This week our Pacers' Star of the Week is Karina Vega. Karina has been coaching Pacers Youth Running Club for about 2 ˝ years, starting with the first group in La Verne. She was a full-time student at Cal Poly Pomona, and graduated this June with a Bachelors Degree in Biology. She has been accepted to Graduate School at the City of Hope and will be pursuing her PhD. in biological sciences. Unfortunately, she will no longer coach Pacers Youth Running Club, as she will be dedicating all her time in the doctorate program at the City of Hope.  Karina has been running for 8 years, since her freshmen year of high school. She has run high school and college cross-country and track as well as for different club teams. She prefers long distance running and focused on 5K’s in college.  Karina’s 5K PR is 18:30, which she accomplished at the Ben Brown Invitational at Mt. Sac.  Her family consists of 3 brothers and 2 sisters. Interestingly enough, all have been runners at some point in their lives! She enjoys reading, music, and running of course!  She plans to continue to run on her own and wants to start a running club at the City of Hope.  Karina also plans to come back and help coach Pacers Youth Running Club in the future. An interesting hobby Karina enjoys is collecting quotes. She especially likes the quote from the Shakespeare play, Julius Caesar, “Bid me run and I will strive with things impossible”. We all wish Karina lots of luck in pursuing her doctorate degree and the kids will miss her at the track!