What struck me about the program — which, like other walk-to-run programs, aims to make non-runners capable of running a 5K (3.1 miles) in 12 weeks or so — was who was in it: People who detested running. Mostly women, mostly women in the 40-50 range who were finding that their thrice weekly walk around the lake was no longer cutting it, thanks to their slowed metabolism. They hadn’t run much as kids (let alone competitively), they had avoided it as much as possible as adults — save the for the occasional sprint to catch a plane. Yet here they were, showing up three times a week and gradually turning into runners. Or at least faster walkers. These runner wannabees weren’t alone.

Fit-tastic and similar programs that have sprouted over the last few years can’t offer enough programs to meet demand. Most have registration caps to keep participants from becoming lost in the shuffle.

Take the example of Fit-tastic, launched by TAF owner Mike Zimmerman. The first session, in fall 2008, had about 60 participants. A spring program was added in 2009 based on demand, and the sessions have more than doubled in size. “We feel that may be a bit high so we’re looking at capping this spring at 100,” says Zimmerman.

While such programs offer participants the training to run a 5K, not all participants go that route.

“We will have four training groups this spring,” says Zimmerman, “walking, beginning walk/run, intermediate walk/run and running.  The walk/run groups are usually the most popular as many participants are ‘repeat offenders’ in the program and have some fitness base. However, we feel it  is very important to have the walking and running groups. The walking group is important for those who have never exercised before and need a way to start.  Some simply cannot run initially.  The running group is important because we want folks to have the chance to develop into true runners.” (Some of the initial participants are now running half marathons, Zimmerman reports.)

Zimmerman says it’s not necessarily the running that attracts people to programs such as his.

“We offer a friendly and supportive atmosphere to all participants regardless of their fitness level or experience.  There is always a good bit of trepidation and intimidation for folks who haven’t done this before.”  He adds: “We try to remove as much of the fear as possible.”

He says the program is popular, too, because “people bond with others who are going through the same things they are and feel they have a great support group.  There are several small groups who have continued to exercise together after the program because they’ve become such good friends.”

Such programs often include an educational element and health screenings, and lest you think the groups are run by poseurs like me, they are not. Trained coaches, people who are or have been active runners, lead each group. “We also pay our coaches and expect them to take their responsibilities seriously,” says Zimmerman.

“We try to educate participants on the need to use this program as a way to transform their lives and develop new habits that will extend beyond the 12 weeks of the program,” Zimmerman adds. “We want people to see this program as a new beginning to the rest of their lives.”

This year’s spring version of Fit-tastic starts March 21. You can find out more about that program as well as other walk-to-run beginner programs in the Triangle and Charlotte below. You can find out more about the walk-to-run approach here and read a story on walk-to-run programs I wrote last year for the Observers (Charlotte and News &) here.

Photo: Runners — and runners-to-be — warm up before a training run at last fall’s Fit-tastic session.

The programs

Note: Programs generally do not include registration fee for target race.

Triangle

Running Start

Briefly: 11-week program, target race is Race for the Cure 5K on June 11.

Starts: Training begins late March.

Sponsor: Carolina Godiva Track Club.

Cost: tba.

More info here.

No Boundaries

Briefly: 12 weeks, target race is Race for the Cure 5K on June 11.

Starts: March 23 (informational meetings at 7 p.m. Feb. 22, March 15 and 22, at Fleet Feet’s Wade Avenue store.

Sponsor: Fleet Feet, Raleigh.

Cost: $85 until March 15, $90 thereafter.

More info: Fleet Feet at 832-8275 or here.

Fit-Tastic

Briefly: 13 weeks, target race is Race for the Cure 5K on June 11.

Starts: March 21 (informational meetings March 9 and 16 at 6 p.m. at The Athlete’s Foot store in Cameron Village).

Sponsor: The Athlete’s Foot, Raleigh.

Cost: $70.

More info: 828-3487 or here.

Women’s Beginner Running Program

Briefly: 10 weeks, target race is NCRC Women’s Distance Festival 5K in late September.

Starts: Late July.

Sponsor: N.C. Roadrunners Club.

Cost: $75 (includes club membership).

More info: womenbeginnertraining@ncroadrunners.org.

Raleigh Galloway

Briefly: Five-month program, target race is City of Oaks Marathon and Half Marathon on Nov. 6.

Starts: April 23 with a training marathon seminar featuring Jeff Galloway at the N.C. Museum of Art from 9-11:30 a.m.

