FEET, DON'T FAIL ME NOW
BEN KAPLAN, COLUMNIST
FINISH LINE LEGENDS, FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: KIM STEMSHORN, EMILY TOMISCH, ERICA FALK, DEANNA BRYANT, BEN KAPLAN, PETER SYMONS, MICHELLE MENDES, AMANDA CRANE AND REGAN CANIE. HIDING IN THE BACK: ANGELA HAMILL. PHOTO BY MELANIE WINTER
WHAT A LONG, STRANGE TRIP IT’S BEEN After training together for an entire year, Ben Kaplan reflects on his team’s journey.
P
eople, more than any one workout, any one race, are what make up a great running club. On May 3, the Feet, Don’t Fail Me Now group, which started last summer, will be competing in our final event. Along the way, we’ve lost some members, gained some new ones, and made it through our fair share of injuries and finish lines. Emily Tomisch, the heart and soul of our group, who often walked as much as she ran and never quit — even when it was -32 down on the water and our speedier members had decided to call it a night — will not be participating in our final race. Her leg gave out on her 3K into our second to last long run before the marathon The finish line,
however, is a false ending: we’re not training for a race; we’re adopting a new way of life. In my book, I talk about going from the couch to the marathon in one year. Can a nonrunner run the marathon in only 12 months? Well, that depends. Three women started our course in the middle and I saw a fit 26-year-old go from not being able to run 4K continuously to sprinting hard at the end of her 10K. Someone else started, also young and a gym devotee, and she quickly made it to 14K. She’ll be going from the couch to the half marathon in about eight weeks. Of our original eleven members, four have stuck with the entire program: Peter Symons, Angela Hamill, Erica Falk and Emily Tomisch. Peter,
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like Emily, is battling injury, though at 63 and with high blood pressure and heart problems, his uphill climb is unique. He’ll be listening to his doctor and opting for the half marathon, not the marathon, May 3. This is common sense. Erica’s doing the half marathon because she likes running quickly. I’ll be running alongside Angela, who still wants to take on the marathon: a run club can help you through training, but ultimately you have to decide what you’re running for. We’ve had lots of good speakers, including Mike Collins, with the Toronto Marathon and Kelly Arnott, with the Chilly Half. Both of the race directors encouraged our group to enjoy their events and not to put too much pressure on
their finishing times. It’s easy for me to become obsessed with my times. Melissa Piercell, nutritionist for the University of Toronto track team, told us that water translates into energy and that we should eat half of our weight in grams of protein. We had the incomparable Christa Davidson and Optimism Ninja Jim Willett offer guest coaching and Totum’s physiotherapist Lindsay Scott help us work out our core. All of these things — what we eat, how we train, how we handle our bodies — come together as we attempt to find new finish lines. We also learned a lot from Mike Anderson, the gentlemanly owner of Black Toe. May Stemshorn, who is 64 and ran nine marathons in 2014, may
have the truest outlook on our sport. In her last marathon, her finishing time was 6:59. “I could do better, but it would mean losing 30 pounds,” she said with a laugh that meant losing 30 pounds is something she’s not going to do. For May, whose daughter Kim is also a member of our run club and will be attempting the Toronto Marathon’s 42.2K, it doesn’t make sense to run a fast race: she goes slow in order to get her full money’s worth. “Remember,” she told the Feet, Don’t Fail Me Now run club, “running is something you do for you. It’s never about anyone else.” Ben Kaplan is the General Manager of iRun magazine. His first book, Feet Don't Fail Me Now, was published by Greystone Press last year.
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2015-04-09 1:19 PM