Clinic Turns Almost Anyone Into a Marathoner

It began with a social hour. Then there was dinner. After that came music, a guest speaker, a slide presentation and an awards ceremony.

It took almost four hours to complete the activities, but none of the 100 people who sat through it seemed to mind.

Just about everyone at the Glendale Adventist Academy cafeteria had stamina. They knew how to pace themselves. Sitting through a marathon meeting is no sweat when--like a great many of those in attendance--you’ve run a real marathon.

Welcome to the awards banquet for the Adventist Marathon Clinic, the program that can turn just about anyone into a marathoner--especially those who have only run away from exercise before.

“Through the years, man has become selfish, idle and so dependent on machinery that he has forgotten how to use his God-given gifts,” said Fred Hosillos, clinic director. “Man has great potential and it’s not hard to tap it.”

Connie Febre of Eagle Rock was in less than average condition when she joined the clinic in January, 1986.

Febre, 35, had been injured in 1980 while working as a nurse. She was helping a partially paralyzed patient out of a wheelchair when the man lost his balance and fell on the 5-foot-1, 95-pound Febre.

The result was a herniated disc on three levels, subsequent surgery, pain and a diagnosis from the surgeon that she might never walk normally again.

Febre underwent therapy to strengthen her back and to build up the muscles in her left leg, which had atrophied two inches after her injury.

The pain was still there when she joined the clinic as a walker, but it gradually diminished as she built up her endurance and strength and began running.

In December, Febre finished the Honolulu Marathon in 5:26:00.

“It was the most satisfying thing I ever experienced,” said Febre, who is training for the Los Angeles Marathon on March 1. “I felt like such a winner, especially after being told I might never walk normally again. It’s given me a lot of confidence and I’m very appreciative of being healthy.”

Hosillos, 46, has been helping people find improved health and confidence--and in some cases find each other--since he started the running program in 1982 in his hometown of Iloilo City in the Philippines.

Hosillos was invited by the Southern California Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church to import his program to Glendale in 1984 and since has helped launch similar programs in Rolling Hills, Temple City and West Covina.

The clinics, which cost $30, are open to people of all ages and religions. Alumni include a 71-year-old woman who completed a 15-K race in 1984. The next clinics will begin March 7 and are geared toward the person who has never run before.

“Three years ago, I thought only the finest athletes in the world could do a marathon,” said Horst Bokerman, 50, of Temple City. “But the approach and techniques in this program help make goals seem reachable. It doesn’t scare you away.

“What is taught has nothing to do with speed. It has everything to do with endurance. The people who stick it out are amazed. After they get going in the clinic, they’re usually curious and ask themselves, ‘Can I go beyond this? “

The regimen was developed by John O. Wagner, a Honolulu cardiologist who devised it 13 years ago as a cardiac rehabilitation program.

Participants must have medical clearance and in some instances undergo treadmill tests before they begin, but Hosillos said anyone who follows his program sensibly will be able to run nine miles at the end of the 12-week course. Those wishing to venture into longer distances may stay on for a 36-week program.

Each clinic is broken into beginner, intermediate and advanced groups. Beginners start by jogging 30 minutes three times a week at a 15-minute-a-mile pace. For the true novice, even that pace is comfortable. For anyone with some jogging experience, it’s hard work to keep from going faster.

Hosillos stresses the social benefits of running. In addition to the individual activity Sunday mornings at a local park to discuss health-related topics before undertaking a group run. If you can’t hold a conversation while running, you’re going too fast. The emphasis for participants is on finishing, not winning.

At the end of each year, participants from the four clinics get together for a December trip to Hawaii for the Honolulu Marathon.

“They’re not looking to produce any world-beaters,” said Bob Lowe, 51, of Burbank, who ran last year’s Honolulu Marathon in 4:34:00. “Twenty-seven people from the clinic went over to Hawaii and 27 finished. When you’re done with the race and turn around and watch some of the other people come in, you have to admire their determination. It’s amazing.”

For many people, the running boom of the ‘70s came to an end on July 20, 1984, when Jim Fixx, who wrote “The Complete Book of Running,” suffered a heart attack and died while running along a state highway in Hardwick, Vt.

