Beginning Women's Running Group Coordinator: Kelly Bails

2009 Recap

Online registration for the Beginning Women’s Running Group opened in mid-March and was capped at 40 participants. As the deadline approached, I checked registration and had 38 participants.  I decided to leave registration open until I reached 40 participants.  A couple days later, I checked registration and there were 50 women enrolled!  I quickly closed registration and was immediately bombarded with emails and phone calls with women wanting to enroll in the program.  I was quite surprised at the demand for the program this year as my only advertising was a flyer in the Second Wind Newsletter and the club website.  Most of the participants had been referred to the program by former participants and club members. 

Our first meeting was May 19^th at Lake of the Woods Park in Mahomet and our last group run was July 7^th.   Each week opened with a 15-20 minute talk on topics such as stretching, shoes and clothing (Beth Day), running form (Tracy Thomas), core strength (Lori Ozment), motivation (Erin Wilding-Martin and Marla Dewhirst), women pioneers (Jan Seeley), and tips to continue running (Joe Bails).  At the end of the eight weeks, the women were running for 30 continuous minutes and were ready for their first 5K.  Including the mentors, we averaged 50 women at each group run. 

My favorite part of the beginning women’s running group is watching the participants finish their first 5K race. I love seeing each woman’s expression as she crosses the finish line and accomplishes her goal.  Thirty-five women participated in the Fisher Fair 5K along with several mentors.  The Fisher Fair 5K had more women participants this year than any previous year.  I’m pretty sure that our group had something to do with those numbers. 

I’d like to commend Deb Beach, Allyson Dunlap, Janette Ellis, Kris Fink, Lisa Leininger, Tammy Montgomery, Carleen Sacris, Jen Salzman, and Laura Ware for attending every single meeting.  Jane Baumgartner, Joy Garling Prud’homme, Colleen Gibbons, Megan Hallden, Natalie Harris, Shelly Jackson, Julie Katterhenry, Martha Kelly, Molly Pankau, Jill Penicook, Wendy Petruzello, Maeve Reilly, Joanna Strauss, Mary Tollakson, and Dusty Turngren only missed one meeting.  What a dedicated group!

            I surveyed the participants using surveymonkey.com.  A small sample completed the survey, but the response was overwhelmingly positive.  All respondents said they would recommend the program to a friend.  There are a few comments that I would like to share that I think summarizes the program nicely.

·         “A strength of the program is having a group of women that are committed to the same goal, supporting each other, and having coaches to train them properly and offer advice.” 

·         “Everything is great. Everyone was very supportive and helpful. I especially appreciated all of the mentors that came to run and help us out. It also made me feel more comfortable and confident that everyone was always stressing slower pace and individual capabilities rather than competitive running.”

·         “Pretty enthusiastic and the feedback in the training logs was great and informative. I loved the program!  Running with a group is an experience I would recommend to anyone.”

·         “Having a defined course of action to take the guess work out of how much is enough and to run with other new runners who are very supportive and encouraging.”

·         “I really enjoyed the group and plan to continue running on my own as well as continue to meet the others on Tuesdays. I think that having speakers give talks is a definite bonus! I hope you continue to offer this for beginning runners because it is a great program!”

The respondents had a couple good suggestions for improving the program that I will implement next year.  My main area of concern this year was the lack of consistent mentors.   There were a few weeks that we only had five to seven mentors.  On those nights groups of women had to run without the benefit of a mentor, which is one of the program highlights.  If I don’t have a strong commitment of mentors next year, the group size will be limited to 25 participants.

Again, I would like to thank all the speakers and all the mentors.  I’d also like to thank Joe Bails for reviewing the training logs each week and assisting with the program. 

2009 Program and Speakers: