Club is about more than just running

The Valley Women's Running Group is four years old this summer.

Organizers and coaches say it's been successful over the years. They say it might be time to add a men's running group to the Valley.

The Valley is growing, and the number of runners is growing along with it.

"Every time I see a couple of men running on the road, I think (about starting a men's group)," said Rhonda Knopp, who, with two other women, pioneered the women's running club in the Valley.

About six years ago, Stephanie Burshell, Cathy Shanahan and Knopp were tired of commuting to Anchorage to participate in a club called Exceed. They decided to try and start their own club. The three women put ads in the paper and posted flyers around town soliciting fellow runners.

"But there wasn't enough interest," Knopp said.

So they dropped the idea for a couple of years and then tried again. The second time, their ads generated a turnout of 20-25 women.

"We knew then the interest was there. But it was, where do we go from here?" Knopp said.

What they did was write to the Road Runners Club of America (RRCA) — a national association of nonprofit running clubs — for information about how to start a not-for-profit runners group. Then, the paperwork began, and they filled out forms and wrote bylaws.

Four years later, there are 64 women in the club. That number has remained fairly constant, coach Kristin Wolf said. Some women leave, but new ones come to replace them each year.

The women pay $100 each to be members. They can go to two meetings before paying to see if they like it.

Most of the money goes to pay coaches' salaries. The number of coaches has varied over the years, from one to three to two. This year the club has two — Wolf, who will spend the winter coaching Colony Middle School's ski club, and ex-Palmer High coach Mike Janecek.

For their money, the women get supervised practices at Palmer High every Tuesday at 6 p.m. And they get to go on group trail runs about once a month.

"One of the bennies of the club is we learn about some trails that a lot of people don't usually know about," Janecek said.

But that isn't the only "bennie" they get. They also get things like new friendships, renewed confidence and time away from the bustle of family life.

Usually about half the 64 women show up on a given Tuesday. They range in age from just out of high school to over 60.

Lisa Vrvilo, a teacher at Colony Middle School, signed up for the first time this year at the encouragement of a couple of women who were already in club. She's a mother of two boys — a 4-year-old and a 15-month-old.

"It's a great break (from the family)," she said.

She said the club has given her the extra motivation she needed to keep running, and taught her how to better herself physically.

Before joining the group she would run about three miles, three times a week. She'd take about 30 minutes to complete her run. Now, she does the same distance in 22 minutes.

Keeping her running time the same, she found she was going greater and greater distances. And she found herself developing goals to work toward.

She also learned how to pace. In high school Vrvilo was a sprinter, she never thought she'd be doing any distance running. But now, with the help of the group's coaches, she's been doing 400-, 600- and 800-meter intervals.

"On the right day, at the right time, these women can do a dozen 400-meter intervals without blinking and eye," Janecek said.

But not everybody is at the same fitness level. And sometimes a runner just might have an off day. The program is geared so that each member works at her own pace.

"If you can't do them all (the intervals), you just do what you can," group treasurer Valara Brickel said.

Brickel is training for the Lost Lake race in Seward. While Vrvilo likes to run on roads because she feels more comfortable with her footing on level ground, Brickel prefers trails.

Several of the women are planning a trip to Seward to run Lost Lake. It's a 16.75-miler that starts at Primrose Campground, goes up and down what Brickel calls "a small mountain," and ends at the fire station in town.

She said through the group she has made friends and together they have enjoyed trips like the upcoming one to Lost Lake.

The running program goes from early April until late August. It is structured in four training cycles. The first five weeks is for strength building. There is concentration on running hilly terrain. The second cycle develops stamina. It's six weeks long and the goal is to run longer distances, while maintaining strength by continued workouts on hills.

"There's a saying in the runner's world," Wolf said. "Hills are speed work in disguise."

She said that meant because you have to slow down when running hilly terrain, the aerobic power you're building can help you with strength and stamina later on in the season.

After the stamina cycle, there are another six weeks of improving aerobic power training. This year, Wolf added two additional trail workouts to the aerobic training cycle. Finally, there's a three-week peaking and sharpening cycle, in which runners work on improving speed for the final races of the summer season, which is where the women are now.

They are running shorter intervals — 200-meter runs, with 200-meter recoveries. Shorter runs with shorter times in between (when the women walk or jog) allow the body to peak and allow for them to concentrate on consistency.

The women time their runs themselves and log them into a book that Wolf keeps. Wolf then estimates race paces for everybody. She uses their times on the track to calculate what they should be running in 5K or 10K races.

"The club gives them the discipline and speed work they probably wouldn't do on their own," Wolf said.

But not all the women race. Some just come to be with others that have the same interest and to feel and look good.

Christine Cannard spends the winters in Seattle. Every summer she comes to Alaska and works with Princess Cruises. Her mother, Colleen Peterson, is a club member who got Cannard involved two years ago.

Although Cannard does race, she said a big reason she came back to sign up a second year was for the fun, the friends and the personal benefits.

"The club is not only about friendships, but it's about accountability. It makes me run. And I look better," she said.

Cannard has improved a lot this year from last. She has knocked 15-20 seconds off her pace per mile. Her 5K has improved from eight minutes to between 7.15 and 7.30.

She's doing half marathons and marathons, along with some elevation runs. She's planning to run the Alyeska Mountain run and do Lost Lake.

"You start out with three miles and you realize the more you run, the more you can run," Cannard said.

She said when you're running with a group a marathon gets to be "no big deal."

She also said Wolf's log helped her a lot, letting her know how fast she should be going, helping her pace herself and allowing her to concentrate on speed. But more than anything else, Cannard enjoys coming back to Alaska and reuniting with the group every summer.

"At least I know a group that meets at a certain time on a certain day. And if I'm lucky, I get to run with some of them later in the week," she said.

Janecek said the reason for Cannard's improvement was hard work and dedication to the training method. He said anyone can do it if they want to follow the group's training schedule.

"It's sophisticated training. We don't just show up for a little run," he said. "If you show up at every meeting, you'll be in great shape by the end of the season."