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Taking It All In Stride At Marathon Running Camp

Waubun, Minn. (WCCO) ― On Sunday, Oct. 7, more than 10,000 people will take to the streets Minneapolis and St. Paul for the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon. Over the fall marathon season, thousands more will run in races across the country.

In the weeks before these marathons, a handful of those runners went to a week-long marathon running camp in Northern Minnesota as part of their training. Dick Beardsley, the second-fastest American marathoner ever, started it up five years ago. At the time, there was no other one like it.

"What we try to do here is not run them into the ground. We run everyday, but not a lot, but we try to teach them things that they can take back to their hometown to incorporate into their running and training programs," he said.

The 32 campers are from 13 states, Canada and the Bahamas. They range from 17 to 80 years old and each has run an average of 19 marathons. They are scientists, doctors, salesmen and even a junior in high school.

"The demographic of this group certainly mirrors what we're seeing in distance running across the board, a lot of women, higher socioeconomic, a lot of people in health care," said Beardsley.

"People who have the time and money to do something that's pretty indulgent, frankly, to come for a week," said Marathon Running Camp Director Jan Seeley.

The campers spend their days in seminars about nutrition, speed work or training in the heat. Motivational speakers come in for lunch or morning sessions.

Their strides and shapes are as different as their running shoes, but their reason for spending a week at the Rainbow Resort in Waubun, Minn. is the same: They all want to run a better marathon.

"It's just inspirational. The whole concept is inspirational," said camper Joy Johnson.

Johnson is 80 years old and this year, she will run the New York City Marathon for the 20th time in a row. She came to camp for the running tips, but stayed for the friends she's made over the years.

"It's like a pep talk a shot in the arm to make me want to continue to do what I want to do," she said.

For many campers, this is a vacation. They eat healthy meals together and sleep in cabins. Nights are for taking a break from their everyday lives.

"The cabins are great and they're fun. We have bonfires every night, drink a few beers," said camper Mike Autry. "We can work it off."

Every camper gets a body fast testing and gait analysis. Beardsley and Seeley checked out WCCO-TV's Heather Brown's running.

"Your foot plant is good, your stride is good," said Beardsley. The biggest thing he noticed was the inefficiency in her arm movements.

"Your arms are like eggbeaters. Instead of coming back ... to propel forward, you're kind of going more back and forth," he said.

Beardsley acknowledges it takes time to change habits. Bonnie McElwee has run 35 marathons and been to camp four times. She's just started to focus on her stretching.

"The first year here, if you had seen me and the way I ran -- it's amazing the difference in my run," said McElwee.

At this camp, it's not really about how many races any camper has run or how fast they ran them.

Kris Lym knows that better than anyone. She's never run a marathon and was intimidated at first. Quickly, she realized, she fit in just fine.

"We went out for our first little warm-up and there's people just like in a real marathon. All sizes, all ages," she said.

With a total of 618 marathons under their belts, all are looking forward to running the next one just a little faster.

Johnson said she plans on coming to running camp until she passes on.

"We never know about tomorrow. Tomorrow may never come for me. I don't know but I do plan to run until I drop in my shoes. That's what I'm hoping for," she said with a smile.

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