Born to run

Get on track with the Road Runners Club

Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Laurie DeWitt⁄The Gazette Hit the ground running: Members of the Montgomery County Road Runners Club make their way to the track in Rockville. The club meets at various Montgomery County locations nearly every day of the week. Click here to enlarge this photo Laurie DeWitt⁄The Gazette When you’re miling, the whole world miles with you — or at least the members of the Montgomery County Road Runners Club do. Members meet weekday evenings at locations around the county to finesse their strides and talk technique. Their mantra is that there’s ‘‘a place for every pace.”

‘‘We developed a motto,” says Janet Newburgh, a former vice-president, president and board member of MCRRC. ‘‘A place for every pace.”

Newburgh’s own pace is an impressive one. Since running her first marathon in 1988, the Rockville scientist has completed the grueling 26 miles, 385 yards in every state in the union. It’s an elite club, and a small one — unlike MCRRC.

‘‘It’s a very supportive club,” she says. ‘‘You can get involved very easily: running, volunteering. And the club has all these races you can enter, and most are free (to members).”

Running coaches, running buddies, guidance, motivation, inspiration — the Montgomery County Roadrunners Club offers support to veterans, newbies and everyone in between.

Tonight is the last of the summer runs at Montgomery College; starting Sept. 20, the club meets under the lights at Thomas S. Wootton High School in Rockville.

‘‘Our races are set up so that anyone who can do a 15-minute run can participate,” says Newburgh, who works at NIH and has just a trace of a drawl from her native Oklahoma. ‘‘We have all kinds of training programs — for women, for beginners, co-ed — and we have a lot of events for kids.”

Running coaches like Kirt West offer training advice; there’s a Stride Clinic available and a ‘‘virtual nutritionist” online.

But mostly, MCRRC is about people: people who love to run and love to share their enthusiasm with others.

Running buddies

MCRRC WEEKLY WORKOUTS Monday, 7 p.m. Run from 5 to 7 miles on trails in the summer and roads in the winter. Kentlands Clubhouse, 485 Tschiffely Square Road, Gaithersburg Tuesday Track Workout, 6:30-7:30 p.m. This workout is home to the Runner Development Program, the Achilles Track Club, and provides an alternative for anyone who can’t make the regular Wednesday workout. Gaithersburg High School, 314 South Frederick Road, Gaithersburg Tuesday⁄Thursday Easy Runs, 6:30 p.m. The winter runs start at the County Parking Garage at Fleet Street and Maryland Avenue in Rockville. Distances typically range from 4 to 7 miles. Wednesday Track Workout, 7 p.m. at Wootton High School, 2100 Wootton Parkway, Rockville. For more information, visit the Montgomery Country Road Runners Club Web site at www.mcrrc.com.

For Hal Danoff and Bruce Gross, coaches of the MCRRC’s half-marathon training program, inspiration came pretty much in the form of candles on a birthday cake.

‘‘I was getting ready to turn 40,” says Gross, now 44, who lives in Potomac. ‘‘I bought a treadmill.”

‘‘I hate treadmills,” Danoff interrupts.

‘‘Yeah, well,” he shrugs. ‘‘I started walking, then running. The first race I did was the Rockville Twilight Run.”

That was six years ago. Gross completed the 8K race in ‘‘40-something minutes.”

‘‘I just enjoyed running,” he says. ‘‘I started running more and more.”

He met Danoff met through the MCRRC: ‘‘We’ve become good friends,” says the latter. ‘‘Our wives have become good friends —”

‘‘Some people have gotten married in the club,” Gross interjects.

‘‘Some people have gotten divorced and married people in the club!” Danoff one-ups his buddy and they both crack up.

But running has a serious side for Danoff, whose best friend’s death at 35 from heart failure inspired him to get on his feet. Fortunately, he had a neighbor who was ‘‘into running:” track and football star Renaldo ‘‘Skeets” Nehemiah.

‘‘He got all the guys in the neighborhood running,” recalls Danoff. And now, through the MCRRC, Danoff is paying the favor forward.

Scales and trails

The mission of the MCRRC is to promote and encourage running, and part of the ‘‘place for every pace” mantra involves providing plenty of practice plus the right racing conditions for every runner.

It’s a runners’ group, yes, but there’s a walking group, too, present at three of the club’s weekly practices and maintaining a 15 minute-per-mile pace.

First-timers get carefully scheduled programs and expert advice. Marathon runners train under the watchful eye of Denis McDonald, the Wednesday night track coordinator. Gross and Danoff do the half-marathon. And first-time racers come, too; at the moment, they’re preparing for the upcoming Rockville 10K⁄5K Run.

‘‘If you’re starting off, you should start by running 5K’s,” advises Danoff. ‘‘And if you’re going to run the 5K, your ‘long run’ should be six miles.”

Marathoners, on the other hand, don’t run the full 26 prior to a race. And the half-marathoners, like the ones Gross and Danoff have been coaching since June, require some serious training before they undertake the 13.1 miles at this Sunday’s Inaugural MCRRC Half Marathon.

That’s next on the schedule for Lou Shapiro of Silver Spring, who turns 65 at the end of this month.

‘‘I’ve run marathons,” he shrugs. ‘‘I’m very competitive in my age group — but you’re never ‘ready.’”

A number motivated Shapiro to run, but it wasn’t his age.

‘‘I got on the scale,” he says. ‘‘I weighed 187, and I was alarmed.”

He started running, he says, because ‘‘it’s just so simple: You throw on your shoes and go around the neighborhood.”

Or around the track. Maybe here where the Red Line rushes toward Shady Grove — or at the Kentlands, or Gaithersburg or Wootton high schools, at Carderock or in Rock Creek Park.

There’s a place for every pace.