35 degree temperatures, gusty winds, and nine foot snow
banks would not typically suggest that the spring/summer racing season was
about to commence. Yet, approximately 45
locals showed up this morning in exactly these conditions to run their first 5K
of the year: the Healthier You 5K.
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| 12' snow banks are not normally harbingers of the springtime running season. (Photo by Matt Kinney). |
Since the middle of January, Valdezans have been
participating in a community wellness initiative dubbed “Healthier You”. This program started several years ago and
was immediately popular. Over 300 people
signed up the first year and consecutive year participation has been similarly
high. At the program’s center is a
mission of encouraging people to lose weight, eat right, exercise, and stop
smoking. Healthier You gets its real
traction, though, by appealing to the competitive, game playing side of all us
humans – for every pound lost, hour exercised, and day without a
cigarette participants get points that can lead to prizes. Individuals and teams vie for the most points earned. The prizes aren’t
small, either – they’re valuable enough and cool enough to draw the interest of
many. This year, members of the winning
teams received gifts plus $50 REI certificates.
Other prizes throughout the year included sports equipment, gift cards, and
fitness books and kits. At the 2013
finale today that followed the 5K, a lucky person won a brand new mountain
bike!
Over the course of the winter, HY organizers, supporters,
and sponsoring agencies put on ski clinics and snowshoe hikes and cooking
demonstrations and personal health workshops.
They scheduled biometrics testing, balancing classes, training sessions,
and swim meets.
A friend of mine conceived of an interesting idea a few
weeks ago. Inspired by what she was
seeing among co-workers and friends and fellow HY team members, she imagined
Valdez becoming a fitness destination.
Valdez possesses a prime natural environment for outdoor activities like
kayaking, hiking, and skiing and quality fitness facilities like a swimming
pool, groomed cross-country ski trails, a set of nice hiking trails, and a new
building that is shaping up to be a beautiful gym at the college (should be
finished soon!). With those resources as
a base and the burgeoning positive attitudes about healthy living within our
community, my friend reasoned that visitors could easily become infected with
Valdez Fever.
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| Brilliant white mountains blasted by sun are a Valdez April hallmark. (Photo by Matt Kinney). |
This morning, I found her vision easy to buy in to while I
was running down Hazelet Street in a pack of exuberant Valdezans – brilliantly
clad in multiple layers, wool caps, gloves, and fleece tights, bracing against
a chilling headwind, and celebrating this bizarre season we all love – that
period between winter and spring where the days are impossibly long and the sun
reverberates off the pure white landscape.
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