February 2007 Archives

Running marathons
by the numbers

By Paul Baltutis

Runners are known to be number crunchers. We motivate ourselves by tracking our training miles, recording races, taking down our split times and calculating pace per mile. The only problem is that sometimes those numbers can come back to crunch us. One local runner had the weight of a heart-wrenching setback seemingly dash his hopes of achieving his goal.

It all started when local San Antonio runner, Dan Shuff (pictured right), now 71, formulated a plan in the late '90s to complete 50 marathons in all 50 states and Washington D.C. At that time, Shuff was already a seasoned marathoner, running his first in 1992 in San Antonio. Shuff's plan was to ramp up his normal pattern of completing three to four marathons a year to knocking them out at a rate of about 18 per year. At this accelerated pace, he made the 50 States and D.C. Club in 2002. You can find more information about this club on the Web site www.50statesmarathonclub.com

It was at this juncture that Shuff, then 67 years old, realized he completed most of his 50-state marathons in less than four hours. His new goal was to keep running marathons every three weeks at various places he'd like to visit, and adding to his list all the provinces of Canada. He also decided to go back to the states where he had run over four hours so that he might run those at under that time. An ambitious schedule with a catch.

The marathons he ran over four hours in were all on tough courses and in states that had only a few marathons from which to choose. Wyoming, for example, had hills, trails and higher elevation. West Virginia was extremely hilly, and Delaware had trails and a slippery, sandy course. Fortunately for Shuff, these three states added more marathon events to their race calendar. Now each state had a gentler road course that one could run in a reasonable time.

Shuff completed marathons in Wyoming and West Virginia in less than four hours with one to go in Delaware. In May 2005, Shuff entered the Wilmington, Delaware, Marathon, but was slightly under the weather and finished in an agonizingly close 4:00:07. It would appear the marathon gods just didn't want him to accomplish this numerical feat. To make it even more challenging, at age 70, he wasn't exactly getting any faster.

Mere mortals may have been deterred. Shuff just saw it as a road bump. He entered the Delaware Marathon in 2006 and left no doubt by running a 3:54. Now Shuff is one of the few "50 States and D.C. Club members" who have run all the marathons in less than four hours. In addition Shuff won his age group, 70-74, which is common for him. Probably the most remarkable component to Shuff's exploits is that he runs his races as fast as he can. His marathons are all about quality, somewhere around 9:00 minutes a mile for 26 miles.

What's next for Shuff? So far it is 164 marathons and counting. He has five more states to complete to make the Double 50 States Club. How about attempting the seven continent club? Shuff has made it to five continents and is scheduled to run the Antarctica Marathon this February. If all goes well, he will hit South America on his way back to Texas and complete the seven continents goal as well. It all goes to prove that, as long as you keep plugging along, the numbers and results will compute. You can count on it.

Paul Baltutis is the manager of Soler's Sports on 5933 Broadway in Alamo Heights. He is a certified marathon coach with Team in Training. He can be reached at (210) 930-3148 or by E-mail at sage_run03@yahoo.com.

Buckle up and use car seats
to keep your family safe

By Michelle Thomas

In 2004, 1,638 children ages 14 years and younger died in the United States as occupants in motor vehicle crashes. Half of those children were unrestrained -- no seat belt, and no car seat. Exponentially more unrestrained children are injured each year in car crashes. What makes these injuries and deaths so tragic is that they were preventable. Preventable injuries are the leading cause of childhood death and trauma, and motor vehicle crashes are the top the list of those preventable injuries and death.

Protecting a child from injury or death while riding in a vehicle should start from the first trip that child ever takes in the car. National Safe Kids and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) support a four step process of properly restraining your child from birth to adulthood when in an automobile.

Step 1: Infants should ride rear-facing until they reach at least one year of age and until they reach a weight of over 20 pounds. You can keep them rear-facing longer if you have a car seat that has higher weight limits.

Step 2: Toddlers weighing more than 20 pounds should ride in a forward-facing, upright safety seat with a five-point safety harness. Toddlers should remain in this type of seat until they exceed the height or weight limits of the seat, usually at about 40 pounds or four years old. The height and weight limits can be found on the labels on the seat. When a child outgrows the five-point harness system, he or she is ready to use a booster seat.

