Teresa Prego, Age 43
After running track and cross-country (on the boys’ team – girls didn’t have cross-country then!) in high school, and playing other sports in college but continuing to run as a means of conditioning, I had been running off and on, never too competitively. After my third child, however, I got back into running regularly as a way to lose some of the baby weight that seemed to be stubbornly sticking with me! By the time baby #4 arrived, I had started racing some local events to give myself goals, and to keep motivated. With the baby jogger in tow, I started increasing my distances, and met with some success in smaller local races. Inspired by this, I began to read up on training tips and ways to better my times. I experimented with track workouts on my own, but found them incredibly boring, so tended to drop them off of my weekly regime. After having one of my daughters at Children’s Hospital for an extended stay and follow-up care, I was inspired to run the Boston Marathon for Children’s, as a way to give back to an institution that had done so much good for our family. Training for Boston and really increasing my distances, I found I really enjoyed the running and training, and the people I met along the way. That first Boston was tough, but I found that I was hooked!
More serious about finding people to train with, I started looking around at running clubs. When a friend told me of one that was relatively local, and composed of women, I thought I would give it a try. After 2 trials on the track with the Suburban Striders, I decided this was the group for me. A wonderful group of supportive women with all kinds of motivation, goals, and backgrounds, the conversation is always interesting, and training partners both on and off the track can be found. With this group and the support of coach Cathy, I set some goals for myself to really see what I could do. My first goal was to get to a half marathon time under 1:50, which seemed to be really tough for me. I seemed to be consistently finishing at about 1:54. With a mix of distance and speed work (which is far more enjoyable with a group of pals to complain with!), I did the 2006 Disney Half in 1:48! I was excited by the results, and decided to see what I could do with my 5k time. Stuck at 22:something, my goal was to drop under 22 minutes. Cathy suggested more short speed work, something that I had not really done in my marathon training. Sticking to her workouts on the track, and joining up with other striders for races and runs on the weekend has paid off – July 4th in Needham, on a very flat course (thanks Cathy and Carol for the recommendation!) resulted in a time of 21:48, my first time dropping under 22 since well before the kids came along! And as a side benefit of all of this training, at the annual Needham Track Club parent/child meet, I posted the fastest Mom mile time (6:39), matched by two of my girls posting the fastest times in their age groups, taking team Prego to victory! Granted, this is not a world class event, but it felt good to run with my girls and have all of us meet with success.
Running with this group of supportive, interesting and fun women, along with a coach willing to tailor advice based on individual goals has been a great way for me to get a bit more serious about running, while enjoying it enormously as well. Four Bostons and many races later, I’m both pleased and proud to be part of a team of women who share my love of running, and who support each others’ efforts and successes. And the team attire coordinated by our fashion maven, Sharon, has been a great way to enhance my workout wardrobe as well...