Root beer and cookies?
Work out, get a reward
By Coley Ward
CWARD@AZSTARNET.COM
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 09.18.2008
I get a lot of ribbing from the gang in the office about how much time I spend drinking beer. Or rather, how much time they perceive I spend drinking beer.
True, I cover nightlife and that means spending a lot of time in bars and clubs.
And I homebrew. It's a hobby that I find rewarding and delicious.
But I'm not all beer, all the time.
I play soccer and kickball. I like to hike. I make delicious vegetarian chili. And recently I did some running with the Workout Group.
The group, which was started by Randy Accetta and Greg Wenneborg in 1997, meets at 6 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays at Reid Park. When they started, Acetta says there was only one other workout group in town. Today there are at least a half dozen.
Accetta is president of the Southern Arizona Roadrunners and organizes several community running events throughout the year, including Get Moving Tucson on Oct. 18.
Runners of all speeds participate in the group. Some members are training for marathons. Others are just looking to get back in shape.
Most exciting of all was the group's Web site, which promised root beer and cookies after the running was done.
When I got to Reid Park, people were set up in a circle, stretching.
Accetta, who teaches at University of Arizona's McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship, was in the middle of the circle.
"Who here is here for the first time?" he asked.
A handful of people raised their hands.
One by one, Accetta brought the new people into the center of the circle — and teased them.
"If you were a hot breakfast cereal, what would you be?" he asked a woman named Kate.
"Oatmeal," was her reply.
"If you were a sea creature, what would you be?" he asked another runner, who answered, "An octopus."
Then came my turn.
"What's your name," Accetta asked.
"Coley," I said.
"Coley?" he asked. "What is that?"
"If it's anything, it's Irish," I said.
"I think your parents forgot a 'b,' " he said.
"Actually, Coley means 'gypsy' in Persian," chimed in one of the runners on the outside of the circle."
"See," I said to Accetta. "Don't you feel bad about minimizing my Persian heritage?"
Tim Bentley, a Workout Group member who was celebrating his 42nd birthday, told me later that he likes the way Accetta singles out the newbies.
"It helps you get over feeling like an outsider," he says.
The Workout Group was started to help people run faster, but it has become more than that.
"We've got 350 people on our mailing list," Accetta says. "We've had people die at Workout Group. We've had people get married here, and have babies. Relationships have started and ended here."
Accetta lets newcomers run for free — at least at first. After that, there is a $100 training fee per semester (September through December), or runners can opt to pay $30 a month. Returning runners get a discount. They pay $75 a semester.
After the stretching, we did 26 sit-ups. Instead of counting by number, we shouted out the name of a country or city that started with each letter of the alphabet.
Then we did 10 push-ups with our hands wide apart. Then 10 with our hands together, forming a diamond. Then 10 normal push-ups.
Finally, it was time to run.
First, we did some light sprints, just to loosen up.
Then Accetta took us on a slow jog around that day's course. We started at the baseball fields, then went around a trash can, down a hill, around the man-made lake and then around another baseball field.
After we did the course once at half speed, we sped up. That's when I first noticed how long it had been since I'd tried to run.
Fortunately, before I had too much time to think about how hard my lungs were working, I started a conversation with a fellow runner. In between gasps, I told him about what brought me to Tucson (my fiancee), what it's like working at the Star (bliss!) and where I'm from originally (Philadelphia), and he gave me some advice for selling more papers as well as a tip for a future story (stay tuned).
Later on, I talked to Dan Unrast, whom everybody calls Boon. He lives 15 miles north of Benson and drives to Tucson at least once a week to run with the Workout Group. Unrast recently qualified for next year's Boston Marathon.
"I can honestly say I wouldn't have made it without this group," he says. "I needed to finish in three hours and twenty minutes, and I finished with 15 seconds to spare."
John Sabatine, 35, works at Raytheon and ran in the Boston Marathon last year. He finished sixth among Southern Arizona natives who ran.
"There was a blind guy who beat me," Sabatine says. "And four guys over 60 years old beat me."
When Sabatine tells this story, Bentley gets curious.
"Do the blind runners have somebody who runs with them?" he asks.
"Yeah. At least, I think so," Sabatine says. "I couldn't really see him, he was too far ahead of me."
After three laps, it was getting dark. So we all took one last cool-down lap and did some stretching.
Finally, it was time for root beer and cookies.
But the joke was on me. Root beer and cookies, it turns out, is just a euphemism for beers at Bob Dobbs.
They didn't have to twist my arm.
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