Moon Runner and Wife to Be Honored at North Park Race

Correction: Proceeds from the event will benefit the Women's Choice Network. The article incorrectly reported that another organization would receive the proceeds and has since been revised. 

If you ask his children, they'll tell you it's hard to keep up with 76-year-old Ralph Swain.

The Moon Township resident completed his first New York Marathon last year, the half Pittsburgh Marathon in May, and the 18-mile Homestead Challenge in June.

When his daughter, Jenna Stivoric, wanted to start running in 5K events, she turned to her dad for advice and as a potential training partner.

“But he was too busy with his bigger events,” she laughed. “So I figured if I created a 5K event in his honor, he would have to do it with me.”

Stivoric is the creator and founder of The Ralph Swain Queen's Race for Love and Life, a one-mile and 5K walk/run that will begin at 9 a.m. Saturday at North Park in Pine.

“Queenie” is Swain’s nickname for Dorothy, his wife of more than 50 years. The two have five children ages 36 to 49, Stivoric said.

Stivoric decided to create the event in honor of her parents and their love for one another. After she participated in a few 5K events last year, she thought such a race would honor her dad’s love of running and her mother's dedication to him.

“Without mom supporting dad for all of these events, he never could have done them,” said Stivoric.

Swain didn’t start running until he was in his early 40s after he noticed he was gaining weight.

He purchased a pair of running shoes and started working out at He thought he would begin with a mile but found that he was winded and tired after just a quarter of a mile.

“But at least I started running,” he said.

Despite various injuries and operations, Swain has continued running, completing marathons, an ultra-marathon of 50 miles in 1995, and then competing in the Senior Olympics six years ago in Pittsburgh. He likes to joke, “I was only 70 at the time.”

In 1998, Swain had surgery on his left leg; his right leg was operated on a year later. For the next couple of years, he couldn’t do much running, so he instead competed in triathlons.

Even though Stivoric wanted to create the run to honor her father, she said she was a bit uncertain on whether she could pull off such an event.

“But I kept getting little signs along the way," she said. "I would read a quote that motivated me, and then I saw a speaker who made me feel like I could do this."

She enlisted the help of her four siblings and her husband, John “Evio” Stivoric. At Easter, she told her parents about the event.

“We were so surprised and so very proud of them for undertaking an event for such a worthy cause,” Swain said.

Stivoric chose the one-mile and 5K event so that her mother, who has knee problems, could participate in the event as well. Stivoric, who is pregnant, will walk the race alongside her mother.

“So I will walk it with my mom now instead of running the 5K with my dad,” she said.

The event will raise money for the Women's Choice Network in Pittsburgh, a pregnancy support network. “I chose them to honor my parents’ love of family,” said Stivoric.

The centers have five locations in the Pittsburgh area.

“They do a great job of educating mothers before pregnancy, helping them during the pregnancy and after, plus they have a program for fathers,” she said.

“That is the main thing, to just honor them,” she said.

The cost to compete in the Ralph Swain Queen's Race for Love and Life is $25 for adults, $20 for participants younger than 18. Children 9 and younger are free. Visit www.raceforliveandlife.com for more information.