Kelowna Capital News - Okangan International Marathon Article

Oct 05 2007
Running for a personal milestone is satisfying
By Jennifer Smith Staff reporter

What better way to celebrate the sixth decade of life than with a really long run?It may not be for everyone, but for Edmontonian Doris Tachuk stepping out along this weekend’s new Okanagan International Marathon route is a triumphant way to celebrate her 60th birthday, a milestone she marked a week ago today.Tachuk is joining her daughter, Okanagan College public relations assistant Michelle Lowry, herself a bit of a half marathon expert with nine races to her name.Asked why her mother is doing it, Lowry said it was simply a solution to a problem.“About five years ago she started playing soccer and she realized she had to run a lot,” Lowry said. “So she took a learn to run clinic and then a 10K clinic and then she decided she was going to take the half marathon clinic and come to Kelowna and run.”Tachuk signed up for a running clinic in Edmonton and has been keeping pace with her daughter en route to the Kelowna finish line.It may not be the most traditional Thanksgiving celebration, but the Internet age, finding an on-line training partner or even training with family members across the country is not as unusual as one might think.

Kelowna resident Donna Assie-Kowbel will be spending the day with her sister, Tina Assie-Kurtz, as the pair test out their running legs in the OIM 10-kilometre race.The Assie siblings started running together last spring after Laura Assie-Lussier reached a weight loss goal with Weight Watchers.Robert Assie, 31, Donna, 34, Tina, 37 and Laura, 32, all ran their first race in June. Donna ran the five-kilometre distance at the Women’s Race here in Kelowna, while her siblings all took on the Bridge City Boogie in Saskatoon.“We all spoke afterward by phone and agreed that we were hooked and couldn’t wait to do it again,” said Donna.Over the summer “team Assie” took on several simultaneous races. Donna ran the Midsummer eight kilometre race in Kelowna, while her siblings were in the six-kilometre Dirty Half Dozen in Saskatchewan. In September, they took things one step further by joining forces to complete a full marathon in Regina each running one leg of the 42.2-kilometre race in the relay division.“I flew to Saskatchewan that weekend and we ran our hearts out together as a family for the first time,” said Donna. “We even had my nephew Keegan Lussier run the last 1.5-km in an all out sprint for the team.”

That spirit of achievement is the same feeling driving a much thinner Vancouverite, Beth Merk, down the street as well.The 34-yea-old has never been to Kelowna but intends to cross a major life hurdle here when she competes in the half marathon as a walker.Just over a year ago, Merk tipped the scales at 340 pounds and had decided she needed to loose weight before starting a family.Over the course of the last year she has lost 160 pounds ”enough to finally bring her down out of the obese category on the body mass index. I just hit that. I am no longer obese. So how appropriate to walk a marathon,” she said in a telephone interview from Vancouver.Last spring, an encouraging co-worker managed to convince her to walk the Vancouver Sun Run. Now, she and her husband are ready to walk the full 21.1 km half marathon distance this weekend.

The route for this year’s OIM will be different than in years previous, due to bridge construction.The run winds from the downtown core up through Glenmore via High Road, peaking on Sexsmith Road. Marathon runners complete the loop twice, half-marathoners do one loop, while the 10-kilometre run goes from downtown up High Road and loops back shortly before Glenmore Road.

jsmith@kelownacapnews.com