Some find it easier to get up and go with running mates

Running is easy when dawn breaks clear, the birds are chirping, the sun is shinning and the Olympics rise up majestically across a placid Puget Sound.


	Melina Mara / P-I

But maintaining a year-round running regimen is decidedly more difficult during those dank, dark days of late fall and winter.

How can you attain a runner's high when big gray clouds blow in so low?

How can the endorphins flow when raindrops are dripping down your face?

How do you motivate yourself when you know your air-mesh Adidas will get caked with mud?

How do you become a rain-or-shine runner?

There is a simple solution for those who want to keep their feet fleet all year long in the wet Northwest: You need companionship. You need conversation. You need camaraderie.

You need a club like the Eastside Runners.

"I started running again last summer and I knew if I didn't have somebody to run with, I wouldn't keep it up,"says member Vikki Zarkovich of Issaquah, after a recent seven-mile jaunt during the club's regular Saturday Morning Run.


A beautiful, leaf-covered Sammamish River Trail greets Eastside Runners on a recent Saturday morning.

"I run every summer. But I need encouragement to run in winter."

As they say, misery loves company.

"This is the darnedest group of people,"says Ed Sobey of Redmond, the Saturday Morning Run organizer. "When it's bright and sunny, we'll have a lousy turnout and when it's cold and rainy, that's when we'll have a good turnout."

Eastside Runners is one of many clubs in the Northwest formed to encourage runners and promote the activity. Most serve a dual purpose: to help competitive runners or those planning marathons in their training and to provide people to run with and places to run for recreational and fitness-minded runners.

"We get a lot of fitness runners who are looking for advice and encouragement, people who maybe are middle-aged and putting on a few pounds,"says club president Victor Bast of Mill Creek. "We get a lot of people who are going through changes in life: divorce, empty-nesters.

"The club is especially valuable to people like me who moved here from somewhere else. My wife and I moved from the Bay Area three years ago and wanted to find our way around quickly."


	Eastside Runners head west from Bothell Landing as they begin their Saturday morning jaunt. The runs vary in location from week to week.

It's amazing how fast the miles go when you have company.

The recent Saturday Morning Run began at Bothell Landing along the Sammamish River Trail and headed westerly to Kenmore. About 25 runners participated, ranging in age from the 30s to the 60s. Before starting, all introduced themselves and stated their usual pace, in minutes per mile. This varied from 7.5 or 8 to 10 or 11.

Although the trail parallels noisy Bothell Way as you near Kenmore, the Bothell segment was appropriately pastoral, following the slow-moving, lazy river through corridors of golden-leafed cottonwoods.

Ducks dabbled and babbled in quiet spots on the river and a bald eagle was spotted on a snag in the river.

Bast's wife, Diane, pushed their exceedingly happy 8-month-old daughter, Maria, in a jogging stroller.

For a ways I ran alongside Sobey's wife, Barbara, who ran her first marathon three years ago after joining the club and finding an encouraging camaraderie.

"I need it,"she said. "I'm a social runner, so if I don't have someone to run with, I won't. And my husband and I go at different paces."


Eight-month-old Maria Bast gets to enjoy the crisp fall air from her jogging stroller.

Many in the group turned around after a couple miles. But before I knew it, the group I was with was in Kenmore and shortly thereafter at the turnaround point, Tracy Owen Station Park.

The return leg was tougher, but nonetheless pleasant.

Afterward, most in the group gathered at a local restaurant for breakfast and conversation.

The Saturday Morning Runs vary in location week to week. Usually when it's on the Sammamish River Trail, it goes in the other direction, from Bothell toward Woodinville, a much more scenic route. Work on the trail had resulted in a temporary closure in that direction, however. Many of the locations are dirt trails, such as those at St. Edward State Park near Kenmore and the Redmond Watershed Park and Mercer Slough Park in Bellevue. Others are on paved paths, like the Sammamish and Snoqualmie Valley trails.

Unlike what I had anticipated, the runs are not at all intimidating for non-competitive runners.

"We have some amazingly fast people and some amazingly slow people,"said Ed Sobey. "A lot of people come in as beginning runners, or non-competitive runners. Once in the club, a lot of people get involved in (organized) runs. Once people come out and run, I think they feel pretty emboldened."

And that's rain or shine, cloudy or clear.

TIPS FOR A SMOOTH STRIDE

An efficient stride maximizes your endurance and performance and minimizes the potential for injuries, so we asked megarunner Scott Jurek for some ideas on proper running techniques. He is in a unique position to know. Not only is Jurek an ultramarathon runner and winner of the past two Western States 100s � yes, 100 miles � he is also a physical therapist at the Institute for Prevention Solutions in Seattle.

Pay attention to your upper body. Arms, shoulders and torso should move freely and interact fluidly with buttocks, legs and feet. Relax muscles in all areas to better propel your body forward and spread absorption of impact from footfall.

Seek the fine line between understriding and overstriding. Maximize stride length to try to attain a floating sensation, but don�t overstride. Overstriding leads to a bounding motion that strains muscles.

Understriding results in a repetitive pounding that can lead to impact injuries.

�Listen� to your body. Pay attention to your posture and relax muscle groups that might be tense. Pace yourself to prevent getting winded.

In cooler weather, wear synthetic garments such as polypropylene shirts and tights that wick sweat away from the body and keep you warm when wet. Avoid cotton. �Breathable� outer shells work for some, but others find them too warm.

Vests are a good alternative.

EASTSIDE RUNNERS

WHAT: A club of about 150 recreational, fitness and competitive runners of all ability levels, open to all ages.

WHERE/WHEN: Tuesday night track workouts of various distances, with a coach, starting at 6 at Lake Washington High School in Kirkland. . . . Thursday evening runs, usually 5 to 7 miles, beginning at 6 at Bridle Trails Shopping Center in Kirkland. . . . Saturday morning runs, starting at 8:30, usually 5 to 7 miles, mostly on trails and paved paths at various places on the Eastside.

Members also participate in relay races, run in separate groups on weekends for longer marathon-training workouts, and join for social functions.

DUES: $12 a year, or $18 per family.CONTACTS: Call club president Victor Bast at 425-357-9433, or visit the Web site www.eastsiderunners.com

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