a mere hobby, unaware she belonged to a professional team.
“These people from different aspects of her life didn’t know how accomplished she was in other areas,” Alexander said. “She did these incredible things and didn’t tell people. She was so humble about it.”
Alexander is bringing a handful of athletes to the Northland for Grandma’s and the accompanying Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon. Almost all are hell-bent on producing a time that would qualify them for February’s U.S. Olympic Trials in Los Angeles.
Brekelmans’ death hasn’t changed that singular focus. The consummate teammate, she gleaned more satisfaction from her cohorts’ accomplishments than her own. She was immensely proud to be associated with the GRC.
“I feel that the best way to honor Nina is to put it all out there and run a really good race in Duluth,” Kristin Johnson, 25, said. “I think that’s something she would be proud of.”
Johnson, from New Hampshire, is running the full marathon Saturday.
For Johnson’s teammate, Luke Meyer, the past 10 days have reinforced the reality that life is unpredictable, fleeting.
“I don’t want to sound trite, but it definitely has kind of helped me try to make the most of the opportunity that I have and try to give my utmost, knowing that things can change very quickly and that I shouldn’t take anything for granted,” the 31-year-old lawyer from Connecticut said.
Like he did last year, Meyer is running the half-marathon Saturday. He called the course “amazing” and was hoping for a respite from the humidity-laced heat that has gripped D.C. of late. Temperatures were in the 90s Friday.
That, along with a life lost far too soon, has altered the nature of the team’s training. GRC members say in one sense it’s been difficult to run because their minds are elsewhere. On the other hand, however, they say the memory of Brekelmans has buoyed their resolve to “go for it.”
In December 2012, another GRC athlete, Lauren Woodall Roady was struck and killed by a fire truck in Lexington, Ky., site of that year’s USA Track and Field Club Cross Country National Championships.
“It’s two losses for the women’s team, so it’s very shaking,” 28-year-old Kieran O’Connor said. “Everyone’s focus at this point is just kind of grieving Nina and celebrating her spirit.”
O’Connor hopes to run a sub-2:18 over 26.2 miles Saturday, which would qualify him for the Olympic Trials. He’s from upstate New York, just outside of Albany.
Brekelmans provided plenty to celebrate, including a blue-collar devotion to running that allowed her to overcome a lack of God-given speed. While in the Middle East, she won her half-marathon debut near the Dead Sea in Jordan and was thrilled to “wear her GRC shirt on the podium,” according to the team’s blog.
Running didn’t come easy for Brekelmans.
“She had to work harder than any of the other girls just to kind of be able to keep up at the back of the pack, but it meant the world to her to be part of the team,” Alexander said. “She didn’t have the natural gifts that some of the other girls do, but she made the most of what she had.
“And everyone really respected the heck out of her because of that passion that she put into it.”
Alexander was talking about her running.
He just as well could have been talking about her life.
-- One GRC runner who won’t be participating in Grandma’s Marathon is Sean Barrett. After graduating from Harvard in 2007, Barrett had a number of offers to work on Wall Street. He instead chose to join the Marines. Barrett did tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and was awarded the Bronze Star in 2010 while in Iraq. He currently is stationed in California and will be deployed in July to the Philippines. Barrett will be there for at least one year and had hoped to run one more race before departing, but a recent injury curtailed those plans.
Georgetown University's 'Hoya' Profile of Nina
Brekelmans, 25, Leaves Textured Legacy
By Katherine Richardson
Published in The Hoya on September 1, 2015
By all accounts, Nina Brekelmans (GRD ’15) was a brilliant student, an exceedingly proficient Arabic and Spanish speaker and an avid long-distance runner. She graduated with a near-perfect GPA in Georgetown’s Master of Arts in Arab Studies program and planned to study the experiences of female runners in Jordan with a Fulbright grant this fall.
On June 3, Brekelmans, 25, died in an electrical fire in a townhouse on Riggs Place NW near Dupont Circle. The 2:30 a.m. blaze killed one other resident and injured three firefighters.
