Each summer weekend, the Huffington Post asking its female readers to submit photos highlighting their sun-drenched fun. These shots capture weekends on the beach, cookouts on the porch and plenty of live concert photos to fill a gallery called “Best Weekend Ever.”

The Buffalo News’ Lori Allan (@VallonAllan on Twitter), who serves as the executive assistant to TBN publisher Stan Lipsey and president Warren Colville, made the grade (see header photo, which is photo 18 of 43 in the poll). Displaying her medal for finishing the Tops 5K—her first race of that distance—Allan was proud to complete the course in 36:48.

“I was really excited on Monday that I’d done the race [the past weekend],” Allan said. “I’d set it as a goal for a long time, and I was expecting to have to walk for parts of it, but I ran the whole way.”

Even more impressive, however, is her inspiring path toward the 5K. The Huffington Post quotes Allan’s words:

This was a huge accomplishment for me. I had gastric bypass surgery in August 2009 and have lost 215 lbs since then. I never in a million years thought I could run for 37 minutes without stopping. I’m going to keep going, and see how low I can get my time.

Note Allan’s t-shirt as well. The Buffalo News’ brand-new marketing campaign—themed “Nowhere but the Buffalo News”—is set to launch Saturday with a redesigned website, a renovated mobile and tablet app, and a much more user-friendly interface across all platforms. These improvements will accompany the News’ launch of a subscriber access model on Oct. 1.