RECREATION

Race founder caters to middle-of-pack runner

Chef changed diet, started exercising

By Pamela LeBlanc
AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Monday, January 19, 2009

Brae Blackley considers herself a middle-of-the-pack runner.

"I never won a race.. I never placed in a race. I never was in contention to place at a race," she says.

As such, the Arlington, Va., runner thinks she knows what the average woman wants when she enters a half-marathon: a huge post-race party with catered brunch, live music and mini spa treatments. A finisher's necklace, not a medal. A girls' weekend atmosphere.

With those things in mind, the 29-year-old former corporate attorney created a national series of half-marathon races last year designed to inspire women to lead healthy lives. In April, the series expands to Central Texas.

"I know my own perspective as a customer," Blackley told me last week, while in Austin to kick off training programs for the April 4 Zooma Austin Half Marathon and 5K.

The Texas race will be one of four Zooma events staged in 2009. Other races are planned for Annapolis, Md., Atlanta and Denver.

She picked Austin after spotting our city on Runners World magazine's list of top 25 running cities. She also liked the vibe here. "Austin clearly has a great running community," she says.

Once she settled on the Austin area as a location, she looked for a venue that would make the race a little different — and one easier to secure permits for than downtown Austin. She settled on the new Hyatt Lost Pines Resort and Spa near Bastrop.

It's a great plan, and I'm already registered for the race. I'm looking forward to the pine-fresh air I'll be inhaling as I run up and down the hills around the resort.

Want to join me? Registration is $85 for the half-marathon and $45 for the 5K until March 15, when both go up by $10. A portion of proceeds will benefit LifeWorks' single mothers' shelter. For more information, go to www.zoomarun.com/austin. Volunteers are needed for water stations, to act as course marshals and staff the finish line. If you are interested, send an e-mail to info@zoomarun.com.

As for Blackley and her middle-of-the-pack status? Don't let her fool you. She's an 8.5-minute miler.

That's pretty fast in my book.

A restaurateur's story

If you're looking for more motivation to keep your New Year's fitness resolution, consider Bob Hauser, president, creator and director of operations of Cannoli Joe's, an Italian eatery in South Austin.

Hauser, 41, wasn't exactly setting any records for his healthy lifestyle a few years ago. After attending chef school, he worked in New York, then Italy, then came back to Texas and started a fast-food chain. Two years ago he teamed up with the owners of County Line BBQ to open the all-you-can-eat Italian restaurant, where cooks at different stations around the restaurant whip up small batches of dishes for diners. He didn't have much time for exercise.

"I recognized I needed to make some changes," he says. "I wasn't living a healthy lifestyle, and I wasn't a good role model for my children and I didn't feel good."

He started exercising six times a week, incorporating running, cycling, swimming and weight lifting into his daily regimen. "Then it all kind of started to click and I started to lose weight," he says. Last April, he decided to cut meat out of his diet. "They rolled their eyes when they heard that one," he says of the reaction that move earned from his restaurant partners.

He trained for and successfully completed a half-marathon, then a marathon. Then he started entering triathlons. This year, he'll run the Austin Marathon and seven more triathlons — including his first Ironman distance event in Arizona.

"I went from couch potato to endorphin psycho," he says.

He's shed nearly 50 pounds. His weekly routine now includes running four times a week, biking two or three times a week, swimming two or three times a week and strength conditioning two or three times a week.

He's made changes at the restaurant, too, adding healthful options. "Because I do spend a lot of time at the restaurant, I wanted to incorporate more things onto the menu that I could eat and people making the type of changes I was making could eat," Hauser says.

The minestrone soup is now made with vegetable stock instead of chicken stock, and some of the sauces and polenta are made with vegetable stock instead of meat stock. And there are plenty of dishes loaded with vegetables.

He's got some tips for pre-race nutrition. No. 1? Eat pasta! (Well, of course! He owns an Italian restaurant.)

He likes whole grain pasta, which is available on weekends at his restaurant. The night before the marathon, Hauser says he'll make a mock bolognese sauce with mushrooms, tomatoes and textured vegetable protein instead of meat. A few hours before the race, he'll down a whole-grain bagel with peanut butter and maybe a banana.

"Don't eat anything you think could potentially upset your stomach," he says.

Register now to relay

Deadline to register for the Texas Independence Relay is fast approaching — Jan. 31.

The 200-mile relay, on March 7-8, is broken into 40 legs. Round up a team of eight to 12 and you, too, can run from Gonzales, where the Texas Revolution began, to the San Jacinto Monument, where Texas independence was won. Along the way you'll pass through Shiner, Flatonia, Schulenburg, Columbus and Eagle Lake, as well as Houston. The course traces the whole route of Sam Houston and the Texian army in their fight for independence.

Registration fees for open, corporate and corporate preferred teams are $1,000, $1,250 and $2,000. For more information or to register go to www.texasindependencerelay.com.