Step 3: This is a very important step, and one that many parents skip. A booster seat is used to raise a child up higher so the vehicle's safety belt fits the child properly. After all, the safety belt is made to fit an adult, not a child.

Booster seats should always be used with a shoulder and lap combination safety belt, not a lap belt only. The shoulder strap should go over the child's collarbone and across the middle of the chest to restrain the child properly in the event of a crash or rollover. never allow the child to put the shoulder strap behind his back or under his arm. This could cause severe internal injuries in a crash. The lap portion of the safety belt should be worn low on the hips or on the lap, not in front of the soft, vulnerable stomach area.

Step 4: The last step is using a safety belt only while riding in a vehicle. A child can move to this step when the safety belt fits him or her as described above. If the child tries to place the belt behind his or her back or under the arm, this means that the child should still be in a booster seat. Safety advocates recommend that a child stay in a child safety seat or booster seat until his or her knees reach the edge of the seat when he is sitting up straight and he is tall enough so that the seat belt fits him comfortably and correctly. Children usually reach this stage at about 80 pounds, 8 years of age, or 57 inches tall. A child may be able to use a safety belt properly in some cars and not in others because of the differences of vehicle seats and seat belt systems.

Children should always ride in the back seat if possible. If this is not an option, the child should slide the front seat back as far as possible, especially if the car is equipped with a passenger side air bag. Never place a rear-facing child seat in front of an air bag. The force of the impact could kill an infant.

Texas law mandates all children age four and under and less than 36 inches in height must be properly restrained in an appropriate child safety seat, and all children under 17 be buckled in, both in the front and back seats.

Safety belts for Mom & Dad
The issue of child passenger safety is a growing concern, but using a safety belt is not limited to children. The safety belt is there to protect any person in the event of a crash. Parents, if you die, who will be there to take care of your children? Parents are always setting an example for their children. Studies have shown that if the parents buckle themselves in, they are much more likely to buckle their children in as well. According to NHTSA, almost 40 percent of children riding with unbelted drivers were themselves unrestrained. Children are more likely to continue to wear seat belts as they get older if they see their parents doing it.

What about that friend who rides with you everywhere, but refuses to wear a seat belt because it is uncomfortable, it wrinkles her clothes or says it just isn't cool? If you are involved in a crash (most crashes are not accidents; they are preventable), anyone not restrained will be thrown around the interior of your car and may potentially hurt you or your child. Tell your passenger to buckle up for your child's safety, if not for his own. By the way, if you are in the front seat, it is the LAW to wear your seat belt, even if you are in the passenger seat.

Seat belts and car seats save lives!
There are so many dont's in child passenger safety; who can remember them all? The answer is to remember the dos. Do buckle your child and yourself in every time you ride in the car. Do require everyone who rides in your car to buckle up. If you have a question about a car seat, your seat belts or any child passenger safety-related question, Do visit www.safekids.org or www.nhtsa.gov. And Do remember that Child Passenger Safety Week is the week of Valentine's Day, so celebrate safety for life! Remember, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and a $90 car seat is worth a child's life.

Michelle Thomas is the worksite wellness liaison for Steps to a Healthier San Antonio, a program of the San Antonio Metro Health District. The program is funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as part of Steps to a Healthier US, a national program focusing on the prevention of diabetes, obesity and asthma and addressing related risk factors - poor nutrition, physical inactivity and tobacco use and exposure.

Keep motivated by
working toward a goal

By Shelley R. Probber, Psy.D.

I don't believe in New Year's resolutions. They are often discarded shortly after they are set down, and then most of us are left feeling as if we have failed. I do, however, believe in setting realistic, yet challenging, goals for myself. Goals are important, since they set the course for your training and athletic pursuits throughout the year. Goals can keep you focused and help maintain motivation during times when the eagerness to keep pushing wanes.

Many amateur athletes choose the goal of simply completing a race of a particular distance. Completing your first marathon or your first triathlon is an admirable and realistic goal for most. However, once you have succeeded in achieving such a goal, it is important to establish new goals. These goals should be challenging enough to push you just past the limit of what you have done in the past. In fact, it might be important to set some goals that you are just not sure you will attain. Yes, this is a risk. However, it also propels you to push yourself further and see what your body -- and mind -- will allow you to accomplish.

