Mom completes 10K in memory of son

Roxanne Baggott was full of emotions as she ran the 6.2 miles through the dirt streets of the town of Windermere. She ran it solo — but she wasn’t alone. She said she felt the presence of her late son with her the entire time.

“He ran beside me the entire time,” Baggott said. “The whole time I was running, I thought about getting him into running, and that whole six miles of this race was spent with John, my thoughts and memories — and it’s almost like I could talk to him along the way.”

John Watson-Baggott was 45 and seemingly healthy when he died of a heart attack in April.

Baggott ran this year’s race for John.

“The crazy thing was I was so caught up in that, and I still got third place in my age group, and I never did that,” she said. “I just wanted to enjoy the whole thing, and, honestly, he was just beside me the whole run. … I wanted to honor him, experience him, remember him, and at the end to be able to stand on that podium. I posted on my Facebook page, ‘This is for you, John.’

“That’s going to go down as one of my all-time most special races,” Baggott said.

There was a second reason Baggott wanted to participate in the 2024 race.

At the 2023 Windermere run, Baggott, who is a nurse, helped save the life of another participant when he had a heart attack on the course.

“It was a combination of (honoring John and) what happened last year with the man and doing the CPR and helping him and knowing he was OK,” she said. “I wanted to do that race and go past that spot and be thankful that I could be in the right spot at that time.”

REMEMBERING JOHN

Technically, John Watson-Baggott is Baggott’s stepson, but when you are part of a loving family, the blood relation doesn’t matter. Baggott came into his life when he was 7.

“If you knew John, you loved John,” she said. “The funny thing about John is he loved everyone the same. … It didn’t matter who it was. … If he met you, you were his friend.”

And he lived life to the fullest, she said.

“He was one that just experienced life,” Baggott said. “A lot of people would just go do something; he experienced every part of it. If you’re eating out at a restaurant, he would talk about, ‘I wonder how they made this,’ or ‘Oooh, I can taste the garlic in this.’

“He would look up the place ahead of time, and he experienced that place 150%,” Baggott said. “He lived life on steroids. … He lived life to the max.”

Watson-Baggott served as a marshal for the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill for the last 11 years. He was proud of his role at the annual golf tournament, she said, and officials are planning to honor him at the spring 2025 event.

“John was such a well-rounded person,” Baggott said. “He liked to bike and run and play golf, and he probably worked 70 to 80 hours a week (as a Panera Bread manager). He liked to cook; he was an amazing cook. … He loved to cruise. As a side job, he was a travel agent.”

When Watson-Baggott decided he wanted to take up running, Baggott was right there to encourage him on his journey. He fell in love with running after taking part in a half marathon in Atlanta.

He moved to Chattanooga for work, but he and Baggott continued training together virtually. They shared personal bests and talked about intervals and hydration and nutrition.

“I was like his coach,” she said. “He was so proud of himself when he ran Atlanta and got that first medal.”

The pair had a chance to run a half marathon together about four years ago in the Smoky Mountains; it was one of the first races he ran.

LIFE WITHOUT JOHN

In June, Carl and Roxanne Baggott took a cruise Watson-Baggott had booked for them for their wedding anniversary.

“He got it all set up for us, helped us navigate the process,” Roxanne Baggott said. “When we got on that cruise ship, we got into our room and there was a champagne bottle with a note. Even after he was gone, he had arranged something special for us. … It just had his signature all over it. It was fun, and we knew that he loved what he was doing.”

The Baggotts are taking a cruise to the Caribbean in December, one that their son had organized. John Watson-Baggott was supposed to be on that cruise too.

“We’re going to take that cruise because that’s what John would want,” she said. “It will be hard that he’s not there.”