Lydia Kulbida 

Age: 59
Residence:  Schenectady
Occupation:  Anchor/Reporter with WTEN/News 10
Family:  Husband, Nick; Daughters, Irene and Roma
Sports:  Running, Obstacle Races, Hiking, Dancing

By Kristen Hislop

What Will It Take? – Resilience, courage, and relentless curiosity, all traits most of us would like to have. How are they built? You might not immediately think of the Bronx in the 1970s. But for Lydia Kulbida, that’s where it all started. Growing up near Kingsbridge Road with the rumble of the 4 train outside her bedroom window the constant hum of New York energy shaped her spirit. “I think growing up in the Bronx when I did made me tougher,” she reflects. “When people looked down on you for not being from Manhattan, it just made me want to work harder.”

What will it take to reach your goals? For Lydia, it took a mix of grit, grace, and a whole lot of rhythm.

From Ballet to Broadcasting – Lydia’s journey wasn’t paved with a single passion. It was an eclectic mix of dance studios, theater groups, with the occasional track and cheerleading season. Ballet at age six led to Ukrainian folk dance, modern dance, and jazz. Musical theater, glee club, and a Ukrainian theater troupe filled her teenage schedule. Camps in the Catskills afforded opportunities to hone her skills, build a strong community, and even meet her future husband. The end goal was a gig as a solo female anchor on national news. Lydia wanted to write and then tell important stories.

Not one to look for the easy way out, she worked many hours at the NYU gym while studying for her BA in Broadcast Journalism. There, she was a natural teaching aerobics. The popularity of her classes led to teaching strength and lifting classes. She dabbled in running, though mostly on the rooftop track and only if the weather was nice.

What will it take to find your passions? Sometimes, it’s trying a lot and then letting your heart win.

Life, Interrupted – Marriage, motherhood, a career in news, and caring for aging parents shifted the balance. Like so many women, Lydia’s own health and fitness fell to the back burner. “I emceed many conferences about the importance of caregivers taking care of themselves – but I never took the lesson home with me,” she admits.

The turning point came in 2012 when she moderated a heart health forum for Ellis Medicine. Inspired, she publicly vowed to run the Freihofer’s Run for Women 5K that year and a marathon by 50. It didn’t happen on schedule, but the seed was planted.

By 2016, with a family trip to Prague looming, she realized she didn’t want to be left behind and she began her journey back to her active lifestyle. Walks on the bike path grew into longer efforts. She came home from that vacation not just caught up, but ready for more.

What will it take to put yourself back on the list? Maybe just one walk, one promise, one new reason.

Finding Fierce Friends – Lydia soon discovered Orangetheory Fitness, which provided a community of fierce women who pushed her beyond anything she thought possible.

She rowed at the Crash-B competition in Boston in 2014. “My goal was not to come in last and not take longer than 10 minutes… I came in last but under 10 minutes!” She finished the Ragnar Adirondacks in 2018 and tackled Spartan races between 2017-2022, including the grueling Spartan Beast at Killington in 2018, solo. “I found what I was made of that day when I refused to give up in the middle of the death march,” she recalls. “Jumping the fire at the end was a great feeling… but driving myself home for two hours afterward was not!”

She ran Disney’s Dopey Challenge in 2019, which is four races in four days (5K, 10K, 13.1M, 26.2M), including her first marathon – yes, there was a roller coaster ride mid-race. 

What will it take to discover your strength? Sometimes, it takes doing hard things to realize you can.

Lessons Along the Way – Now in her late 50s, Lydia has learned the art of balance. She schedules her workouts like appointments, tells herself daily that comparison is the thief of joy, and encourages women who feel too busy to “start small, just a short walk or 15 minutes of stretching before bed.”

She and her husband, Nick, partners since a Catskills summer in the ‘80s, “keep life balanced like a log-rolling contest: sometimes one does more, sometimes the other, but they both try not to fall into the water.” Their daughters followed in their footsteps with successful careers, sports, and Ukrainian dance.

What will it take to keep moving? Commitment, compromise, and community.

Running With Purpose The New York City Marathon, once an inconvenience growing up in New York City, became a powerful purpose for Lydia. She fundraised for The Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, her first one in 2019, because they provide critically ill children with the same great summer camp experiences she had. “In 2021, I ran NYC in memory of a young News10 colleague and raised money for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. My 2023 run was with NYRR’s Team for Kids to ensure kids everywhere could find support in their running endeavors.” 

This year, she will run her fourth NYC Marathon, this time for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network in memory of her oldest brother, Jerry Zaluckyj, who passed away earlier this year, 33 days after he was diagnosed. “The night we learned of his diagnosis, I knew I would run the NYC Marathon to raise funds for pancreatic cancer research. I had a vision of him waiting for me at the finish line but I will be looking up instead. He fought so hard because he wanted to punch cancer back but died the day before his first chemo treatment. I’m hoping to give someone else the chance to punch cancer back.” 

To support her Pancreatic Cancer Action Network fundraiser/tribute (Lydia’s raised $8,444 toward her $10,400 goal): https://tinyurl.com/cexphc5r.

What will it take to fight back against loss? For Lydia, it’s running, one mile after another, with purpose.

Looking Ahead – As Lydia approaches 60, she jokes about celebrating with the Marathon du Médoc, a race where runners stop for wine tastings through French vineyards. But she’s serious about the bigger picture too: advocating for women’s health, amplifying non-profit voices, and savoring the power of women-only spaces like the Delightful Run for Women, where she announces the race start, then joins the women to run.

“I love the sisterhood of thousands of running sisters,” she says. “We’ve come so far, but there’s still so much more we need to know. We have much to learn about our bodies, about our health, about how to live our best lives.”

Lydia adds, “I found photos from the local “Finish Liza’s Run” 2022 event I helped organize. Seeing how many women came out to finish the miles that were so cruelly taken from Eliza Fletcher – a teacher and mother who was kidnapped and killed during her morning run in Memphis, Tenn. in August 2022 –  made me realize how much I value not just the sense of community in women’s only races, but the sense of safety.” Join Lydia at the Run for Women in Albany on May 30, 2026.

What will it take? For Lydia Kulbida, the answer is simple: courage, curiosity, and community. The same things that carried her from the rumble of the 4 train in the Bronx, to the starting line of the 2025 NYC Marathon, and everywhere in between. 

Kristen Hislop (hislopcoaching@gmail.com) is a USA Triathlon and Ironman U coach, and race director for the Delightful Run for Women. Hislop Coaching offers a mindset program for all ages/abilities called Stronger Than Yesterday. She is a proud mother to two sons who ran in college and her husband who races and volunteers at many local events.