Record-Setting Runner's Path Includes Working with Special-Needs Children

First in TAPinto New Brunswick's People to Watch in 2025 series that looks at newsmakers
throughout the city.

Emily Lopez broke into tears moments after crossing the finish line at the Greater Middlesex Conference Cross Country Championships.

The New Brunswick High School senior had persevered through a right hip injury to run the race of her life in the last cross-country race of her career.

She not only broke the school record in the 5,000-meter race, she smashed it by nearly 13 seconds, finishing in 22:47.1.

And she did it at the Thompson Park cross-country course in Jamesburg, which is infamous for a steep stretch simply known as The Hill by the scores of runners whose legs and wills have given out near the finish line.

“All the emotions came flooding to me and I just started crying because I was like, ‘I really did it,’ ” Lopez said. “And, it was a meet where I really didn’t think I would run and beat the record.”

For Lopez, one of TAPinto New Brunswick’s People to Watch in 2025, running represents liberation, relaxation, and meditation.

“For me, I say running is my escape from the real world because once I run, all I focus on is running,” she said. “I don’t worry about my legs. I don’t worry about all the problems I’m going through. So, it’s really a place where I can just relax and just run and focus on myself.”

This 4-foot-11 dynamo – she jokes that she’s 5 feet tall on a good day – fell in love with running during the winter track season as a ninth grader. Her performances were so promising in the 800-meter and mile races that she was often grouped with the upperclassmen. Fellow freshmen kept asking her in disbelief what grade she was in.

She has maintained a strict training regimen. If she trains with teammates on the weekends or in the offseason, she has one rule: No phones, just talking and running.

She’s equally laser-focused on schoolwork, utilizing even slivers of free time in the school schedule to complete homework assignments. Again, she puts her phone away when she’s in school because she feels like it can distract her from her schoolwork.

Lopez’s favorite class is advanced placement calculus, taught by Timothy Hubert, a class for serious math students who find joy in the mysteries of parametric equations, polar coordinates, vector-valued functions, and infinite sequences and series.

“The way he teaches math and the way he expresses math, it’s sort of like the same love I give to running,” she said.

The year 2025 is shaping up to be a big one for Lopez. Treatment of her hip injury continues as she shifts gears for the winter and spring track seasons.

She’s not sure where she wants to go for college, but she knows she wants to chart a course toward a career working in some capacity with special-needs children.

“I really found out how, like, finding school work, doing practices, and going to work is a lot,” Lopez said. “But, knowing that a lot of people go through that, too if not even more, makes me think and wonder how much I am grateful for everything I have, and it makes me want to help those that don’t have what I have.

“I really do care about helping those (people) just because when I was at my lowest, I’d have my friends, my teachers, my coaches, my athletic trainers – every single person around me to help me move and motivate myself even more. And, I want to be that person to spark someone else to do the same.”

Her coaches and friends all gathered around her on Oct. 26 when she crossed the finish line in record-breaking time. 

After composing her emotions, her thoughts turned to her teammates who were running in the junior varsity race. She was supposed to go through some postrace stretching, but instead took a position along the course so she could cheer on her fellow Zebras.

“There was one point during the next race, I heard someone screaming in the distance,” said athletic director Garret Conger. “I’m like, ‘Wow, that is someone screaming very loud, like the loudest person I could possibly hear.’ And I look over and it’s Emily screaming for her teammates.”

Story Credit: Chuck O'Donnell
Photo Credit: TAPinto New Brunswick

PEOPLE TO WATCH IN 2025:
A Special TAPinto Series

Myles Carter, New Brunswick Recreation Department
Karla Zafra and Araceli Alberto, Busienss Owners
Laurie Lazovick, New Brunswick School District
Emmanuel Ford, New Brunswick Education Foundation
Ishani Ved and Brittany (Spanos) Wooden, Saint Peter's University Hospital