Runners’ mental mettle

News

October 13, 2012 - 12:00 AM

With the Allen County Meltdown in its final weeks, three Iolans share their stories of how a renewed commitment to exercise and diet has given them a new lease on life.
Nicolle Hoepker:
Exercise good outlet
for busy mom
Nicolle Hoepker would be the first to admit she doesn’t experience a “runner’s high” — that time when the mind loses sight of the fact the body is hard at work — as she logs long distances.
“The only time I feel that release is when I’m done running,” she said.
Still, Hoepker said running provides her an outlet, physical and mental.
“It’s probably the only time I’m truly alone,” the busy mother of three said. “I enjoy the quiet time. For me, running is a mental game. I push through the pain, then afterward, I’m very happy I’ve done it.”
Hoepker will run 13.1 miles, a half-marathon, Sunday in Wichita’s Prairie Fire Race.
“I’d originally planned to do the full marathon, but when school started, things got too hectic and I began to fall behind scheduled runs.”
Hoepker and her husband, Justin, have three children, Rayce, 14, Chassis, 13, and Speed, 11.
Hoepker began training on Memorial Day and worked up to 12-mile runs by August.

“I was religious about getting my runs in. This will be her second year in a row to run the half-marathon in Wichita.
HOEPKER’S first taste of running began in 2010 when she and friend Lori Cooper trained for Iola’s late-night Charlie Melvin Mad Bomber run.
“It’s always good to have a buddy,” Hoepker said. “It keeps you responsible.”
Hoepker and Cooper followed an online “Couch Potato to 5K,” program to get into the habit of running.
“I hadn’t run a mile since junior high track,” said Hoepker, 38.
The program had the women walk with 30-second stints of jogging interspersed every few blocks.
“After three days, we could run a quarter-mile,” she said.
By July, the women could do the 3.1-mile Mad Bomber run with ease. “We were surprised. It wasn’t that hard,” she said.
Twelve members of Hoepker’s family participated in that year’s Mad Bomber run/walk.
Hoepker is the daughter of Lorenzo and Jackie Jensen, owners of J&J Contractors, where Hoepker works as office manager.
Hoepker’s sister, Lori Gunzelman, a teacher in Andover, will run the 26.2-mile marathon in Sunday’s race.
“That’s why I was geared to do the marathon, too,” Hoepker said of her sister’s efforts.
Is it still a goal?
“We’ll see,” she said. “Maybe when the children get older. Right now, I’m content with the half. It’s still quite an effort and I feel good I’m able to do it.”
Rhonda Sigg
“I got my life back.”
Not many of us get a wake-up call so loud that it changes our lives.
Rhonda Sigg, 61, has received not one, but two, such alerts.
In 2004, Sigg was diagnosed with an aggressive type of breast cancer. She survived its removal and treatment and used the scare to put her health as a priority.
Then at a doctor’s appointment in 2009, Sigg was told she had a 60 percent chance of her cancer returning because she was overweight.
“I had the kind of cancer that was stimulated by estrogen,” Sigg said. And because fatty tissue creates estrogen, every extra pound was a life-threatening enemy.
“All I could think about was my grandchildren, and how I want to be there for them,” she said.
So Sigg readily agreed to participate in a study conducted at the University of Kansas Medical Center to see if weight loss and a healthier lifestyle would reduce her chances of the cancer coming back.
Once a week Sigg traveled to KU Med to attend meetings that taught a group of 15 women healthier ways to cook, portion control, and the benefits of exercise.
“They told me I needed to lose 35 pounds,” she said. When Sigg is feeling her oats, she’s all of five feet tall.
That she needed to lose weight wasn’t news.
“I’d been on one kind of diet or the other my entire life,” she said. “It was when I viewed this as a change in lifestyle, not as a weight loss program, that I could embrace it.”
A DIETICIAN taught the women how to read food labels, count calories, and eliminate certain foods to get each within their specific caloric ranges. For Sigg, bread was out. Cheese, for the most part. And her Achilles heel – fattening desserts.
“I’ve had ice cream twice in three years and I can honestly say I don’t miss it. Frozen strawberries whipped into a protein shake is every bit as delicious.”
Of her former diet, Sigg said, “I knew I didn’t feel great, but I didn’t think I felt bad.”
The switch to more fresh fruits and vegetables also helped her husband, Herb, who was battling high cholesterol.
As the weight fell off slow and steady, Sigg picked up exercising. First goal, to move more.
“We were to walk 10,000 steps a day. A pedometer told me I was averaging 3,000.”
Sigg hit the streets, walking with friends. When the weather turned cold, a treadmill sufficed.
“I was walking a good mile,” she said. Good, but not great.
Which is when her son-in-law, Andy Hineman, gently suggested she try running on a track.
