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By Susan
Hickman
 Fifty-one-year-old
Louise
Tremblay and
38-year-old
Dana
Yamamura
took up a
new sport
this year –
running –
and now
they’re
ready to try
the annual
National
Capital
Marathon on
May 27.
Their
stories:
When Louise
Tremblay’s
53-year-old
neighbour
dropped dead
of a heart
attack last
year, the
51-year-old
decided it
was time to
get herself
in shape.
A
downhill
skier in
winter and
occasional
walker or
cyclist in
the summer,
Tremblay was
encouraged
by a
colleague to
take up
running.
“My
neighbour
was never
sick a day
in his
life,” said
Tremblay,
who works at
the Royal
College of
Physicians
and Surgeons
of Canada
near
Ottawa’s
Rideau
Canal, an
ideal place
to run. “I
said, ‘It’s
now or
never,’ and
started
running on
January 2.”
She found
her first
four or five
running
“lessons” at
the Running
Room
somewhat
challenging,
and
confessed to
her friend
she didn’t
think she
would be
able to
follow
through.
“But I
told myself
not to be a
big baby,
and now I
love it.
It’s a new
revelation
for me and I
ask myself,
‘Why did I
wait so
long?’”
Tremblay
started at a
two-minute-walk-one-minute-run
pace for a
total of 20
minutes. By
the end of
the winter
season, she
had lost 12
pounds,
dropped
three pants
sizes,
changed her
diet
dramatically
to fit her
new
lifestyle
and was
running
three and a
half
kilometres
at a
stretch. Two
and a half
months after
she started
running, she
abandoned
her plans to
run the
National
Capital
Marathon’s
5K race to
go for the
big 10K.
“I feel
more
invigorated.
I feel like
I have more
energy and
I’m
definitely
ready for
the race.”
Dana
Yamamura,
38, took up
running this
year to
round out
her exercise
program.
“In the
spring,
summer and
fall, I go
mountain
biking in
Gatineau
Park and I
often bike
to work to
show my
support for
greening the
environment.
In the
winter, I
enjoy
skating on
the canal,
cross-country
skiing and
snowshoeing.
But I
realized I
did not have
a “sport”
that was
“all-season,”
that I could
anywhere.
“So when
a friend
told me
about her
New Year’s
resolution
to join the
Running
Room’s
learn-to-run
clinic, I
thought it
would be fun
to sign up.”
Yamamura
is no
fitness
slouch,
having
taught
aerobics at
university,
“spinning”
since 2000,
mountain
biking since
2002 and an
ultimate
Frisbee
player for
eight years
before she
injured her
knee skiing.
She also
owns her own
canoe for
leisure
paddles in
the summer.
Running
challenged
Yamamura to
slow down
her pace and
walk when
instructed,
but even
February’s
coldest
spells did
not
discourage
her.
“I’m too
goal-oriented
to quit in
the middle
of
something.
And I feel
great that I
have
improved my
running
style so
that it now
feels light
and easy.”
As a
practice
run,
Yamamura
competed in
the St.
Patrick’s
Day race on
March 11,
and placed
fourth in
her age
category
(women aged
30 to 39),
completing
the five
kilometres
in less than
28 minutes.
“I’m way
ahead of
where I had
hoped to be,
so that’s
very, very
exciting.
The St.
Paddy’s Day
race helped
me test
myself, to
know what is
possible,
and has
helped me
prepare
mentally for
the National
Capital
Race.”
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