F I T N E S S
LIFE COACH Knowing that Tina Clossick is the co-founder of Kidzu Children’s Museum and a mom of teenagers (Keegan, 13, and Madigan, 16), one would think it’d be hard for her to fit a run in, much less 20+ miles a week and about two races a month. But she schedules running time in through group runs with Fleet Feet Sports, her new Station Pub Runners group and the Carolina Godiva Track Club. She also serves on the board of Cardinal Track Club, which puts on the Le Tour de Carrboro – including the Carrboro 10K, Gallop & Gorge 8K and Four on the Fourth – each year. Tina started running with the Chapel Hill / Carrboro Pacers Youth Running Club and continued as part of Chapel Hill High School’s 1987 state championship team. At Brevard College, she was named All-American in indoor track in 1991 and finally at UNC, she participated on the 1993 ACC Championship team. She’s worked with the Pacers on and off as a coach, even working alongside her own kids, and travels often for relay races that have taken her all over the country.
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chapelhillmagazine.com March 2017
I STARTED RUNNING AROUND THE age of 6 or 7. My dad got involved with the Chapel Hill / Carrboro Pacers. It was something that both my brother and I had an interest in doing – group activities with running. That program is now 37 years old. It was an awesome opportunity for me to spend time with my dad. I liked the competitiveness, but also the team aspect of the sport. I still have many, many friends from those years as a 6- to 12-year-old running with the Pacers. And I think that participation really influenced the rest of my life and who I became. For me, everything that I needed to learn I learned in running sports with the Pacers. You have to learn to be a member of a team, but it is an individual sport as well. You have to learn to be patient, because you have to work hard in order to get better at the sport and it’s not always fun. You have to learn to share, sharing the trail and sharing the facilities. And you have to learn to get along with a very diverse group of people, because it’s all ages and everyone has different backgrounds. You have to be willing to put up with lack of sleep for running trips. But there was so much that was fun about it that I wanted to do more and more and more. It just became part of my life and I couldn’t imagine not continuing it.” – as told to Laura Zolman Kirk CHM