thedrifter
04-24-07, 06:40 AM
Trained-in-Terre Haute
A program to help people prepare for the One America 500 Festival Mini-Marathon makes its way to Baghdad
By Deb McKee
The Tribune-Star
TERRE HAUTE — “There have been times in which I have had to vary my running course due to gunfire just outside the wall.”
— Army Chaplain Lt. Col. Ronald Huffman, 104th Chaplain Detachment, member of Trained-in-Terre Haute, via Baghdad
A Terre Haute-based training program, created eight years ago to prepare runners and walkers for the Indianapolis Mini-Marathon, found its way to Baghdad this year.
On May 5, about 150 soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen will use the techniques and preparation learned through the Wabash Valley Road Runners’ Trained-in-Terre Haute half-marathon program to complete 13.1 miles, during a remote version of the One America 500 Festival Mini-Marathon.
This will be the third year that the mini-marathon has been extended to troops overseas. About 800 troops will participate, according to Brandi Davis-Handy, the 500 Festival media relations coordinator.
In 2004, the 500 Festival staged a remote mini-marathon in Bosnia in response to a request from the Indiana National Guard’s 38th Infantry Division. The next year, the remote event took place in Afghanistan with the 76th Brigade Combat Team.
This year, the half-marathon will occur in Iraq, with the Indiana National Guard 38th Division Support Command based out of Indianapolis.
This has been the first year that Trained-in-Terre Haute (TNT) has extended coaching to the troops.
Extensive training program
Wabash Valley Road Runners in 1999 began the TNT program to give runners (and walkers) a boost in training for the Indianapolis mini, which is the largest event of its kind in the United States. The program includes hands-on coaching, a training manual and “a downright good training schedule,” according to organizers.
An 88-page training manual comes with the program, providing participants with schedules, exercises and training tips, as well as inspirational thoughts.
With more than 40 volunteer coaches and five certified coaches, TNT provides 16-weeks of coaching. Sponsors include the Terre Haute Family Y, Pacesetter Sports and Tabco Printing and Promotional Products.
Buddy Green, who directs the TNT program locally, said in addition to the Iraq group, 357 people in Terre Haute are participating.
“[TNT] is probably one of the most successful programs of its kind in the nation and one of the largest,” Green said recently.
Reaching out to the troops
While local coaches may not be able to give the troops advice on avoiding gunfire during runs, they have provided running advice, encouragement and a connection to home that has given those troops something to look forward to each day.
Capt. David A. Baysinger of Brazil has been deployed to Baghdad with the 38th Division Support Command since May 2006. He is the Camp Victory Operations officer and directs the TNT group in Iraq.
A past member of TNT, Baysinger wanted to use the same training materials again in preparing for the remote mini-marathon.
“I e-mailed Buddy Green asking him if he could send me a copy of the TNT training program so I could prepare for the satellite running,” Baysinger wrote in an e-mail to the Tribune-Star recently. “I did not know that Buddy was a vet himself.”
Green, who served in the Vietnam War, decided he wanted to do more than just send a training manual to one soldier. He wanted to support the troops by sponsoring an entire program to include training books, T-shirts, racing singlets (lightweight running shirts), and a pizza party, to correspond with the activities of the local group.
Baysinger said he warned Green that there could be a large group of interested participants.
“As you might imagine there are a lot of runners here since every branch of the service has an Annual Physical Fitness Test requirement,” Baysinger wrote. “I am at the largest base in Iraq. I explained to Buddy that there could be a lot of people join … He said that he would figure out the details,” Baysinger added.
Green said he didn’t hesitate to “open it up to everyone.”
Local organizers and sponsors began scrambling. T-shirts with the logo “Trained-in-Terre Haute, via Baghdad” were made.
Sponsor Tabco printed additional manuals for the troops. Mark Achenbach, operations manager for area Pizza Huts, got in touch with a Pizza Hut manager in Iraq and organized a 10-Mile High pizza party. The celebration is something TNT stages after all the beginning runners and walkers do 10 miles for the first time.
“They’ve had everything we’ve had,” Green said.
Additional benefits to TNT
As part of the training program, the group encouraged the troops to communicate with local TNT members by e-mail. Organizers matched runners of equal skill levels and abilities.
Diane Brown, 57, of West Terre Haute has been in regular communication with her running partner, Claudia Twiss, who is from Texas and is stationed in Baghdad.
