Sunday, May 11, 2008
Determined strides: No Boundaries runners complete 5K
Gallop 4 the Greenways participants discovered their inner runners.
Stephanie Klein-Davis | The Roanoke Times
No Boundaries coach Monica Mannino (left) urges on Linda Frith last month during a training run. Mannino also arranged seminars for participants. "I really like working with these people and seeing them succeed," she said.
Stephanie Klein-Davis | The Roanoke Times
Charlene Riley (left), a volunteer coach with a No Boundaries running program, congratulates Jan Frazier after Saturday's Gallop 4 the Greenways while Frazier's sister Rhonda Tlockowski watches. Both sisters participated in the downtown Roanoke race.
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Meet the runners
Bettina Mason
- 43 years old
Getting personal: She’s an English teacher at Patrick Henry High School.
Inspiration: Mason said her profession was at least part of her reason for wanting to run. “Runners always seem so free,” she said. “As a school teacher, I need that sense of freedom as well as alone time.” She interrupted her training for the Gallop 4 the Greenways with a 10-day trip to Greece this spring. Even so, she said she has circled the track at Patrick Henry, where she does her training, and she plans to keep running.
Race report: Mason decided not to run Saturday: “I’ll just be a cheerleader.”
Brandon Milani
- 30 years old
Getting personal: A newlywed with two stepchildren, she has a hound and a cat.
Inspiration: “I used to participate in the St. Patrick’s Day race and the Jingle Bell Run,” she said. “Sadly, sometimes I didn’t run at all between the two — often resulting in very sore muscles. I’m still waiting to get to where I get excited to go for a run, and better yet, to actually enjoy it.“I do love the feeling when I’m done.”
Race report: “I feel much better than last year,” Milani said. “And we walked less.”
Amy Finch
- 38 years old
Getting personal: She’s a sales rep for PPG of Roanoke.
Inspiration: She said that without the camaraderie and a group of people to be held accountable to, there was “no way I would have ever started getting up to run on a Saturday morning at 8.” Finch completed the Richmond Marathon five years ago, but said that the No Boundaries training program kept her from pushing herself too hard.
Race report: “I did much better than last year,” Finch said, enjoying a postrace libation.
John Justice
- 37 years old
- 37 years old
- 47 years old
Getting personal: A Salem resident, Justice is the chief financial officer of VPF Inc. in Roanoke County and is married with two children. His job takes him out of town, and travel and family pull him away from training.
Inspiration: He completed the MS 150 bike ride and said that running a 5K was another new adventure to try. “And my class reunion is coming up, so …”
Race report: Justice switched from running to run/walk about halfway: “I struggled a bit.” His family, though, did the one-mile walk.
Ioana Farthing
Getting personal: She’s a stay-at-home mom from Roanoke with two daughters.
Inspiration: She plays tennis and works out “sporadically,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to run. I’ve wanted to lose weight and feel good, but I’ve always dreaded it. You’re always alone. This is perfect for me.”
Race report: “I was aiming for 12 [minute miles] and I think I did 10. I came in thinking I would just run /walk but after I got started, I felt good, so I just kept running.” Farthing said she’ll keep on running. “I think we’re hooked.”
Kelly Sisson
Getting personal: A sufferer of psoriatic arthritis, she is pastor of Glade Church in Blacksburg.
Inspiration: She’s an avid walker who has completed 16 5Ks. She joined No Boundaries hoping to work her way up to running at least more than walking in the Gallop 4 the Greenways. Just before the program began, Sisson learned that her mother was nearing death. She decided to continue the program, hoping for a better way to honor her mother than wallowing in grief.
Race report: “I did what I wanted to do, and I have a plan,” Sisson said. “I’m pleased.”
Rhonda Tlockowski never signed up for this.
Her sister, Jan Frazier, is the fitness buff. And Frazier was the one who put together Tlockowski's desire to lose a few pounds before their niece's wedding this fall with the brand new beginning runners program in Roanoke.
Frazier, who's the younger but not exactly shyer sister, signed them both up for the 12-week No Boundaries program sponsored by the Fleet Feet running store to get more people started in walking and running.
"This is so new for me," Tlockowski said, beaming on Saturday after completing her first ever 5K race at the Gallop 4 the Greenways in downtown Roanoke.
"This is not me, never."
But it is her. At least it is now.
Tlockowski, 45, who works for Virginia Utility Protection Service -- she's the Miss Utility you're supposed to call before you dig -- got even more help when her company installed a gym and started a training program with Virginia Tech.
"If I'm tired," Tlockowski said, "I get up and work out and I feel better."
Frazier, 43, completed the No Boundaries program and the race alongside Tlockowski, and neither has any plans to slow down.
"It's perfect. My sister and I don't get to see each other enough," Frazier said. "I've already gone online to sign us up for three or four more races."
