Teachers on the run at Good Shepherd

By Bruce Campbell
sports reporter

It’s not too often the leaders of a run go by the nicknames “Leadfoot” or “Hurry Up” but that’s exactly what is happening at Good Shepherd School these days.
Beginner runners Wayne “Leadfoot” Lorenz and Angela “Hurry Up” Hassett, teachers at Good Shepherd School, were out with approximately 100 students Thursday for a two-kilometre run to prepare for the Mini Sheep River Road Race on May 9.
“I was expecting maybe 20 to 25 students who wanted to run — and we ended up getting 100 students sign up,” said Terri “Rocket” Roman, the athletic coordinator at the K-6 school. “I needed some help and I asked the staff and 23 of them signed up.”
The run is for Grade 4-9 students in the Foothills.
Each of the teachers was given a “Redeemer Running Room” T-shirt — with the teacher’s name and a nickname on the back.
The teachers are similar to the students, some can run like there is no tomorrow, while others, are just happy to finish by tomorrow.
As a result, there were many students encouraging their teachers as they all went out for their 2K-loop around the school.
“Leadfoot” Lorenz was with the beginner’s group. They would walk for three minutes and then do a short run before walking again, slowly building up their confidence and stamina.
“I am doing this to keep up with my wife, Nancy — she is a knockout,” he said. “This is just a wonderful way to get in shape with staff and students.”
Grade 5 teacher Roxanne “Burning Lungs” Bruketa could be excused if she was a touch slower during Thursday’s training run — she was up until 2 a.m. creating T-shirts for her students.
“This is awesome,” she said while doing some pre-run stretching with her students. “This is really going to help me get back into running. I haven’t done it for a while.”
Grade 5 student Connor “Crate Packing” Tague, ran with Lorenz and Bruketa.
“They did really well,” she said. “I signed up because I wanted to get in shape and this is fun because I get to do it with my class.”
Roman said she should have expected a large number of students to turnout as in the past they have had more than 90 students play volleyball and presently there are more than 50 playing badminton.
Sandra Alwood, a member of the Big Rock Runners and a teacher at Percy Pegler School, said the Mini Sheep River Road Race, has taken off in this its third year of existence.
The run will include all the Okotoks area schools this year as well as C.I. McLaren School in Black Diamond, Millarville School and Spitzee and Senator Riley schools in High River.