Fittest Loser contestants race in a 5K; one still hurting
The four Fittest Loser contestants recently took their show on the road. Or actually onto the asphalt golf cart tracks at Cantigny Park near Wheaton for the Foodie 5K.
It has become a tradition for contestants in the Fittest Loser Challenge to participate in a 5-kilometer (3.1-mile) foot race. And this year that was the fourth annual Foodie 5K Run and Walk, a race to raise funds for the Northern Illinois Food Bank.
Some 1,500 people from all over Northern Illinois donated money to the food bank and followed a course around the golf course, tank displays, flower gardens and historical museums of Cantigny.
Injured
Unfortunately, not all the Fittest Loser contestants this year were able to run or walk in the 5K on April 1.
James “J.D.” DeBouver, a 33-year-old Army combat veteran from Schaumburg, remained hobbled by injury.
DeBouver had hurt his back during a Saturday morning boot camp three weeks before, then reinjured it when he slipped on ice while cleaning snow off his truck a week later. The result was a hiatus in his workouts, days off his job as an Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspector, and hours spent in bed.
When asked what he had been doing to prepare for the race, DeBouver said, “It's called resting and not doing the race because my back's still messed up.”
DeBouver said he hadn't dared to attempt either running or doing the usual three-day-a-week calisthenic workouts. But that doesn't mean he had been sitting on a couch all week.
“My wife's a professional Pilates instructor so I've been doing Pilates with her to strengthen my core and correct my posture. This injury has been tough, but Pilates has some great exercises,” he said.
“This proves that when people have different limitations, there are still things you can do to keep fit,” he added.
Training
The twice-weekly workouts and once-weekly boot camps, in which the contestants have been working with trainers from Push Fitness in Schaumburg, have concentrated on calisthenics such as burpees, squats and slams.
But some contestants also had assignments to beef up their cardiovascular fitness by doing “homework” on treadmills or by simply walking.
Contestant Penny Brown of Fox Lake, a 37-year-old Navy veteran, said, “I haven't been doing anything special to prepare for this. But I have a treadmill and I usually do 30 minutes a day on it. I alternate walking and running.”
Brown had hoped that her children, ages 9 and 11, would join her in the race, which was being run more than an hour's drive from her home in Lake County. “But one is sick today and the other was too lazy to come along,” she said.
Russell Page, a 60-year-old Air Force veteran and part-time college teacher, said he has liked to run for quite awhile.
“The year I retired, I started running 3 to 5 miles a day,” following a measured route on the streets through his neighborhood, he said. Then, on the day before his 59th birthday, he walked a 26-mile marathon on his own, by repeating a three-mile route through the neighborhood nine times.
“It took me about seven hours,” Page recalled. “In the last couple miles I was counting my blisters. I think I lost eight pounds that day.”
More recently, he has been putting in 25 minutes to an hour on a treadmill every two days.
Page said he remains inspired by an 80-year-old woman in his neighborhood who walks the same three-mile loop every day - pushing her walker in front of her.
Find your pace
Josh Steckler, owner and chief trainer of Push Fitness, was asked his advice for anyone participating in such a race.
“Try to set a simple, steady pace,” Steckler advises. “And if you can increase that as you go, great. It's better to start slow and finish strong than to start strong and finish slow.”
Tony Wiszowaty, representing the Marine Corps in the contest, started near the front of the crowd, among the “real” runners. He said his trainer, Michelle Jeeninga, had warned him about the upcoming 5K, so he had been working out on a treadmill once or twice a week using “interval training.”
“Michelle told me to run 3.8 mph for three minutes, then 4.5 mph for two minutes, then 3.0 for one minute, then 5.0 for one minute, then 3.0 for 90 seconds, then 5.5 for 45 seconds and so on.”
At Cantigny, the 68-year-old Schaumburg Realtor said, “Once I got into the spirit of it and was surrounded by all those people running, I just ran as hard as I could until I couldn't breathe. Then I'd walk for awhile. But then someone would pass me and that would spur me on to run again.”
Starting ahead of all the Fittest Loser contestants and trainers, Wiszowaty said he saw Jeeninga and trainer Steve Amsden run past him. “I had this fear that Russ Page would suddenly pass me up. So as soon as I saw the three-mile marker, I knew I had to run as hard as I could as fast as I could. Finally I saw my wife at the finish line and she asked how I was doing and I said, 'I can't breathe.'”
Page, meanwhile, started and finished somewhere behind Wiszowaty, running alongside his trainer, Josh Steckler. Page said he was able to keep running the whole time rather than slowing to a walk - something he hadn't been able to do lately in long trips aboard the treadmill.
“As we ran, Josh talked to me about breathing. He said to inhale through the nose, exhale through the mouth,” Page said. “But when I'm running I just breathe through my mouth. When I get a good rhythm, I just don't think about it and enjoy the run.”
Like Wiszowaty, Page said he turned on a burst of speed in the final yards.
Finishing strong in the 5K was another health milestone achieved by the Fittest Loser contestants as they enter the latter half of the contest. They are all motivated to keep moving forward in their journey as they eye the contest finish line ahead.