Porter County Member-At-Large
I live in Portage, but I was born in Gary and lived there until we moved to Portage in 1998. I've been married to Denny for almost 34 years and have two married children and 5 grandchildren ages 12 years to 9 mos. After being overweight for most of my adult life, I went to Jenny Craig six years ago and lost 50lbs. and it's still off. While I was loosing, I started exercising at home with a stair stepper and some videos that used weight routines. During that summer my husband and I were also walking outside, but when the weather got bad, we joined a gym. He hated the weight lifting and I loved it. The rest, as they say, is history.
I love running the trails at the Dunes, where not only my soles are challenged, but my soul is refreshed. Life is always better after a good run. I have the privilege this year of working on the membership committee and look forward to meeting many new friends in this capacity. I think the guy I weight train with gave me some really good advice before I ran my first race, that I'd like to pass on to new runners.....don't worry about what all the other runner's are doing, just do what you can do, "Run your own race".
Four years ago I started weight training with the guy I currently train with. Weight lifting is my true passion. It will be 4 years this June that I started running, after walking on the treadmill for about 6 months. I entered my first race, the Friendship 5k Race in Hammond, in July of 1997. My goals were, first, to finish and second, to run the whole way, which I had never done prior to that race. Well, I did both and surprisingly won third place in my age division. I WAS THRILLED!! It was the first time I had ever competed in anything. Oh yeah....there were only three of us in my age division....oh well....don't tell anyone! I wore my cross training shoes to run that race, since I wasn't sure I was going to like this running stuff. Needless to say, I went to Jimmy's the next day and bought my first pair of running shoes. I was hooked!!
I joined the Calumet Region Striders in 1998 and at the Gallery Gallop that year, Bob Hooper talked me into joining the Gold Cup Series. I had such fun doing all the different races. But the best thing about joining the Striders is the friends I've made. I've met so many wonderful, caring people and made so many great friends. I always tell people who ask about my racing, that races are just a big social event where I get to see all my friends and in addition we do a little running and a little eating. I enjoy doing a variety of races and some of my most memorable are the River to River Relays, the Zoy, and doing my first marathon in October, 2000 in Chicago.
Contact info:
Phone: 219.764.2747
Emailbriqette@aol.com