By BRUCE OAKLEY
Women Run Arkansas—Batesville Co-director

Welcome ladies. Let me tell you about our clinic using the classic five W's of newspaper writing: Who, What, When, Where, and Why. I will also "go the extra mile" with those newsfolk who add an H: How.

Let's run (so to speak) down the list:

WHO: This clinic is for Women. All shapes, sizes, ages, speeds, colors, creeds. It is not for the coaches and the directors. You ladies are here for your own purposes, whatever they may be, and you do not owe us anything. You should not worry that you are slowing us down or somehow burdening us if you can't keep up.

This is all about you — we break off into groups by how much time you can run without having to stop. It doesn't matter if you go 100 yards or a mile in that time. These are fitness groups, not racing groups, so find the group that matches your fitness clock, not your odometer.

So maybe to be more precise I should say this clinic is for EACH of you women. You will find support, encouragement, challenge, and new friends here. You'll learn that, though running and walking are individual activities, they become much easier in company, and a group will move faster than many of the individuals would or could alone.

WHAT: This is a running and walking clinic. We teach you how to go farther, faster, longer from whatever your starting point may be. (See our list of posts of beginner information on our home page.) We help you pick the right shoes so that you don't get hurt along the way. We show you how to move efficiently, breathe easily and love your progress. We meet three times a week; come as often as you can and try to follow the schedule on your own if you miss a day.

We limber up for a few minutes, walk for 5 minutes, then begin a 25-30 minute workout that alternates jogging and walking as your level of fitness allows.

Our workout program is specifically designed for the Women Run Arkansas affiliate of the Road Runners Club of America, so we do not publish the plan, but we can send you a day's schedule when you miss.

Some of our leaders are formally certified by the RRCA as running coaches, meaning we have CPR training and have taken a course in coaching's best practices and training program design. We can help with lots of little things that can make a big difference. That old saying applies: There are no dumb questions.

WHEN: We meet two evenings a week at 5:30 p.m.The training plan is designed for basic fitness and optimum recovery — it takes about 25-30 minutes of heart-pumping activity three or four times a week to develop basic heart fitness. Most intense training plans work on a hard-easy principle, where effort is followed by rest or significantly lighter effort.

For those of you just starting out, you'll want a day off after 30 minutes of new exercise. We encourage you to do something every day if you are able, but please apply the hard-easy, effort-recovery principle.

WHERE: We meet at various places, running the park and cemetery trails. We will move to Eagle Mountain to run on the 1040 Tax Run course, and we encourage you to participate or volunteer to help in that annual race so you get an idea of how these things go. Facebook groups are your scheduling center for open days.

WHY: This really goes back to the Who question — this clinic exists to help you be the woman you want to be, whatever that means insofar as an athletic community can contribute to your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being and self-image. And again, you will find that this is a community as much as it is a fitness program. We do this to share the love of running, and even more important, the love of what running has done for us.

HOW: The simplest answer here is that we gather, then put one foot in front of the other, then repeat until we stop.

The gathering is the part that takes a bit of coordination. We have coaches and significant support from the White River Roadrunners. We have group leaders dedicated to sharing their own gains from past clinics. We have facilities and support from area groups and governments.

Throw in your own commitment to a better life and community. We get the training program from a committed statewide organization.

In our local group, we allow men to support in the proper spirit of this women's activity, and we allow children, even in strollers, to come along with appropriate supervision and caution.

We aim to provide two leaders at least to each group so that we have a front and trailing monitor so that all are safe, encouraged and informed as we go our own paces.

As we finish, though, it's not how we do it — but how you do it that matters. Commit to yourself, cooperate with us and respect the mutual commitment:

Join us. Put one foot in front of the other. Repeat.

Run for fun! Run for your life!