Distance running 'like an addiction'

BY JOHN DECOSTE

jdecoste@kentvilleadvertiser.ca

NovaNewsNow.com

It took a while for her to get into it, but now that Pauline Leyte has taken up distance running, she can’t get enough of it. “I like the challenge,” she says. “I found running 5km was a challenge; 10km was a challenge. Now I’m on to longer distances. It’s like an addiction.”

Leyte, a 48-year-old mother of two and grandmother of one, is one of three Canning-area residents currently training for this fall’s Valley Harvest Marathon.

Though she has running ‘in her genes’ – her brother Victor Hickey is a veteran marathoner and ‘super-marathoner’ – Leyte began running in earnest only a year ago. “I started training to do the Lung Run (a 5K run) last August,” she says. “I finished in the top three in my age group and raised $480 besides.” She then did the Breast Run, another 5km run for charity, in October of 2007. “Over the winter I walked a lot and ran short distances on my own. When spring came, I felt a bit bored. I wanted to run further, but I didn’t want to do it by myself.”

Then she learned Canning Recreation was sponsoring a running clinic to prepare runners for the KFROG run in memory of former Canning resident Kristen French. “A large number of people turned out to train for 5km and 10km distances,” says Shannon Read, an organizer of the KFROG run. “Pauline, Emma Crowson-Mooy and Jill Keddy decided they were up to the 10K distance. They all ran it, and did really well.”

From there, Leyte, Crowson-Mooy and Keddy decided to run the half marathon this fall.

On 16-week training schedule

The three women have begun a 16-week training schedule under Read’s direction. “We created an online community for our clinic called ‘Blomidon Country Runners’,” Read says. “Now we’re called the ‘Blomidon Country Fitness Connection’. It allows people to get together, share news and stories and post coming events.”

At the time we spoke, Leyte and her two fellow marathon trainees were up to 16 kilometres on their long run, which is done each Sunday. “We’re working ourselves up to 21 km, the length of a half marathon,” she says.

Asked what she likes about running, Leyte said, “it’s hard to explain. Growing up, I always wanted to be involved in sport, but in a team sport, not something like running. I thought I’d try soccer, but when the running clinic came along, I went for that. “This way,” she says, “I get to run and be part of a group, too. It’s definitely better to do it together. The more, the merrier.”

Leyte is looking forward to the challenge of the half marathon. “If I get along okay,” she says, “I might even try the full marathon next year.”

Looking for three races right now

More immediately, Read’s plan is to find “three race weekends” between mid-July and the marathon in October, the first of which will be the Bridgetown Triathlon Aug. 3. “We’re allowed to enter teams of three to do the triathlon, with our runners doing the 5km running portion,” Read says. She’s looking to do the same sort of thing at the Guysborough Triathlon in late August, where the run portion will be 10km. “I’d also like to find a 15K race sometime later this summer,” she says. “If I can’t find one, we may have to make up our own course,” possibly in collaboration with another training group that has been set up in the Centreville area.

As for her personal goals, Leyte says, “to run the half marathon for now and go from there. Keeping at it is the hardest part. I’ve always been a busy person,” she adds, though in distance running - as in life - “it’s important to learn to pace yourself.”