Most of those people who join the Marathon Clinic, however, missed the glory days of recreational running entirely. Few, if any, of the people at the awards banquet looked like the svelte, prototype marathoner or runner. Many were over 50 years old and described themselves as non-athletic before they began the program and gave a variety of reasons for joining.

Steve Fineberg of Van Nuys said he was always the last one to finish a run in his physical education classes at Cleveland High School in Reseda. In college, he avoided physical activity.

“I was never athletic,” Fineberg said. “The only time I ever saw the gym at Cal State Northridge was to see a concert.”

Fineberg, 33, joined the clinic after hearing about it from a friend and gradually built up his endurance. Last December, he finished the Honolulu Marathon in 4 hours and 53 minutes and plans on competing in the Los Angeles Marathon March 1.

Betty Hedrick, 55, an adult nurse practitioner from Rolling Hills, was a jogger but could never do more than two miles a day. She joined the clinic to try and get over the hump.

Last July, Hedrick won a contest that had nothing to do with running. The prize--a free trip to Hawaii for four nights and five days.

“Fred told me, ‘That’s great, you can go with us to Honolulu and watch everyone run the marathon,’ ” Hedrick said. “I told him, ‘Watch? If I go, I’m going to run.’ ”

During the months preceding the trip, Hedrick would drive into Los Angeles from the South Bay and run around the Music Center from 6 to 7:15 a.m. before going to work at the Veterans Outpatient Clinic. It took her more than six hours of running and walking to complete the Honolulu Marathon, but she finished.

“I didn’t want to hurt myself,” she said. “I’m just an everyday mother and nurse. But I’ll tell you what: The average person can do a marathon.”

Aside from the physical conditioning, newly found confidence seems to be the most significant benefit obtained by the clinic’s participants.

Wilma Schreiber of Rolling Hills, 59, was brimming with pride after finishing the Honolulu race in 6:35:00. She said she walked back to the hotel rather than taking the courtesy bus.

“I think the key to our programs is that we give people a lot of latitude,” Hosillos said. “We always give them a minimum and an optimum. That way we don’t push people past their capacity. They stay within their comfort zone.”

Peggy Griffin of San Pedro joined the clinic to see how she would do in runs longer than the half-mile jogs she took with her dog. Jon Fickes of Glendale joined the clinic to rehabilitate a knee he had hurt overtraining on his own. Both Griffin, 31, and Fickes, 33, have fallen in love with the marathon.

They have also fallen in love with each other.

The couple met while competing at the Honolulu Marathon in 1985, got engaged exactly one year later at the 1986 race and plan to be married May 17.

Besides the physical well-being that can be derived from Hosillo’s running program--an improved cardiovascular system, loss of weight and a better diet--participants say they also enjoy psychological benefits.

“I tend to see myself as more athletic and I feel better about not being sedentary,” Fineberg said. “By running in this type of program, you don’t need fad diets. It changes your life style and makes you healthier. I look at people who aren’t in shape differently now. I’m not one of them anymore.”

Neither is Elliott Chang, who began his running career after he accidentally stumbled upon the Olympic torch relay while driving home from a Dodger game in 1984.

Chang, 30, said he was blase about the pre-Olympic hoopla until he saw the torch being passed. The scene inspired him to jog alongside the torchbearer for a kilometer, camp out to watch the women’s marathon during the Games and eventually join the Marathon Clinic.

“I have to say, without being smug, that I have long since passed the need for the clinic in terms of training,” said Chang, who lives in Marina del Rey and has run six marathons. “But I keep coming back because it’s great fun to run with people. The clinic has given a lot to me personally. You have to give something back to the people just coming in.”

More and more people are getting the opportunity to become involved in fitness programs that were started by Hosillos. Two weeks ago, the Adventist Walking Club took its first steps. The Adventist Bicycle Clinic is planning a trip to Europe.

“Every fitness program has a 40%-70% dropout rate and ours is no exception,” said Hosillos, who works as a health educator for the Vallejo Drive Seventh-day Adventist Church in Glendale. “But the people who stay in will achieve their goals. That’s the compensation.

“My satisfaction comes from seeing ordinary non-athletic people accomplish something that couldn’t be accomplished without a program like this. We take people where they are and let them grow.”