Tuesday marked the first day of the 10 Weeks to the 10K program sponsored by the United Rehab Center. For the third straight year, the program will give runners all the necessary information to help them safely compete in the Greater Clarksburg 10K.
Day one of the program offered participants the opportunity to have a physical and make sure that they are medically able to participate.
"What we are trying to do is look at the individual's fitness level, and by doing that we'll get them into a running group that is at their level," Family Medicine Physical Therapist John Pulice said. "We have a walking group, a walk and run group, a beginning running group, an intermediate running group and a group for advanced runners. We have group leaders and each week after the speakers we take them out on the course."
Each Tuesday for the next nine weeks the group will meet at 6 p.m. in the auditorium of the Christ Episcopal Church, and each week the group will be presented with speakers, who either have a medical background or a background in running who will talk to them about race strategy.
"In the first class next week we have two speakers," Pulice said. "Valerie Dunleavy is a local massage therapist, and she is actually going to talk about yoga and stretching for runners, which is a different type of topic, but it is important that runners stretch before and after a run."
The second speaker will be Steve Rankin. Rankin is a therapist from URC, who will talk about training from an exercise perspective as well as from a nutrition perspective.
After class, the participants will break into their groups and hit the course for the first time.
It's not too late for anyone interested in participating in the program.
"They can show up, well get them registered and we'll be happy to have them," Pulice said.
Anyone with questions can call United Rehab Center at: 842-3898 or 623-2330.
Sports writer Shawn Yonker can be reached at 626-1444.
