LITTLE ROCK — Women Run Arkansas is looking for volunteers to lead its 16th annual running and walking clinics in communities around the state in 2013.
“We will be having our clinic director training session in Conway on Sunday, Jan. 13, and the 10-week clinics will start the week of March 3,” says Tambra Clement, who has replaced Linda Starr as statewide coordinator.
Clement shadowed Starr during last year’s organization of clinics in 42 cities and towns, and she knows what to expect: “Yes, I am very nervous about trying to fill her big shoes and living up to the legacy she has created.”
These clinics provide group support as women follow a tried and-true training schedule that has carried thousands of once sedentary women across the finish line of the Women Can Run 5K, held every May in Conway.
They have inspired similar training programs for the Komen Arkansas Race for the Cure in Little Rock as well as a women’s beginning cycling series in Jonesboro.
The “Women Can Run/Walk” groups generally meet twice a week in public parks, at school tracks or on public trails and follow progressive walking, walking-and-running, running-and walking or running calendars provided by the club.
Participants are expected to work out a third time each week, on their own.
The training can take a beginner from sofa to 3.1 miles, or it can help an intermediate runner go that distance faster.
The program is free, but participants are urged to register for the 5K, so they’ll have a graduation event to look forward to.
More than 5,400 women and girls registered for last year’s series and, although many dropped out before crossing the finish line, leaders say such women often succeed when they undertake the training another year.
For now, Clement wants women who are interested in conducting a clinic in their town to e-mail her at [email protected] and then plan to attend the Jan. 13 session.
Women do not have to be “expert” runners or walkers to conduct a clinic, although advice from longtime runners and walkers would help. She says the leaders’ training in January allows experienced volunteers to share best practices: “This session will prepare anyone to be an effective director.”
Directing a clinic involves finding a free place to meet and obtaining permission to use it, recruiting helpers to lead small groups, scheduling and attending each workout, seeking publicity, motivating the participants and, when possible, bringing in speakers.
The annual Women Can Run/Walk 5K will be May 11 in Conway.
More information is at womenrunarkansas.net.
ActiveStyle, Pages 25 on 12/10/2012