It keeps her running

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July 7, 2010 - 12:00 AM

Area native touts physical fitness

The appeal of running, Lori Gunzelman says, is its simplicity.
“It’s exercise you can do anywhere in pretty much any kind of weather,” Gunzelman said. “You can be on vacation or at home. All you have to do is step out the door and run.”
Gunzelman, an Iola native now living in Derby, will return to her hometown Friday and Saturday for the second Charley Melvin Mad Bomber Run For Your Life.
She is one of the nearly 400 registrants who have signed up for either the 5-kilometer run or 3-kilometer walk, both of which begin at 12:26 a.m. Saturday near the Iola post office.
The unusual start time marks the precise moment 105 years ago that Charley Melvin used 1,500 pounds of dynamite to destroy three illegal saloons that had set up shop in West Street in downtown Iola.
The start time in itself will present its own challenges, Gunzelman said.
“I’m usually early to bed, but all of the festivities they have leading up to the run should make it a fun event,” Gunzelman said.
Gunzelman grew up Lori Jensen, daughter of Iolans Lorenzo and Jackie Jensen.
A member of Iola High School’s class of 1990, Gunzelman teaches middle school math in Andover.
Her commitment to physical fitness began gradually through the years. She trained about 10 years ago for a 27-mile walk to benefit breast cancer research. She took up running about 21⁄2 years ago for another benefit run in Wichita.
Since then, Gunzelman’s running has become a regular part of her daily routine. She’s also convinced her family: husband Paul and daughters Kaylee and Cara to pick up the activity.
“The Wichita area is such a huge running community,” Gunzelman said. “They have small and big runs all through the year.”
The area also is ripe with trails and running courses, as is Iola with the Prairie Spirit Trail. Gunzelman runs the trail when she’s back in Iola to visit family.
“A neat thing is that Lori has involved family and friends in her healthy nutrition and exercise quests without being pushy or overbearing,” Jackie Jensen told the Register. “She has lost weight and got in shape the healthy way.”
Sure enough, Gunzelman’s siblings, Iolans Nicolle Hoepker and Lorenzo Jensen Jr. and their family and friends will join her among the runners at Friday’s Melvin run.
Gunzelman, 38, said she also hopes to see some of her former classmates there as well.

SINCE picking up running full time, Gunzelman has been able to steadily increase her distances.
The key, she said, was to start out slowly.
“It started out as what I called ‘walging,’” she said, a combination of walking and jogging.
“It was like there was an invisible wall after three or four miles,” Gunzelman said. “It seemed like once you got past that, then running longer distances became considerably easier.”
She completed a 10-mile run in Wichita last year and capped her first half-marathon this spring. Gunzelman hopes to run a full marathon in Wichita in October.
Gunzelman was on vacation in Louisiana last July at the same time of the inaugural Melvin run. Coincidentally, she had signed up for a road race there, and wound up finishing first in her age group, “the old lady division,” she joked.
Gunzelman ran the race with Iolan and former classmate Gina Storrer.
“Gina’s kids were at the Melvin run and they absolutely loved it, so I wanted to do it this year,” Gunzelman said.
She plans on a casual pace for the 5K run.
“I’m not looking to set any kind of personal record,” she said. “I just want to have fun.”

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