Tlockowski discovered when she went to get fitted for her maid-of-honor dress that she has already lost two dress sizes for the August wedding.
She ordered the dress another size smaller.
Getting started
At first there was silence.
Blaine Lewis, co-owner of Roanoke's Fleet Feet running store with his wife, Robin, and coach Monica Mannino had just given a quick outline of their new runners program for beginners. And there those very beginners sat in an imperfect circle in the middle of the store, staring at the floor.
A single hand went up. Should we introduce ourselves? Say why we're here?
A few confessions of a seat that had grown too wide or a life that had grown too narrow were all it took to turn these timid strangers into not-so-fast friends, sharing worries, woes and even book recommendations before that chilly, February evening was over.
Sponsored by New Balance, Fleet Feet hosted a beginners program, called No Boundaries, at its franchises nationwide. It's not an entirely selfless enterprise. Both companies make money off runners. Creating more runners makes financial sense.
But it's also a great way to reach out to people who might normally never enter the Fleet Feet store because they think it is only for serious runners.
"A lot of people get intimidated," Mannino said.
From the start, No Boundaries has been about the opposite of intimidation. At that first meeting, Mannino and Lewis stressed that the program is "not supposed to hurt you."
Forty-six people joined Roanoke's No Boundaries program, 39 of them women. Not all of them finished the Gallop 4 the Greenways on Saturday. Some were waylaid by unrelated health problems, one woman got pregnant, and a few had their training schedule interrupted by work or family. But none, Mannino reported, gave up. And Mannino said she will work with those who couldn't finish Saturday's race to find another one to finish.
"It's such a good feeling," Mannino said. "I really like working with these people and seeing them succeed."
Getting with the program
At the national level, Fleet Feet provided the basics: A 12-week training outline for runners, run/walkers and walkers to prepare for a five-kilometer (about three miles) race and, along with New Balance, gifts such as water bottles, socks and shirts.
Participants paid $75 for the program, and also paid their own entry fee for the Gallop 4 the Greenways ($25-$35 depending on how and when they signed up). They work out on their own during the week and then come together on Saturdays to train together with coaches from Fleet Feet.
The walkers and runners gradually increase the distance they cover.
The run/walkers run for a minute then walk for two at the start and then gradually increase both the length of the run interval and the distance they cover as they decrease the length of the walk intervals.
"When I started this, my husband said, 'Please follow their schedule,' " said Ioana Farthing, 37, of Roanoke, who admitted to usually starting a workout program strong and then giving up. No Boundaries worked for her because "the focus is on [running] those little segments. I would be thinking about the next week, how am I going to do [run] four minutes? On Thursday I'd think I'm dying, then on Tuesday, I'd surprise myself."
Mannino arranged seminars -- on proper shoes and gear, injury prevention, nutrition -- and sent out weekly e-mails with updates about the upcoming group runs and training tips.
During the runs, participants weren't left to fend for themselves. Trainers went with every group and offered advice from how good posture helps breathing to how moisture-wicking tech underwear is best because cotton underwear absorbs sweat, and by the end of a good long run, you look like you, um, didn't make it to the outhouse in time.
"At the beginning, my knees hurt, and I wanted to say to myself that I'm just not built for running," Scribner said. "But through talking with the trainers, I learned the importance of building up certain leg muscles and proper stretching at the end of the run, and now my knees don't bother me at all."
Turning down defeat
A cloud of frozen breaths hung in front of the group as they smushed together for a picture in what used to be Victory Stadium's parking lot on Feb. 23.
Through that morning's chill, Kelly Sisson, 47, kept checking her watch that February morning, running her one-minute intervals and worrying aloud how a minute and a half -- the next week's goal -- would feel.
Sisson is the pastor of the Glade Church in Blacksburg.
A sufferer of psoriatic arthritis, Sisson's main goal has been to work her way up to actually running the entire way in the 5K Jingle Bell Run, an arthritis fundraiser in December.
"I've been wanting to do this," Sisson said. "I've been trying to get with a running program on my own. But I could never really stick with it."
Just before the program began, she learned that her mother was nearing death.
She decided to continue the program, hoping for a better way to honor her mother than turning to food while wallowing in grief and mourning.
It wasn't easy.
Meeting in Roanoke for an 8 a.m. run meant "getting up at a quarter to 5 every Saturday and saying. 'How bad do you want this?' "
Sisson struggled to catch her breath at times and, at Mannino's recommendation, went to see a doctor about it. She reported with a huge smile that she did better on her stress test than some of the trainers.
Sisson's mother died on Good Friday and, like every Saturday, she got up at 4:45 a.m. and made the drive from Blacksburg to Roanoke to run.
The Monday after Easter she buried her mother. It was only recently, Sisson said, that she realized that the race at the end of the No Boundaries program was the day before Mother's Day.
"It's not been a good time," Sisson said. "But it's been good timing."
