Finding fitness at 50

Jan Froehlich, right, finishes the Mickelson Trail Half Marathon in Deadwood in June 2010. The Colman woman also has run the full marathon at Deadwood as well as ones at San Antonio and Duluth; this despite not starting to run until age 50 and not being a gifted athlete. 

Posted: Friday, Apr 20th, 2012

By Dave Graves, Special to the Register

Jan Froehlich’s suitcase carries bumper stickers from San Antonio, Huntington Beach, Calif., and the shores of Lake Superior.

She’s been there because of the countless times the 57-year-old educator has run around the gravel roads of her Colman farm home. The admittedly nonathletic mother of four grown children has run three marathons and six half marathons.

Furthermore, Froehlich didn’t begin running until she was 50 years old.

“I knew as old as I was starting that I was not going to be competitive.” But that doesn’t make running less enjoyable for Froehlich. “I set a goal, sign up for something and keep working for it.” Her next goal is completing the Brookings Half Marathon May 12.

It will be the first time she has run the event and is being joined by race partners Colene Reiser and Peggy Whalen.

The women are members of Turtles Rock, a Brookings-based, non-competitive walking and jogging group founded in May 2009 for beginners and intermediate runners with the group’s runners having an average pace of 10- to 12-minute miles.

“Once the Turtles started and I met other people my age and skill range, then it turns into a social activity and that makes it more fun too,” Froehlich said. “I’m not sure I would do as many events as I do if didn’t know the other Turtles.”

She said she lives too far out in the country to do her training runs with fellow Turtles. “I don’t know anyone around here that runs.

Races give reason for travel

“Even though I run alone, it’s fun to visit with people at the events,” said Froehlich, who ran the Surf City Half Marathon in Huntington Beach this February with Reiser and more than 14,000 others. She noted that these large races attract thousands of slower runners.

“I’ve done the Jack 15 and you bring up the rear. So it was fun to see people coming behind me” at Surf City, she said.

Such destination races keep her motivated to stay in training and give her an excuse to travel. Her marathons have been at Duluth, Minn., Deadwood and San Antonio. Future half marathons include Deadwood in June; and, in 2013, Sedona, Ariz., and Savannah, Ga.

Sustained by cross training

In addition, each year she runs eight to 10 five-kilometer races in the local area.

“All the 5Ks, I view as charitable donations anyway. If they have one in the area and I’m home, I do them. I’ve been giving away piles of T-shirts,” said Froehlich, who also has competed in three indoor mini-triathlons and one outdoor triathlon, all in Brookings.

She also does yoga twice a week; spinning or biking twice a week; and swimming once a week.

“I don’t think I would be running if I didn’t do the cross training because I was having trouble with injuries,” said Froehlich, who said she runs “lopsided” and had been having headaches, and leg and hip pain before doing cross training at the SDSU Wellness Center.

“I trained more for the Surf City Half Marathon than I ever have and didn’t have any injuries,” she said.

Using a 16-week program that averaged 20 miles per week, she logged about 300 miles, “which for me is a pair of shoes,” said Froehlich, who has been doing part-time tutoring at South Dakota State University since leaving a position on the engineering faculty ten years ago.

Conscious of injury prevention

Early in her running career, she had trouble with shin splints before finding the right pair of shoes.

Froehlich said she was inspired to start running because her sister enjoyed running before being forced by illness to quit. With Froehlich’s children grown, she started running at 50, ran her first 5K that same year, and ran her first marathon three years later.

That was in Duluth and “it was hot. The temperature when I got done was 87 degrees,” she recalled.

But it wasn’t reason to throw away her running shoes and sit in the shade. “I don’t do (marathons) to the degree I would hurt myself.” While she has had some injuries, she has only backed away from running a couple months, long enough to heal.

As long as the body holds together, and there are friends to chat with and travel with to races, Froehlich says will continue to run.