Hundreds Run, Walk For Personal Health

Donna Ariosa  always found time to run about three miles twice a week, but she felt something was lacking from her workouts.  This spring, she enrolled in Duke's Run/Walk Club, where she found a social atmosphere to uplift her exercise."The support of a group is meaningful to me and helps me keep up with my workouts knowing that people are expecting me to show up," said Ariosa, a community schools tutor coordinator with Duke's Program in Education. "Not only that, but it was nice to meet people from different departments at Duke that I normally wouldn't cross paths with."Along with about 500 members of the Duke community, Ariosa recently finished the spring session of the Run/Walk Cub, which took place from March 14 to June 1. The seasonal club offers an informal way for faculty and staff to gather twice a week for exercise and is sponsored by LIVE FOR LIFE, Duke's employee wellness program. The next session begins in September.Even though it was her first time with the group, Ariosa liked spending Monday and Wednesday evenings with Run/Walk members so much she and a few others still met every Friday for their own group runs in Duke Forest. "It's a really great way to start the weekend," Ariosa said. "I'm even running up to four or five miles at a time now."While Ariosa met her "advanced" group members at Wallace Wade Stadium on West Campus, other "beginner" Run/Walk groups met at Duke Raleigh and Durham Regional hospitals. Dozens of employees also gathered along the East Campus track twice a week for a group, where John Webb worked to motivate members to push themselves and achieve their fitness goals.Webb, a network systems analyst with the Department of Pathology who completed his second session as a volunteer leader with the Run/Walk Club this spring, said he loves bringing a positive attitude to exercise, which can be tough for some people."In any exercise program, it's all about motivation that can help you have more energy, feel better and have higher self-esteem," Webb said. "It's fun to work with Run/Walk members because it's a lot of really nice Duke employees who simply want to improve their lifestyles."A new aspect to the spring session was a "Fitness Fundamentals" workshop, where 117 Run/Walk members received running or walking evaluations, training tips and a measurement of their aerobic endurance."We were thrilled with the number of people who came out each week and the level of commitment we saw from our participants," said Liz Grabosky, fitness program manager for LIVE FOR LIFE. "We look forward to another successful season when we start back up in September."