Sponsor: Jeff Galloway Training Programs.

Cost: $159 for first-timers, $99 for alumni.

More info: 270-0365  or go here.

Sole Sisters

Briefly: 11-year-old, 14-week, women-only program, target race is Race for the Cure 5K on June 11.

Starts: March 14, orientation meeting for newcomers is March 1 at 6 p.m. at the Friday Center in Chapel Hill.

Sponsor: Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, NC Cancer Hospital.

Cost: Free.

More info: 843-8057, or here.

Charlotte

Interval Running Training

Briefly: 8 weeks, target race is 6th Annual Morrison 5K/10K on May 14.

Starts: March 24.

Sponsor: Ballantyne Village YMCA, Charlotte
Cost: $35, $25 for facility members.

More info: (704) 716-4680 or here.

Run for You

Briefly: 9 weeks, target race for current session: Great Harvest Bread Co. 5K on May 21.

Starts: Ongoing, next session starts March 21 at Run for You’s Dilworth store, March 22 at the Piper Glen location.

Sponsor: Run for Your Life, Charlotte.

Cost: $99 new members, $89 program alumni.

More info: (704) 541-9665, or the Web site.

Charlotte Galloway

Briefly: Five-month program, target races vary.

Starts: May.

Sponsor: Jeff Galloway Training Programs.

Cost: $159 for first-time marathoners, $99 for marathon alumni, $95 for first-time half-marathoners, $75 for half-marathon alumni.

More info: runwalk26@yahoo.com.

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I came to that conclusion this morning at the 10th anniversary celebration of the Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation. The occasion marked a chance for the Foundation to look back — at the more than 440 grants totaling $67 million that the Foundation has given health-related non-profits since its inception in 2000 — and to look ahead — with the granting of another $1 million to 10 non-profits, ranging from the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle and N.C. Association of Free Clinics to Access East and FOGGNC (Friend of GetGoingNC) Be Active North Carolina.

It was also an opportunity for me to look around and catch up on the latest news from a host of folks. Folks such as …

* *

… Jodi Hubble of Be Active North Carolina.
“Did I tell you I’ve left Be Active?” Jodi said, effectively killing my first question: “So what will Be Active do with its newfound grant money?”
Jodi told me she’d moved over to Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s Triangle affiliate as Development Director. I was about to comment on Komen’s phenomenal success, specifically with its local 5K Race for the Cure, when she trumped me again.
“We’re looking to add another race,” she said. “Our race here has become so big. We’re at about 25,000 now.”
A second race, she said, would be added in Eastern North Carolina, likely in one of the few communities big enough to sponsor such an event: New Bern, Greenville or Wilmington. “We’ be the first affiliate to have two races,” Jodi said.
Since its inception in 1982, the Dallas-based non-profit has raised $1.5 billion in the battle against breast cancer. There are now 140 races annually attracting 1.6 million runners and walkers. Pink used to be associated with Mary Kay (another Dallas institution); today, Komen has a lock on the color, which shows up on everything from dainty ribbons on babies to the shoes of NFL players.
Jodi is an appropriate match for helping expand the local Komen running franchise: in September, she completed her first half marathon, the Virginia Beach Rock ‘n’ Roll Half.
More on the new Eastern N.C. Komen Race as it develops.

* * *

While I was chatting with Jodi, Nell Barnes came up. I consider Nell my boss: She’s the Executive Director of Learning Together, the best non-profit, five-star, developmental day care center going. I say that with bias: my daughter and step-daughter both attended Learning Together and I serve on the Board of Trustees as secretary. Nell is Learning Together, an organization that had an especially profound impact on my daughter. Thus, I will do whatever Nell asks. This morning, however, she acted mostly as a conduit, introducing me to Juliellen Simpson-Vos, the new Executive Director of Girls on the Run (and, coincidentally, the wife of another of my bosses, Mark Simpson-Vos, my book editor at UNC Press).

During my final days at The News & Observer (sounds ominously Nixonian), I wrote about Girls on the Run, a Charlotte-based non-profit that operates running programs for girls 8-12. The girls meet with a coach a couple times a week over a 12-week period; the program culminates with the girls (and hopefully their families) running a 5K. Actually, running is more of a vehicle for delivering confidence and a healthy self-image to girls of an impressionable age. The local GOTR affiliate was launched in 2001 with 20 girls on board; today, there are 29 GOTR programs throughout the Triangle serving more than 700 girls.

