Registration for the local training program of the inaugural Brooksie Way Half Marathon, to be led by Lake Orion resident and veteran marathon runner Chris Kelley, is open until May 23.
The 13.1-mile race and 5k run will be held Sunday, Oct. 5, starting at Oakland University and finishing at the campus? historic Meadow Brook Hall.
Kelley is one of several trained Crim volunteer group leaders from Oakland County who will lead the program.
The time-tested training program is offered by the Flint-based Crim Fitness Foundation and is formatted to take a healthy walker or casual runner to a half-marathon finisher in 15 weeks. A training information request form is available at www.thebrooksieway.com, or by contacting dbarkey@crim.org.
Runner’s World magazine has called the Crim program the largest training program for a single athletic event in the country. In 2007, over 1,200 men and women joined the Crim Training Program to run or walk a race in the Crim Festival of Races.
Brooksie Way training program participants will receive weekly training sessions supervised by trained group leaders, as well as pre and post health screenings through program and event sponsor McLaren Health Care Corporation. Other benefits include injury prevention and nutrition clinics; a copy of Olympian Jeff Galloway’s marathon book; shoe clinics; three free visits to the Oakland University Athletic and Recreation Center and a Brooks? technical fabric shirt.
The Oct. 5 race is named in memory of Brooks Stuart Patterson, the son of the Oakland county executive, who died as a result of a snowmobiling accident in February, 2007.