“It’s been very rewarding,” Brown said.
Brown, a member of the Wabash Valley Road Runners group for about 20 years, said she enjoys motivating people to run. Brown said her overseas partner has lost about 30 pounds since she began the program, and they have exchanged photos of family members.
Twiss doesn’t write much about the war or fighting, Brown said.
“I think maybe she just wants to talk about running,” she said.
Baysinger wrote that he thinks it helps the troops to have goals while away from friends and family.
The group receives regular e-mails from the local TNT group, Baysinger added.
“I also call weekly looking for answers on training, injuries and other running-related questions,” he wrote. “Several of the members are also receiving e-mails with words of encouragement.”
Baysinger wrote that he enjoys watching those who have never run long distances complete their first 10-mile run and “seeing their confidence grow.”
The Baghdad group trains in three sections: beginner, intermediate and advanced. Participants run four to six days a week, taking a long group run on Saturdays and speed training as a group on Tuesdays, Baysinger said.
He added that he has grown as a runner, doing research and mapping running routes through Baghdad. He also has lost 20 pounds, he said.
“I have improved my pace by 1:30 on my mile,” he added, referring to his improved time. “I am in no way a perfect runner, coach or coordinator and I still have so much more to learn, but I have improved greatly.”
Army Chaplain Ronald Huffman, 53, of Clinton, Conn., met Baysinger during a meeting in Iraq, Huffman said. Huffman has been deployed in Iraq for five months with the 104th Chaplain Division.
In an e-mail to the Tribune-Star, Huffman wrote that he enlisted the 104th in the training program after learning about it through Baysinger.
Huffman wrote that although he was athletic in his school days, “I never ran more than five miles at a time in my life.” In recent years, his only running consisted of preparing for the two-mile fitness run required by the Army.
Huffman joined hoping the running program would provide “a way to get away from the stress and sameness of each day” in Iraq, he said.
“The greatest benefit has been to pull up beside one of the other beginners and talk with them,” Huffman wrote. “We all get rather reflective about life during these runs. It is great to hear the life stories and their dreams of home and the future as we run side by side.”
Deb McKee can be reached at (812) 231-4254 or deb.mckee@tribstar.com.
Ellie
A program to help people prepare for the One America 500 Festival Mini-Marathon makes its way to Baghdad
By Deb McKee
The Tribune-Star
TERRE HAUTE — “There have been times in which I have had to vary my running course due to gunfire just outside the wall.”
— Army Chaplain Lt. Col. Ronald Huffman, 104th Chaplain Detachment, member of Trained-in-Terre Haute, via Baghdad
A Terre Haute-based training program, created eight years ago to prepare runners and walkers for the Indianapolis Mini-Marathon, found its way to Baghdad this year.
On May 5, about 150 soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen will use the techniques and preparation learned through the Wabash Valley Road Runners’ Trained-in-Terre Haute half-marathon program to complete 13.1 miles, during a remote version of the One America 500 Festival Mini-Marathon.
This will be the third year that the mini-marathon has been extended to troops overseas. About 800 troops will participate, according to Brandi Davis-Handy, the 500 Festival media relations coordinator.
In 2004, the 500 Festival staged a remote mini-marathon in Bosnia in response to a request from the Indiana National Guard’s 38th Infantry Division. The next year, the remote event took place in Afghanistan with the 76th Brigade Combat Team.
This year, the half-marathon will occur in Iraq, with the Indiana National Guard 38th Division Support Command based out of Indianapolis.
This has been the first year that Trained-in-Terre Haute (TNT) has extended coaching to the troops.
Extensive training program
Wabash Valley Road Runners in 1999 began the TNT program to give runners (and walkers) a boost in training for the Indianapolis mini, which is the largest event of its kind in the United States. The program includes hands-on coaching, a training manual and “a downright good training schedule,” according to organizers.
An 88-page training manual comes with the program, providing participants with schedules, exercises and training tips, as well as inspirational thoughts.
With more than 40 volunteer coaches and five certified coaches, TNT provides 16-weeks of coaching. Sponsors include the Terre Haute Family Y, Pacesetter Sports and Tabco Printing and Promotional Products.
Buddy Green, who directs the TNT program locally, said in addition to the Iraq group, 357 people in Terre Haute are participating.
“[TNT] is probably one of the most successful programs of its kind in the nation and one of the largest,” Green said recently.