Speaking from self-interest (that step-daughter who attended Learning Together is now a 7th-grade runner), I asked Juliellen if GOTR had thought about a program for middle school girls. “Actually,” she said, “there is a program that’s offered called Girls on Track. So far, it’s met with mixed reviews.”

Mixed, she explained, because middle-school is a funny age. Girls that age, she said, feel like they’ve aged out of organized groups, like Girl Scouts. “But they really need that organization.” To date, Juliellen said Girls on Track hasn’t been offered in the Triangle. However, she said her group is discussing such a program with the local YWCA.

More on this as news develops as well.

* * *

I felt like a remora to Nell’s shark, for not long after introducing me to Juliellen she introduced me to Wayne Marshall. From 2000-2006, Marshall chaired the City of Raleigh Parks, Recreation and Greenway Advisory Board. I was all set to pick Marshall’s mind but before I could speak he began freely sharing his experience. He told me stories about plans for parks that never came to be (the master plan for Millbrook Exchange Park called for a train similar to the one at Pullen Park; as of today, the park remains trainless) and parks that haven’t yet come to be. That brought up Forest Ridge Park, and that conjured an uncharacteristic frown.

“My wife and I were hiking there this weekend,” Marshall said. “The color, the beauty, what a terrible thing to deprive the people of Raleigh.”

Earlier in the decade, there was considerable excitement in local rec circles when plans for Forest Ridge, on a 586-acre peninsula on Falls Lake, were announced. The master plan released on July 11, 2006, called for miles of hiking and mountain bike trail, an adventure education center, ropes course, lakeside center, multi-use activity areas and an adventure education overnight lodge. That was in 2006: Today, four and a half years later, nothing has happened at Forest Ridge. What’s the deal? I asked.

“I have to go to New Orleans now,” Marshall announced. “When I get back, we’ll go out there for a hike and tell you about it.”

I’ll get back to you on this one as well.

Photo: Official words are spoken at today’s 10th birthday celebration for the Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation, held at Marbles in downtown Raleigh.

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For the first 37 years of her life, becoming a die-hard runner wasn’t on Carol Gore’s bucket list.

“I never had a desire to start running,” says Gore, who lives in Fort Mill, S.C. “In high school, I hated gym class. I was always the last one picked.”

But two years ago, Gore worried that her 2-mile-a-day, five-day-a-week walking regimen was no longer cutting it in her battle of the bulge. A friend suggested running just a bit during her walks to burn more calories.

Gore gave it a try. She was smitten.

That November she ran an 8K (5 miles) Turkey Trot; the following year, 2009, a half marathon. She’s training for another of the 13.1-mile races in September. “I became hooked,” says Gore, who is 40.

During the nation’s first running boom in the 1970s, if you wanted to be a runner you were told to run – a lot. Thirty-, 40-, 50-mile weeks were de rigueur, running till it hurt the ultimate sign that you were on track. Only if you were suffering heatstroke or had a broken leg was it OK to walk.

Today, that philosophy has been flipped on its ear. As Gore discovered by taking her friend’s advice, if you want to be a runner it’s not only OK to walk, you may get in trouble with your coach if you don’t.

* * *

The notion of a running program that encourages walking was pioneered by Jeff Galloway, a member of the 1972 U.S. Olympic team. As a marathoner, Galloway was intimately familiar with the toll running took on the body. In the 1970s, Runner’s World magazine estimated that about two-thirds of runners reported some form of injury – from shin splints to stress fractures – in any given year.

Many of those injuries, Galloway determined, were the result of trying to go too far, too fast. So he started his Galloway running program, which stressed the novel approach of running/walking.

“We can set up a run/walk ratio that will allow a beginner to sense some degree of success,” says John Lineberger, who oversees the Galloway program in Charlotte. “If an individual is new to running we can make the run 30 seconds, or 20 seconds, or 15 seconds, or 10 seconds of running followed by one minute of walking.” That ratio is gradually shifted as the runner is weaned off walking.

“A lot of people are prejudiced against Galloway,” says Gore, who enrolled in the Charlotte program to train for her half marathon. “They think the walking part is sissy stuff. But I was able to do 11:36 miles in my first half marathon, and I felt good the next day.”

So successful has the Galloway method proven that it’s been adapted for shorter runs. Especially popular are programs preparing nonrunners to run a 5K (3.1-mile) race in three months or less.

