Cara Group has loved running for many years.
“I ran track in high school and that was when I decided I really enjoy running,” she said. “I played tennis in college, but running distance came later when I thought it was going to be an inexpensive sport to participate in and stay in shape.”
Group started running 5K events and gradually increased her distance. She has now run 20 half-marathons.
“This year, 2021, was going to be my 21
st half-marathon, but I decided that since the race went virtual, I’m going to give it a go at completing my first full marathon,” she said.
When discussing her role in resurrecting the Pittsburgh Marathon, Patrice Matamoros likes to offer a bit of topical humor.
âIt was like Dorothy in âThe Wizard of Oz,â collecting key people along the Yellow Brick Road,ââ she said with a chuckle, although no one knows if the fabled street of the silver screen stretched for 26.2 miles.
As the new president of Junior Achievement of Western Pennsylvania, Matamoros anticipates the same type of strong teamwork that brought back the Steel Cityâs premiere race following a five-year hiatus.
âIt was really, truly an amazing thing in which many people came together with talent, resources and dedicated their time to making this a success,â she said.
App updates your workouts based on how well you hit your workouts
Coaches provide feedback in a timely manner
CONS
You need to have run a recent race to figure out your baseline
What to expect: Runcoach is a web and smartphone app (iOS and Android) that spits out a customized training plan for you, based on your goals, and then adapts that plan as you go, based on your performance. The app uses your running information to generate a training plan full of variety interval sessions, recovery days, long runs, tempo-paced efforts, strides, cross-training, and more that lays out the path to your goal based on the amount of time you have before a given race.