Think running a 5K is beyond your reach?
Beginning April 6, free Saturday morning running clinics will be offered leading up to the Mad Bomber July 12 midnight run.
Personnel from the Iola Police Department and Thrive Allen County will conduct the clinics, which will meet each Saturday morning at 9 o’clock to start training for the 5K. The first session meets at Allen Community College.
Groups will be split up into advanced and beginners, so everyone can get involved, officer Mike Ford said.
“This is designed for people of all fitness ranges. You don’t have to have exercised on a regular basis to join,” Damaris Kunkler, Thrive program director said.
The group will start off slow. The first three Saturdays participants will stretch, walk and learn healthy ways to get fit for a 5K.
For the following 10 Saturdays people will meet in front of the Iola Post Office, the beginning of the Mad Bomber race, and slowly build up stamina.
Ford said there are 16,404 feet in a 5K, which runners will divide into 10 Saturdays and every Saturday they will run 1,640 until they have run a full 5K at the end of the program.
The runners will following the Mad Bomber route.
Joining is free and each participant will receive a folder with information including maps of the run so if they can’t make a Saturday or if they want to start walking or running it more than once a week they can.
T-shirts can be purchased for $5. Registration begins today and can be done at the Thrive office on 2 E. Jackson Ave. For more information contact Thrive at 365-8128.
Iola running group to begin