A Talented Scholar
After high school in Mexico and Kentucky, Brekelmans began to build an impressive resume. She received her undergraduate degree in Arabic from Dartmouth College, where she graduated summa cum laude and ran on the NCAA Division I cross-country and track teams. She matriculated into the Master of Arts in Arab Studies program in 2012, spent a gap year studying in Jordan, ran with the Georgetown Running Club, interned at the Muslim Chaplaincy and served as treasurer of Georgetown Women in International Affairs.
Brekelmans will be remembered in the academic communities of both Dartmouth and Georgetown as a passionate and endlessly talented student. Many professors noted that she exuded a quiet confidence in the classroom.
Dartmouth Arabic professor Mostafa Ouajjani said Brekelmans was one of the hardest workers he has ever taught.
“Nina has always impressed her classmates and me by her sense of perfection, her meticulous work and her total engagement,” Ouajjani wrote in an email. “As I think of this amazing student, I can recall a passionate and smart learner.”
Ouajjani kept in contact with Brekelmans after her graduation. Shortly before her death, she sent him a piece of her own work in Arabic — a fictional short story called “The Mother.”
“This text shows that Nina controls the most complex Arabic structures and feels at home using idioms and understanding cultural nuances of Arabic,” Oujjani wrote. “Indeed, anyone who reads this text would feel that it must have been written by an Arab writer. I intend to use her text in my course on the Arabic short story this fall in honor to her heritage and in remembrance of such an amazing soul.”
Brekelmans developed an interest in writing and translating Arabic fiction at Georgetown, where she audited “Introduction to Fiction Writing” with Professor David Ebenbach.
“She was kind of amazing,” Ebenbach said. “She was a very talented writer, first of all, but I think, most impressively, she was a very generous presence in the class. She gave a lot more than she took. She was really helpful with her peers, giving them feedback on their work, and she was auditing, so she could have phoned it in, but she gave a lot of herself.”
Clovis and Hala Salaam Maksoud Chair in Arab Studies Fida Adely taught Brekelmans in two classes and noted her quiet strength in the classroom.
“She was pretty quiet but very focused,” Adely said. “I have this vivid memory of her in this one class where we had these really passionate and loud students who were debating. It was a small class, and there was a debate going back and forth for 30 minutes between three or four students. At the end she said, ‘Just let me make sure I understand.’ And she summarized the points everyone just made. She was always engaged and participating and absorbing what was going on.”
Brekelmans’ interest in Arabic expanded beyond the classroom, as well, with her internship at the Muslim Chaplaincy. Through the position, she connected with Muslim students and community leaders and organized programming and outreach for the chaplaincy.
“She wanted to practice her Arabic, and she was really determined to study Arabic, to engage in the Arab world and engage in Arabic art and the Arab culture,” Director of Muslim Chaplaincy Imam Yahya Hendi said.
Hendi said that he and Brekelmans connected over their desire to “give a voice to women, a voice to those who are forgotten.”
“Nina was spiritual, a special kind of spirituality. She was connected with her soul, with her mind, with her heart,” Hendi said. “In her, I saw the true vision that God has for the world.”
An Avid Runner
Brekelmans’ second passion in life was running. She walked on to the Dartmouth Division I cross-country and track teams her freshman year and trained hard to keep up with her recruited teammates. Over time, she began to break her own personal records, notching a 5:12 in the mile and 17:57 in the 5K .
“She was a really hard, hard worker. One of the hardest workers on the team,” former Dartmouth Distance Coach Marc Coogan said. “We even acknowledged that as a team at the track and cross-country banquet at the end of the season. She wasn’t the fastest girl on the team, but definitely one of the hardest-working.”
At Georgetown, Brekelmans joined the Georgetown Running Club and became a volunteer for Girls on the Run, a non-profit that encourages young girls to develop a passion for fitness.
