After 5: On the Run

“You just have to make time for it,” says Richard Johnson, Missouri State University professor of computer information systems, who has finished 90 marathons.

“Maybe sometimes you leave out some things – like fixing up the house,” he jokes.

Angie Weidinger, KOLR/KSFX anchor, is training for her second marathon.

“Tomorrow, I have a shoot at 8 a.m., and I always run in the morning. That just means I’m going to have to get up really early,” she says. “If it’s a priority, you do it.”

Johnson, who just ran a 100-mile race, began running in 1980. He noticed he was gaining weight at age 26 and decided to take action. After seeing TV coverage of the Boston Marathon, he knew a marathon was what he wanted to try.

Also inspired by TV coverage, Becky Lowrance, director of operations for Sweet Magnolia Tours in Branson, has run 72 marathons, including at least one in every state. She watched coverage of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles and was inspired by the American who won the first women’s marathon included in the games.

“I believe we’re the same age,” Lowrance remembers. “I was already a runner, and I was doing some shorter races, but I hadn’t done a marathon and hadn’t really even thought too much about a marathon. But I’m watching her on TV and I’m thinking, ‘I’ve got to do one of those.’”

Lowrance runs 50 to 70 miles per week when training for a marathon, and says if you enjoy it, you’ll schedule for it just like anything else. Her latest marathon was in Seoul, South Korea, last April, where she represented the 50 States Marathon Club as one of only two female runners nominated to receive an all-expenses paid trip to the race.

Danny Tervol, an investment broker with Andrew Garrett Inc., was a Marine for 21 years, so running was part of his life before attempting a marathon. One of Tervol’s five marathons was in Dublin, Ireland, with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team In Training program.

“I raised funds for charity and went on a foreign adventure at the same time,” he says.

Team In Training participants range from novices to experienced runners. Weidinger ran her first marathon with the program in San Francisco.

Team In Training Campaign Manager Sheila Boutwell likes to tell people, “If you can run from the couch to the bathroom, grab your Pepsi and get back to the couch by the end of the commercials, we can train you to finish a marathon.”

Tervol professes he runs marathons for the health benefits and camaraderie. The Ozark Mountain Ridge Runners is a running club that Tervol, Weidinger and Lowrance all participate in and for which Johnson runs the Web site.

“OMRR is a great way to meet people and get encouragement, ideas, advice on running and training,” adds Lowrance.

So how does one get started?

“You just get a pair of shoes and go out the front door,” Johnson says.

Marathon Memories

Angie Weidinger, KOLR/KSFX anchor, who is training for her second marathon reminisces: “That first marathon I ran, I ran it completely wrong. I got to mile 17, and they tell you, ‘You’re going to run into a brick wall.’ I hit a brick building. It was awful. I thought, ‘What am I doing?’ I stopped and started walking. I had covered it at the (TV) station that I was running in a marathon, and I’m thinking to myself, ‘I’m going to have to go back and tell everybody I quit because I can’t do this.’ But there’s something inside of you that says, ‘Yes, you can.’ After you do it, you feel like, ‘I can do anything.’”

Upcoming Runs

Nov. 4 – Bass Pro Shops Marathon and Maynard Cohick Half Marathon, www.basspro.com/fitness

Nov. 22 – Turkey Trot (5K), www.parkboard.org

Dec. 30 – Run for the Ranch (5K, 10K, half marathon, marathon), www.omrr.org

Running on the Web

www.omrr.org

www.teamintraining.org

www.ridgerunnersports.com

www.marathonguide.com

www.50statesmarathonclub.com