The 34th Freihofer’s Run for Women isn’t until June, but starting Monday, March 19, a group of Capital Region women kicked off their training at The Crossings of Colonie.
“We’re trying to target women who might be a little more sedentary, non runners, women who always wanted to run the race but never thought they could,” said Patrick Lynskey, director of operations for the Freihofer’s Run for Women.
Last year, Lynskey helped introduce the Freihofer’s Training Challenge, a 10-week program that provides a running plan to get women in shape.
“They loved it. I heard several people say it changed their lives,” said Lynskey. “I met a woman … who still runs, she just ran the Disney Half Marathon, and is coming back to do the intermediate program because now she wants to go faster.”
The Training Challenge is modeled after the Couch-to-5k Running Plan, which teaches novice runners how to complete three miles gradually. Runners spend one day a week working out with a team at The Crossings, another day working on their own and a third day each week in a group session led by coaches, personal trainers and injury prevention specialists.
“Our mission is to create a healthy lifestyle event for women and to introduce as many women as possible to the sport of running, so this goes hand in hand with that,” said Lynskey.
Last year’s Training Challenge drew about 400 women and as of Wednesday, March 14, about 210 women had signed up for this year’s program. New to this year’s challenge is a virtual beginner and intermediate component that has 82 and 27 participants, respectively. It’s for women who want to train alone or can’t complete the full Training Challenge.
Cathy Stone, 64, tried The Training Challenge last year and returned this year for the intermediate experience.
“This year, they’re going to have intermediate so that’s why I signed up again so I could better my time,” said Stone, of Loudonville.
Stone initially signed up to participate because she wanted to learn how to run; and she did.
“I had never run in my life. It was excellent. It’s very well done, very well organized. Besides just teaching you how to run and breathe they give nutritional advice,” said Stone. “In my age group I did fantastic. I came in around 29 minutes. … I was very proud of myself.”
Stone said she would encourage women to sign up and see what they can do.
“Women should try it because even if you think you could never run even an eighth of a mile, by doing the training you’ll surprise yourself and really be able to do it,” said Stone. “It’s really fun, not a chore; a great way to do exercise.”
Women can sign up for the Training Challenge through Saturday, March 31.
Lynskey said the type of women participating runs the gambit.
“We’ve had women that did it because they needed to lose weight and women who wanted to get in better shape, get a little exercise, get out of the house,” said Lynskey. “There’s a plethora of different reasons why these women completed the training challenge.”
Runners can sign up for the Training Challenge online at www.freihofersrun.com/fc25k.htm. The challenge costs $20 and when women sign up they choose which of the three teams led by area media personalities they’d like to be on. Registration for the race on June 2 is $25.