“Nina was very, very proud to be part of GRC,” GRC Coach Jerry Alexander wrote on the club’s blog. “She was willing to do whatever it was going to take to hang with the girls, and she was a great teammate in every sense of the word.”
Brekelmans managed to mix both of her passions, Arabic and running, during her gap year in Amman, Jordan. She spent one year there in 2013 through the Center for Arabic Study Abroad and immediately involved herself in the community, running daily at Sports City in Amman. There, she connected with runners with the organization Run Jordan, a non-governmental organization that coordinates races throughout the country. She won her first half-marathon in Jordan on her first-ever attempt at the 13.1-mile race.
Brekelmans made friends with many female distance runners, with whom she trained daily at 4:30 a.m. to avoid the blistering Jordanian summer heat.
“She worked mainly on empowering local women to participate in sports, especially running,” Run Jordan member Lina Al-Kurd wrote in an email. “She tried to help them overcome societal stigma and participate in any sport within the Kingdom. …We lost a great runner and volunteer who had an amazing spirit.”
Fostering Friendships
Brekelmans’ penchant for Arabic was not only helpful in an academic setting, but also in a social one. She had a remarkable ability to make close friends in Arabic, as evidenced by her strong network of runners, coaches and volunteers in Amman.
“We first met Nina here, at Sports City, and we would run together almost daily,” Sharifa and Ashwaq, two female runners, wrote in an email. “Talking about Nina, she brought us together with her persistent, kind spirit that represents a true sportswoman. The smile would never leave her face, no matter her score or run time. As a human being, she is irreplaceable and our loss is great.”
According to her teammates, Brekelmans was a motivating and encouraging force. Many teammates shared their experiences with Brekelmans in a memorial video, and Run Jordan hosted a memorial run in her honor in June.
“We saw Nina at practice almost every day. No one will forget her. Her soul and her spirit is with us and it encourages us,” an unnamed teammate said in the video. “She would always come up to me and encourage me and say, ‘You can, you can.’ I will never forget her telling me that. Whenever I find something to be difficult, I will always remember what Nina told me.”
Brekelmans involved herself in many aspects of Jordanian life besides running. She volunteered at Reclaim Childhood, a non-profit in Amman that teaches sports to refugee children, and aimed to explore historical and cultural sites outside of the city in her free time.
“The will that she had, the strong will led her to really reach out in Jordan,” Hendi said. “She went to the market, she spoke to people on the street, she went to peoples’ homes. She challenged the unchallenged. She challenged her own fears of the unknown.”
Many of Brekelmans’ Jordanian friends did not speak English at all, which Center for Contemporary Arab Studies Program Manager Julie Yelle (SFS ’08) said showcases a truly special talent. Yelle met Brekelmans at Middlebury College during a summer language immersion program.
“One of the things that struck me was what an amazing ability she had to build relationships and nurture friendships in Arabic,” Yelle said. “When I got to know her, we spoke the whole time in Arabic, and I really enjoyed getting to know her that summer. Now, when I’m thinking about how deeply I feel her loss, it’s incredible to think that 99 percent of my interaction with her was in Arabic.”
Hendi said Brekelmans will be remembered in America and in Jordan as a bright force for positivity and change.
“She meant the word ‘inspiration.’ She really inspired so many people she came across without any doubt,” Hendi said. “She meant simplicity. She would sit on the floor and wouldn’t care, would eat anything. And smile, oh my God, smile. Even if she was in pain or torn into pieces inside, she managed to smile.”
Runner's World Feature
Friends Honor the Memory of Runner, Advocate Who Died at 25
By Nelson Rice
Published by RunnersWorld.com on July 2, 2015
Just weeks after graduating from Georgetown University with a master’s degree in Arab Studies, Nina Brekelmans, 25, died on June 3 in a fire at the row home she was renting in the Dupont Circle area of Washington D.C.
