Ocala’s Turtle Running Club Members Enjoy Running Life and Training Together

By BILL GORMAN

The Turtle Running Club of Ocala, FL, has evolved from just three runners (Terry Varnadoe, Stephanie Barker, and Hugh McNichols) in late 1999. There was little growth as a running club until 2006-07, when the number of participants in our runs slowly grew to the point that we now have 44 turtle members on the email list for our group runs.

I wonder if that increase can be correlated with the downturn in the economy and the stability and strength that runners draw from one another. In 2008, Jennifer Gilman came up with the name “Talking Turtles” for the group and that eventually developed into “Turtle Running Club.”

We have a high ratio of female turtle runners to males. I am not sure how or why this happened but it is not necessarily a bad thing if you’re in the 15 percent minority like me. We also have a very diverse makeup of runners, varying in age from their early 20s to 71. There are newbie turtle runners, who will be running in their first half-marathons, and there are seasoned veterans. There are six of us each with at least 25 years of running experience. Chuck Savage, who will soon be 72, has completed 268 marathons and ultras. He has a goal of 300 marathons by the end of 2011. This year, Chuck has finished eight marathons, including a sub five-hour time at our hilly Ocala marathon.

The Turtle Running Club does not have dues, officers, a board of directors, or by-laws. What we do have is a high percentage of participation in our group runs. We have group runs of four-five miles each Tuesday and Thursday with long runs on Saturday. Now that marathon training has begun, we also do a Wednesday longer run.

Five turtles will be doing the New York Marathon, three will be venturing to the Kiawah Island marathon, three will be running the St Petersburg marathon, and at least one will be at Disney.

Even though we do not have formal rules and regulations, our group runs are well organized and, more importantly, they are fun. For a typical group run, one of our turtle members will come up with a running route and volunteer to place water on the course. This happens four times a week and there is no shortage of volunteers. Hugh McNichols, the “Grand PooBah” of Turtle communications, will then email all members the details one or two days prior to the runs. All runs start at 5 a.m. and we generally have at least 10 runners. In addition, three or four times during the year turtles will open up their home for a potluck dinner and turtle gathering. The turtles are always looking for new activities so Lisa Iketani, one of our faster turtles, recently organized a Scavenger Hunt Run. It was a huge success -- every running club should try it.

We are very proud of our logo. Frank Varnadoe came up with the turtle character, fine-tuned the turtle, and then Lindsey Kaiser, Robin Hastad, and Lisa Iketani completed the design and developed the T-shirt. The turtle T-shirts turn heads and receive compliments whenever they are worn at races. They were a big hit at Gasparilla, the 26.2 with Donna, and the River Run this year. So keep your eye out for a light blue turtle shirt the next time you’re at a race.

If you would like more information on the Turtles, a new website http://ocalaturtles.moonfruit.com has been developed by Wayne Hastad. A special thanks to our fellow turtle Jessica Forte for her fine photography.

Photos:
Photo #1 - Turtles flexing their muscles on the Ocala downtown square before a run.
Photo #2 - L-R, Sharon Rutter, Terry Varnadoe, Ruth Gorman, and Mary Carstenn are proud of their Turtles' shirts.