News: 2005 Archives

1,500 seek fun, fitness in Oro Valley half marathon

Arizona Daily Star

By Kimberly Matas
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

March 14, 2005

With temperature in the 50s, more than 1,500 runners and walkers in shorts and T-shirts lined up for the start of the inaugural Arizona Distance Classic early Sunday morning.

The Oro Valley event, sponsored in part by the Arizona Daily Star, featured the Valley of Gold Half Marathon, the Northwest Medical Center 5K and the Splendido Senior Mile. It was part of the John Bingham Racing series.

Most participants weren't out to improve their times, though. They were seeking fun and fitness.

It was Claudia Gary's fifth half-marathon in the last year.

"I did my first one when I was 61, and I'm 62 now," she said.

Gary, whose parents had diabetes, recently was diagnosed with the disease.

Since she began training 18 months ago, Gary said, "I've gone down two dress sizes." And her diabetes is under control.

Merita Clark trains with Gary. She participated in the Bobbi Olson Half Marathon in December and walked the Northwest Medical Center 5K course Sunday.

"I haven't lost weight, but I feel better. My cholesterol is down. Diabetes runs in my family, so I'm trying to stave it off."

Joe Lee had planned to run the half marathon until he had unexpected shoulder surgery Wednesday. Still, with his arm in a sling, he crossed the finish line in the 5K.

"I didn't want to miss it," he said. "There's nothing wrong with my legs."

As the race began, Adam Peoble, his four children and extended family members were bundled in blankets and sitting on the sidelines. They came out to watch Peoble's wife, Lizeth, run her first half-marathon.

She was on the track team in high school. Now, "she's 28 years old and has four children and she works full time and she's running the half marathon," Peoble said.

Ongoing banter from announcers and blaring music kept spectators enthusiastic and runners motivated. At the finish line, a fit and trim Bingham - who was once overweight and unhealthy - greeted finishers with applause and high fives.

"The event," said David Babner, president of John Bingham Racing, a racing promoting firm, "is not about the competition. It's about the celebration of an active, healthy lifestyle."

"This is a party," said Bingham. "There's a little running, there's music playing ... it's not like a road race of 20 years ago."

The race attracted competitors of all ages and fitness levels, including the Wisconsin father-and-son team of John and Mike Dembinski.

Mike, 13, has run in several races while John has competed in a dozen marathons, including two Boston Marathons. They were in town visiting relatives. John Dembinski said he tries to time his annual visits with local races.

"This is one we'll come back to next year," he said. "It's a nice course, well run and you're pretty much guaranteed good weather."

Next year's Arizona Distance Classic is slated for March 12.

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John Bingham presents community celebration of healthful living

Arizona Daily Star

By Kimberly Matas
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

January 7, 2005

The Arizona Distance Classic is for Everyman—and Everywoman—from the fittest gym rat to the most dedicated couch potato.

It's designed not so much as a road race—the third in the John Bingham Racing Series—but as a community celebration to promote a healthful, active lifestyle.

"Obesity and all of this—none of it makes any sense," said Bingham, a former Chicago professor and couch potato. "Most of us have to eat less and move more."

About 10 years ago, when he was 43 years old, the 5-foot-8 Bingham tipped the scale at 240 pounds. He drank, he smoked and he liked to eat.

"I was portly, to say the least."

That's when Bingham started running.

"In my mind's eye, I thought I looked great," said Bingham—until he glimpsed his reflection as he jogged by a storefront window. Witnessing his awkward gait, Bingham dubbed himself "the Penguin."

In the mid-1990s, as Bingham continued his fitness regime, he started writing what he called his "Penguin Chronicles" for an e-mail distribution list operated by a runners group. Based on those stories, he was asked to write columns for Runner's World magazine. Bingham developed his credo from early race experience: "The miracle isn't that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start."

He's since run more than 25 marathons and hundreds of 5- and 10-kilometer races.

"It's not about winning. It's not even about competing. It's about participating," he said. "My story is not unique in any way at all. It's kind of become the universal story of this generation that's sort of changing its lives with its own two feet."

About 3,500 runners and walkers are expected to turn out for the Arizona Distance Classic half-marathon. Another 1,000 to 1,500 will take part in the 5K run-walk, and 600 to 700 volunteers will help run the event, said John Corbett. His Oro Valley store, All About Running & Walking, is one of the corporate partners putting on the race. Corbett knew Bingham when they both lived in Illinois. The friends have been working with town officials and community sponsors for two years to set up the Oro Valley race.

"We want this to be a community event," Corbett said. "John Bingham's races are not races; they are community events."

Bingham agreed. "It has been the most wonderful kind of collaborative effort with Oro Valley and that whole Northwest Side," he said. "Clearly there is a market there. It's not just a 75-and-up retirement community. There are healthy, active adults."

Each racer will receive a medal at the finish, and walkers, runners and spectators will be entertained by a polka band, clog dancers and bagpipers.

"It is going to be a party. It's going to be a celebration of a healthy, active lifestyle," Bingham said.

The difference between his races and others, Bingham said, is that he employs a full-time events coach who acts as a virtual trainer for everyone who registers for the race.

"We're not just saying, 'Hey, folks, we'll see you on race day.' We really are nurturing them from the time they sign up for the race right up until race day," he said. "It just changes the nature of the experience for those people. Suddenly they are being recognized as athletes, which is what they are."

For those on the Northwest Side who need more attention, Corbett's store offers a program with a personal trainer. The All About Running & Walking Road Crew half-marathon training team started working out early last month, but trainer Dawn Kulesa is starting a training program for the 5K on Tuesday. The cost is $89 for nine weeks.

"We really want to make sure people have a great experience . . . and that they go into it injury-free and that they are really well-prepared," Kulesa said.

Training in a group setting offers support and camaraderie, she said.

Gregg Forszt, facilities director at Ventana Medical Systems, is part of Kulesa's group. He started running a year ago after hearing Bingham speak.

"I had never even considered running in my whole life," he said. "After he spoke, I thought, if he could do it, I could do it.

"He basically told my story. He's about my age, he used to smoke, he used to drink, he used to be overweight, and I used to be all those things too."

When he started, Forszt went to Corbett's store for guidance.

"That initial program, you're supposed to run for one minute and walk for five minutes and do that for 30 minutes. Back then I couldn't run for one minute," Forszt said.

Even though the farthest Forszt has run at one time is 6 miles, he is confident he can complete the 13.1-mile half-marathon.

This will be the first half-marathon for Kim Chimene, too. She started running on her own in August and joined Kulesa's training team last month.

"I had been working out for the last couple of years with videotapes and stuff, and I kind of reached a plateau where it wasn't helping me anymore, and I thought running would be a good way to jump-start that," said Chimene, who works at Northwest Medical Center Oro Valley, sponsor of the 5K.

"I just wanted to get in better shape and do the half-marathon to kind of prove to myself I could do it—another goal to try to achieve."

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