According to a statement released by Georgetown University, the fire was triggered by an electrical malfunction. Since then, tributes from across the world have poured in for the quiet young woman who loved running and dedicated her time to helping others.
Brekelmans discovered running during her sophomore year at Dartmouth College while on semester break in her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. Mary Grace Pellegrini, a friend from high school who ran track at the University of Michigan, convinced Brekelmans to tag along for a morning training session.
Pellegrini said she was expecting a recovery day. That quickly changed when Brekelmans pushed the pace—on her first run.
“I told Nina she was in great condition and that she was a natural runner,” Pellegrini told Runner’s World Newswire.
Pellegrini gave Brekelmans a training schedule and a pair of Mizunoracing flats. When Brekelmans went back to Hanover, New Hampshire, she entered the Dartmouth Invitational indoor track meet and ran 10:20 in the 3K. Coaches noticed and gave her a spot on the team.
“For all distance runners, you need to have a certain amount of motivation,” Barry Harwick, Dartmouth’s director of track and field and cross country, said. “And Nina had plenty.”
Once she graduated from Dartmouth in 2012 with a degree in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Brekelmans began pursuing her master’s at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service. At the same time she sought out Jerry Alexander, the coach of the Georgetown Running Club, and asked how she could join the elite team.
Brekelmans, who had personal records of 5:12 in the mile and 9:56 in the 3K, had far less experience than most of the team members. She didn’t care and pushed herself to hang with some of squad’s best runners.
“She wasn’t satisfied with just making the team,” Alexander said. “She wanted to be one of top women, and she was going to do whatever it took to get there.”
In 2013, Brekelmans was selected for a Boren Fellowship to study in Cairo. Shortly after arriving, she was forced to evacuate to Amman, Jordan, because of unrest in the region.
The change in location didn’t deter Brekelmans. She woke up at 4:30 a.m. every morning to run and avoid the stifling heat. Brekelmans volunteered and helped create a junior runners program for Run Jordan, a non-governmental organization that promotes long distance running in the country. After spending time there, she entered the 2014 Dead Ultra Marathon and ran the half marathon race—her first attempt at the distance—and won in 1:23:56.
“That was way faster than we thought Nina was capable of doing even if she trained in ideal circumstances,” Alexander said. “It was by far the best race of her life.”
After Brekelmans returned to Georgetown, she continued her outreach efforts. For her “Refugees in the Arab World” class, she translated refugee testimonies so they could secure asylum in the U.S. She was a mentor for Girls on the Run—a nonprofit after-school program that encourages preteen girls to develop self-esteem and healthy lifestyles through running.
Although a series of injuries prevented her from running competitively earlier this year, she went to several races in the spring to cheer on her Georgetown Running Club teammates, including Pellegrini, who moved to Washington D.C. for work.
Pellegrini last saw Brekelmans at her graduation in May. On June 3, Pelligrini got a voicemail from Alexander asking her to call him back. He then told her the news of Brekelmans' sudden death.
More than 20 members from the running club attended Brekelmans’ memorial service at Georgetown’s Dahlgren Chapel. During the luncheon after the service, Pellegrini and Alexander both spoke.
“Nina was so humble that I wanted to make sure everyone was aware of her accomplishments, not only as student, but as a runner as well,” Alexander said.
Brekelmans hoped to unite her interest in the Arab world and love of running through a Fulbright grant she was awarded this spring. She planned to travel to Jordan again to study distance running as a tool for women’s rights.
To uphold that mission, the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown intends to establish the Nina Brekelmans Scholarship Fund to promote female empowerment in the Middle East.
Her running community is remembering in its own way. On June 11, Run Jordan held a race in Brekelmans’ honor. The Georgetown Running Club had a moment of silence for her before its Father’s Day 8K, but the club wants to commemorate her life and impact in a more lasting fashion.
The team plans to put a patch with Brekelmans’ name on their warmup jackets—in English and Arabic.
“She’ll be with us every step of the way,” Alexander said.