Setting performance goals will help you to analyze your performance and objectively identify ways to improve. While you want to set realistic goals for yourself, it is also important to set goals that are just a bit further than you are sure you will achieve. These goals must also be what you truly want to pursue and achieve. If you decide to pursue a goal that someone else has decided for you, it is likely that you will not stay with it, and you will have difficulty mustering the long-term motivation required to push through the more challenging parts of working toward the goal.

So how do you set realistic, yet challenging, goals for yourself? First, look back at the past year. Did you achieve the goals you set out for yourself last year? If not, why not? Examine the reasons why you didn't reach those goals.

If you did achieve some of your goals, what is next for you? More distance? Faster times? Look back at your previous year's races and/or accomplishments and examine each with an objective eye that does not pass judgment. Rather than become critical with yourself for failing, look dispassionately at your performance and study what you did or did not do that led to your not meeting the goal. Once you have been honest with yourself about your past achievements, you can set goals that will challenge you, while not overwhelming you.

Goal-setting requires many steps
First, establish a long-term goal for yourself. Perhaps you want to run a faster 5K or complete your first marathon. Maybe you want to ride your first century bike ride.

Once you have decided on a long-term goal, write it down. You won't commit to your goal if you keep it a secret. Tell others. Make it real.

Deciding on a long-term goal means that your plans are specific and concrete. If your goal is to run a faster 5K, decide how much faster. If your best 5K time was twenty-seven minutes, perhaps you want to come in thirty seconds faster. If you want to complete your first marathon, choose one and register for it. Find a century ride and sign up. Once you have selected a long-term goal, you can now break this down into shorter goals. These short-term goals will allow you to focus your training and allow you to feel progress as you move toward the longer term goal.

As you identify your goals, remember that you are not the goal. Whether or not you achieve your goal or fall short, that outcome does not define who you are. Running faster or riding that century has little or nothing to do with your value as a human being or as an athlete. However, being willing to challenge yourself and risk confronting your fears may be important in allowing you to reach your potential as an athlete and as a person.

Shelley R. Probber is a licensed psychologist in private practice in San Antonio. Her practice encompasses children and adults, with a focus on athletes. 

Nurse turned triathlete
always wins her race

By Kelly A. Goff
Photography by Robert French

A stay-at-home mom in her mid-30s, Carol Masters suddenly found herself with a little more free time on her hands. Her two girls, then ages 10 and 13, were becoming more self-sufficient and it allowed Carol to start focusing on herself again. It was about this time when Dr. Kenneth Cooper's groundbreaking book called Aerobics started to reverberate nationwide. Soon he and his wife Mildred published a book called Aerobics for Women that caught Carol's attention. "I was probably 20 pounds overweight and was excited to find this 12-week aerobics program especially for women," she recalls. "A neighbor and I followed the program religiously for 12 weeks. At the end of it, we still couldn't run a half mile without stopping, but we had definitely improved!" Masters was keen on continuing, but her friend had other priorities. "That's when I found out you couldn't depend on anyone else for physical fitness motivation."

Tragic turning point
Soon she was back at work as an ICU nurse in a cardiac care unit where 90 percent of the patients were obese or inactive, mostly in their 50s or 60s. She would ask patients how much exercise they got and often got replies like, "Oh honey, I can't even walk around the block!"

There was one patient who's outcome made a huge impact on Masters. "I will never forget a 37-year-old woman who came in with a heart attack," she remembers. "She died. I looked at her at thought, she's my age."

After that the head nurse of the unit encouraged all of her nurses to become more physically active. The nurse had been overweight but had started running marathons, and the staff had seen the pounds melt away. "Not only did she emphasize physical activity, she encouraged us to take courses in stress management and assertiveness training," said Masters. "She ended up coaching me for my first marathon."

Hooked
In 1981, Carol Masters ran in the New York City marathon -- the first of many foot races. It took her a year to train for it. She crossed the finish line after four hours and 47 minutes. "I was hooked! As a result of disciplining myself and sticking to a training program I had realized a major goal," she says enthusiastically. "I realized it was transferable to anything else in life -- just set goals, map out steps and make it happen. It helped solidify my self-confidence."