“I couldn’t run one quarter of a lap,” she said of the quarter-mile distance. But she kept at it, every day. “It made me feel so good. The next week, I managed to run half a lap.”
In two months, Sigg was able to run four laps, one mile.
By spring, Sigg was given a challenge. To run a 2K, 1.1 miles, in a race – out in public.
“I had to let go of thinking everybody’s watching me. Truth is, nobody’s looking.”
The day of the race, “I was a nervous. I’d never done anything like this by myself before. Being so short, I felt lost in that big crowd.”
Just before the gun sounded, Sigg’s three-year-old grandson pulled her down to his level and whispered in her ear, “ Grandma, I know you can do it.”
“And I thought, you know, I think I can.”
Crossing the finish line, “was the most freeing moment in my life. I knew then that even though I’ve had cancer, I’m OK. The race gave me back control over my body. That was the true beginning of this new lifestyle.”
SIGG NOW starts most days with a run. “If I run in the morning, it’s guaranteed I’ll have a good day,” she said.
In April, she ran the Rock the Parkway half-marathon in Kansas City. Again, her son-in-law put the bug in her ear that she could do the 13.1 mile run. This time she had her good friend, Lisa Lower, as a companion.
“Lisa’s good sense of humor and confidence helped me a lot,” Sigg said of the grueling effort.
She also was running with a purpose.
Two years ago a young family of four from Scott City was killed in an airplane crash. The family was good friends of Sigg’s daughter, Libby, husband, Andy, and their two children. The young couple were avid runners and big Kansas State fans.
“About mile 8 I was beginning to fade,” Sigg said of the race. “Then I saw this little girl in a K-State purple dress dancing on the sidelines. She was just like the one we lost. I felt a wind beneath my wings that lifted me.
“When I finished the race, it was an out-of-body experience. I still had some energy left. I never once dreamed I could do something like this.”
Jason Franklin
Marathon Man
Half a lifetime ago, Jason Franklin figured running would always be a part of his life. He was on the cross country team at Iola High School. In 1997 he was on the team that placed third at the state meet in Wamego..
After high school he ran for one year at Allen Community College.
Franklin, 33, was a Marv Smith prodigy, continuing long after graduation to help the high school cross country and track coach at local meets.
“I never thought I’d give up running,” he said.
In 2004, Franklin hung up his shoes.
“I got busy doing other things,” he said. He took on a job with the City of Iola as a service technician. In 2010, he married Lhen.
“And I got fat,” he said. Over the past eight years Franklin put on 30 pounds, going from 170 pounds to 214.
It wasn’t until last fall, when Franklin was helping with the Doc Stiles cross country race that something clicked.
“I dug out my running shoes and went out and ran that course,” Franklin said. “It was hard. I can definitely tell a difference between now and when I was 18.”
So just like Marv coaches his student athletes, Franklin started at square one. “I started out slow and worked myself back into shape. During the winter I joined a gym, ran on the treadmill and lifted weights. I quit drinking pop – a Marv thing.
“When the weather got nice, I turned in my key and started running outside.”
For those who think it can’t possibly be that easy, Franklin says, “it is.”
“It’s all about you and what you want. Don’t think about what others are doing. You don’t want to hurt yourself; just be active. And if you have a beautiful day, take advantage of it.
“I can tell you I now feel so much better. I have energy.”
FRANKLIN’S first race in 2011 was Iola’s Jingle Bell Jog, a fun run on a blistery cold day. This year, he’s done numerous 5Ks, including last weekend’s Biblesta. With those successes under his belt, Franklin began to push himself and add more miles to his runs. Since spring, he’s run three half-marathons, the Joplin Memorial Run, Storm the Dam in El Dorado, and Rock the Parkway in Kansas City.
“After each half-marathon, I’d say I’ll never do that again,” he said. “It was pretty tough.”
Come Sunday Franklin is going to run the 26.2-mile marathon at Wichita’s Prairie Fire race.
“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do. I’m battling shin splints, but I definitely have the lungs to go the distance.”
To train, Franklin mainly sticks to area roads. Occasionally he’ll run the rail trail from Iola to Carlyle and back. He’s averaged 7-8 miles a day, getting in a few 17-mile runs.
His main concern Sunday is taking it easy.
“I’m competitive and it’s very hard to stay back. When I start passing people then I just want to go for it. That’s not a good strategy for the marathon. This will be a different kind of challenge than I’ve ever faced before.
“I always have a kick at the end of a race. I’m hoping that’s the case Sunda

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