CORINTH, TX – TEAM MINICH participated in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Plano on Saturday, June 6. The team's organizer is Elayne Minich of Corinth who put together a running and training class for the run and was helped by four other women from her church: Suzy Flute of Corinth,Val Holman of Corinth, Jonna Wilson of Denton, and Shannon Tilton of Denton.
The class was eight weeks of an intensive running endurance program geared toward getting all four women ready to run the entire 5k race, which is 3.2 miles.
Minich, a certified personal training and sports nutrition specialist, is an 11-year survivor of cancer herself, just coming through her second bout of it in 2008.
The project became an amazing journey for all women involved. All four of the trainees ended up beating their own personal times they recorded a week prior to the race.
“Every time I wanted to give up, which was often, I would look at Elayne for the personal inspiration she is, and kept going." said Flute. "If she could keep going, so could I. Running is not the easiest thing that I’ve ever done.”
Each of the women learned about running and how taxing it is on the body as injuries started to show up during the journey. But the same four women who started the class actually finished the race despite the setbacks. Wilson even finished the race with a knee injury.
But as they were standing there at the Race for the Cure and watching the Parade of Pink survivors at the Survivors Ceremony with the 0-1 years up to more than 25 years of survivors, the definition of completing a race had a new meaning. For the women who were survivors, it wasn’t just another race completed but another year that God had put them on the earth, said Flute.
Minich and her husband Chris are in daily training getting ready for the 26-mile White Rock Marathon in Dallas in December.