She ran the Marine Corp marathon in '82, Montreal in '83 and continued running for the next 10 years. "I really enjoy being outside and sweating -- it's a good way to detoxify your body. At the time I lived in New Jersey, which has a lot of rural roads and scenic places to run, like the Jersey Shore." She traces her love of the outdoors to her long walks to and from school as a child in Indiana. "Taking the school bus wasn't an option, so we walked 3-4 miles each day. I liked looking at the birds, watching the leaves turn colors and playing kick the can," reminisces Masters.

Time to Tri
Like many runners, Masters gravitated to triathlons, which combine a swim, cycle and run. She moved to Texas in '92 and joined a local running group. Gradually the allure of triathlons started to penetrate, but she was nervous about cycling because she had no experience with road bikes and knew her swimming was not top-notch. In '99, she competed in the Danskin Women's Triathlon in Austin, completing the half-mile swim, 12-mile bike and 3-mile run in the company of thousands of strong, active women. She was so inspired she immediately signed up for a half Ironman (1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike, 13-mile run) in Lubbock.

"I finished absolutely last," she says with a laugh. "But I learned so much about my limitations, my need to train better and get an overall better training program. I also learned what hills were!" Perhaps most importantly, Masters learned that for her at least, it's not about winning first place. "For me, these events are about finishing -- completing a goal. Anyone who finishes is a winner in my book," says Masters.

Trying a little harder
After her first half Ironman experience, Carol was determined to compete in a full-length Ironman competition, which consists of a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike and 26.2-mile marathon. She started gathering information and formulating a plan. Paula Newby-Fraser's book, Peak Fitness for Women, became her foremost guidepost. Known as the "Queen of Kona," Newby-Fraser is a seven-time Hawaii Ironman champion. "That book opened my eyes to all kinds of things I could improve on," Masters says. "It was the beginning of better nutrition for me. I joined a master's swim team and also started weight training with Sylvia Smith, a personal trainer."

Along with eating more fruits and vegetables, she started swimming with coach Marcia Marcantonio from Northside Aquatics. "She told me if I committed to swimming three times a week, every week for a year, that I would be ready for an Ironman," Masters recalls. Most triathletes have a weak sport and Masters readily admits swimming is hers. "I count myself lucky that I even know how to swim!" she laughs. "It's somewhat mental with me, but I also don't have the body type and since I didn't do it in high school or college, so I never developed the muscle memory for it."

Only half joking, Coach Marcantonio asked her after a few weeks of swimming, "You want to swim how far by when?" Masters was not deterred. She kept her positive attitude and continued getting up at 4 a.m. three times a week, determined to improve. "It's taken me a long time to actually enjoy swimming," she shares. "But now I do. It's extremely relaxing and has helped improve my biking and running because it's such a good aerobic workout."

All three of the triathlon disciplines require strong abdominal or "core" muscles. Masters found out it's not enough to just swim, bike and run. That's where her weight training and stretching came into play. "Cross-training added a whole new dimension to my fitness level," she says. When she competed in her first Florida Ironman in 2000 at the age of 57, she did well, completing the race in 16 hours and 46 minutes. Whereas her first marathon left her feeling incredibly self-confident, a sense of empowerment accompanied her at the Ironman finish line.

"You learn to dig deep. Testing yourself helps you discover who you are and how strong you really are," shares Masters. "Everyone has it in them. When you push your physical limits, it helps you expand your mental limits. It's the endless training that strengthens your mental fortitude, allowing you to really dig deep and finish. The best part is -- it transfers to daily life. It's an amazing life lesson that I could not have learned without the help and support of my children, husband, friends, coaches and local sports clubs."

Big finish
At the fresh age of 62, Masters competed in the Florida Ironman in 2005 and not only finished, she shaved off a whopping 23 minutes from her previous Ironman time five years prior. "I had a phenomenal day," she gushes. "I took seven minutes off my swim time and 16 minutes off my bike. I had been cycling with local clubs in San Antonio and was more comfortable and efficient on my bike. I felt strong on the run and finally figured out how to fuel my body for 17 hours of exertion. It took some tweaking, but I knew it was going to be my last full distance Ironman, so I was determined to do my best."

Today, Masters continues to exercise daily, but has no plans for anymore Ironman distance events. She discovered being an Ironman triathlete is a full-time job and now that she's realized her goals, is content to find a little more balance in her life. 'll continue to do smaller events, but right now I'm happy spending time with my husband, grandchildren and volunteering."