Reaching out to the troops
While local coaches may not be able to give the troops advice on avoiding gunfire during runs, they have provided running advice, encouragement and a connection to home that has given those troops something to look forward to each day.
Capt. David A. Baysinger of Brazil has been deployed to Baghdad with the 38th Division Support Command since May 2006. He is the Camp Victory Operations officer and directs the TNT group in Iraq.
A past member of TNT, Baysinger wanted to use the same training materials again in preparing for the remote mini-marathon.
“I e-mailed Buddy Green asking him if he could send me a copy of the TNT training program so I could prepare for the satellite running,” Baysinger wrote in an e-mail to the Tribune-Star recently. “I did not know that Buddy was a vet himself.”
Green, who served in the Vietnam War, decided he wanted to do more than just send a training manual to one soldier. He wanted to support the troops by sponsoring an entire program to include training books, T-shirts, racing singlets (lightweight running shirts), and a pizza party, to correspond with the activities of the local group.
Baysinger said he warned Green that there could be a large group of interested participants.
“As you might imagine there are a lot of runners here since every branch of the service has an Annual Physical Fitness Test requirement,” Baysinger wrote. “I am at the largest base in Iraq. I explained to Buddy that there could be a lot of people join … He said that he would figure out the details,” Baysinger added.
Green said he didn’t hesitate to “open it up to everyone.”
Local organizers and sponsors began scrambling. T-shirts with the logo “Trained-in-Terre Haute, via Baghdad” were made.
Sponsor Tabco printed additional manuals for the troops. Mark Achenbach, operations manager for area Pizza Huts, got in touch with a Pizza Hut manager in Iraq and organized a 10-Mile High pizza party. The celebration is something TNT stages after all the beginning runners and walkers do 10 miles for the first time.
“They’ve had everything we’ve had,” Green said.
Additional benefits to TNT
As part of the training program, the group encouraged the troops to communicate with local TNT members by e-mail. Organizers matched runners of equal skill levels and abilities.
Diane Brown, 57, of West Terre Haute has been in regular communication with her running partner, Claudia Twiss, who is from Texas and is stationed in Baghdad.
“It’s been very rewarding,” Brown said.
Brown, a member of the Wabash Valley Road Runners group for about 20 years, said she enjoys motivating people to run. Brown said her overseas partner has lost about 30 pounds since she began the program, and they have exchanged photos of family members.
Twiss doesn’t write much about the war or fighting, Brown said.
“I think maybe she just wants to talk about running,” she said.
Baysinger wrote that he thinks it helps the troops to have goals while away from friends and family.
The group receives regular e-mails from the local TNT group, Baysinger added.
“I also call weekly looking for answers on training, injuries and other running-related questions,” he wrote. “Several of the members are also receiving e-mails with words of encouragement.”
Baysinger wrote that he enjoys watching those who have never run long distances complete their first 10-mile run and “seeing their confidence grow.”
The Baghdad group trains in three sections: beginner, intermediate and advanced. Participants run four to six days a week, taking a long group run on Saturdays and speed training as a group on Tuesdays, Baysinger said.
He added that he has grown as a runner, doing research and mapping running routes through Baghdad. He also has lost 20 pounds, he said.
“I have improved my pace by 1:30 on my mile,” he added, referring to his improved time. “I am in no way a perfect runner, coach or coordinator and I still have so much more to learn, but I have improved greatly.”
Army Chaplain Ronald Huffman, 53, of Clinton, Conn., met Baysinger during a meeting in Iraq, Huffman said. Huffman has been deployed in Iraq for five months with the 104th Chaplain Division.
In an e-mail to the Tribune-Star, Huffman wrote that he enlisted the 104th in the training program after learning about it through Baysinger.
Huffman wrote that although he was athletic in his school days, “I never ran more than five miles at a time in my life.” In recent years, his only running consisted of preparing for the two-mile fitness run required by the Army.
Huffman joined hoping the running program would provide “a way to get away from the stress and sameness of each day” in Iraq, he said.
“The greatest benefit has been to pull up beside one of the other beginners and talk with them,” Huffman wrote. “We all get rather reflective about life during these runs. It is great to hear the life stories and their dreams of home and the future as we run side by side.”
Deb McKee can be reached at (812) 231-4254 or deb.mckee@tribstar.com.
Ellie