Amanda Clark, assistant manager of the Fleet Feet store in Raleigh, says the store’s 3-year-old No Boundaries program draws about 80 participants; Dexter Pepperman with Run for Your Life in Charlotte says that store’s program, offered five times a year, attracts about the same. Like most run/walk programs, these include at least two training sessions a week, coaching, seminars on training and nutrition, e-mail support and a T-shirt.

Most participants are female – about 70 percent, estimates Clark – and ages range from the 20s to 70. Some want to run the entire race; others are content to walk 3.1 miles.
Run/walk programs are driving a running renaissance that’s seen the number of runners in the U.S. increase 57 percent over the past 10 years, to 35.9 million, according to the National Sporting Goods Association. In 2008, the NGSA reported that running/jogging was the nation’s fastest-growing form of exercise.

* * *

Jean Hagen-Johnson, a charter member of the 10-year-old Beginner Women’s Running Program sponsored by the N.C. Roadrunners Club, says another reason run/walk programs are popular is the moral support. “What I gained the most in the running group,” says the 56-year-old Raleigh resident, “were the really nice friends who enjoyed running for the health benefits and the social aspect.”

Runners struggle together in the group format, they support one another and they advance together.

Georgia Hagen, Jean’s sister and the founder of NCRC’s beginner program, says the main reason women join the program isn’t to lose weight, although that motivator is up there. Rather, it’s to develop a consistent exercise program. The set workouts two or three days a week, the coaching and the sense of camaraderie can have a profound impact come graduation at the program’s target 5K.

“We have had women quite overweight. When they come across that finish line they have tears streaming down their faces,” Hagen says. “They’re so appreciative, so happy. It’s just so rewarding.”

Additional reading

To read more on the current running boom and what’s fueling it, go here.

To ready more about the walking-to-run philosophy, go here.

* * *

The programs

Raleigh

Running Start
Briefly: 11-week program, target race is Race for the Cure 5K on June 12.
Starts: Training began March 27 (late sign-up allowed).
Sponsor: Carolina Godiva Track Club.
Cost: $45 (includes club membership).
More info: gary.schultz@verizon.net or the club Web site.

No Boundaries
Briefly: 12 weeks, target race is Race for the Cure 5K on June 12.
Starts: Began last Wednesday (sign-up through April 4)
Sponsor: Fleet Feet, Raleigh.
Cost: $85.
More info: Fleet Feet at 832-8275 or here.

Fit-Tastic
Briefly: 13 weeks, target race is Race for the Cure 5K on June 12.
Starts: Under way (began March 15; late sign-up allowed); fall session begins in August.
Sponsor: The Athlete’s Foot, Raleigh.
Cost: $60.
More info: 828-3487 or here.

Women’s Beginner Running Program
Briefly: 10 weeks, target race is NCRC Women’s Distance Festival 5K on Sept. 26
Starts: Late July.
Sponsor: N.C. Roadrunners Club.
Cost: $75 (includes club membership).
More info: womenbeginnertraining@ncroadrunners.org.

Raleigh Galloway
Briefly: Five-month program, target race is City of Oaks Marathon and Half Marathon on Oct. 31.
Starts: May 22.
Sponsor: Jeff Galloway Training Programs.
Cost: $159 for first-timers, $99 for alumni.
More info: 270-0365  or go here.

Sole Sisters
Briefly: 10-year-old, 14-week, women-only program, target race is Race for the Cure 5K on June 12.
Starts: Began March 9. Registration for this session is closed.
Sponsor: Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, NC Cancer Hospital.
Cost: Free.
More info: 843-8057, or the Web site.

Charlotte

Interval Running Training
Briefly: 10 weeks, target race is 6th Annual Morrison 5K/10K on May 15.
Starts: Underway (began March 11, late sign-up allowed).
Sponsor: Ballantyne Village YMCA, Charlotte
Cost: $40, $30 for facility members.
More info: (704) 716-4680 or the Web site.

Run for You
Briefly: 9 weeks, target race for current session: Right Moves for Youth Twilight 5K on May 8.
Starts: Underway (began March 16, late sign-up allowed) Coming sessions: May 15, Aug. 3, Oct. 12.
Sponsor: Run for Your Life, Charlotte.
Cost: $99.
More info: (704) 541-9665, or the Web site.

Charlotte Galloway
Briefly: Five-month program, target races vary.
Starts: May 8.
Sponsor: Jeff Galloway Training Programs.
Cost: $159 for first-time marathoners, $99 for marathon alumni, $95 for first-time half-marathoners, $75 for half-marathon alumni.
More info: runwalk26@yahoo.com, or go here.

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