Tampa: No need to walk alone
The Right Fit 4 U Walking Club offers its members friendship and inspiration to lead healthier lives.
By TIM GRANT
Published July 16, 2004
Creating gales of laughter and casual chatter, the women in their identical white T-shirts form a small parade on the sidewalk along Carrollwood Village Run.
Their leader, Diane Jamai, walks briskly ahead of the seven women this weekday evening with a commanding stride. She stops and gestures in a sweeping motion with one arm. Then she watches closely as everyone spills into the street and crosses to the other side.
"I'm currently in the best shape of my life at age 51," Jamai says.
This is the Right Fit 4 U Walking Club, a free fitness group of mostly women who make friends, network, and inspire one another to lead healthier lives while they tour parts of the county on foot.
Jamai looks constantly over her shoulder, keeping a sharp eye on the stragglers. All of the women are at different stages of physical fitness. Everyone walks at her own pace. Nobody walks alone.
"I will walk in the back if I have to," Jamai says.
The walkers are, for the most part, professional women who work in fields that include medicine, law, government, education and business. They come from all over the area.
Maybe you've seen them on their winding path through Carrollwood Village; or puffing their way along the sidewalks on Davis Islands; or pumping their arms and heaving their chests with the other runners and inline skaters on Bayshore Boulevard.
From the green scenery of the Upper Tampa Bay Trail to the downtrodden neighborhoods around Ybor City, these walkers sightsee areas of Tampa that some did not know existed. They go on foot to places they might never have visited in their cars.
They're easy enough to identify. The slogan on their white T-shirts reads, "The Journey Is the Destination." Their logo is a pair of worn-out blue tennis shoes with dirty, unloosened shoe strings dangling to the sides. "Just continue to put one foot in front of the other," the T-shirt says.
Sabrena Heath is a new member. This day is her second time out with the group. She and her walking partner, Kathy Smith, chat about their work, their families and their fitness goals while marching side by side on N Village Drive toward the setting sun.
Heath says she has lost 38 pounds in the last three months. She knew it was time to consider her health when she found herself huffing and puffing up two flights of stairs. The new friends Heath is making in this group and the variety it provides will help her stay motivated, she says.
"You get nice scenery," says Heath, 38, a clerical worker for the city of Tampa. "I don't get bored because I see different scenery, and I've got Kathy to talk to. We're both country girls."
When Jamai formed the walking club in March 2003, she sent an e-mail blast to everyone she knew with no idea who would respond. She got about three replies. But when she arrived at the starting point at the former Country Club of Carrollwood, 12 walkers were waiting.
"It was like the field of dreams," she says. "We walked 4 miles the first day. That wasn't my intent, but everyone kept up, so I just kept going. Many of the walkers didn't know they could go 4 miles."
Today, there are 65 walkers on the club roster. About 40 percent are active members. The others walk less frequently. The group walks every Saturday and Sunday morning at various places in the county. Tuesday and Thursday evening walks are in Carrollwood.
Membership is free. There is, however, a $3-a-week walking fee that helps maintain a Web site and allows the club to make charitable donations to health or fitness-related causes.
Members gave the first $1,000 they raised to the American Heart Association to buy a defibrillator, a machine that restarts the heart, for the Museum of Science and Industry.
Jamai, who works for the city's Department of Strategic Planning and Technology, got the idea for the walking group in her late 40s, after watching so many people around her age suffer fitness and health-related problems. She wanted to make a difference.
"Our life span is much longer now," Jamai says. "We need to take care of our own machine, which is our bodies."
When she looked at all the options, walking seemed the best approach.
"It was easily accessible and compatible to most everyone's lifestyles and health levels. And it's a known way to improve flexibility, maintain your heart, health and mental well-being."
Cheryl Wessel relocated to Tampa from Boston last year. Through the walking group, she met Irene Levine, a woman who was her neighbor in Boston.
They lived in the same subdivision a few blocks away, and their children attended the same high school. They didn't know each other in Boston. They're friends now.
"The most attractive feature of the group is that we change venues each time," says Wessel, 57, a nursing supervisor at Tampa General Hospital's main emergency room. "It forces me to leave my comfortable South Tampa and get familiar with other areas."
It's also easier for Wessel to accomplish her fitness goals in a group.
"This group gets up early and walks when it's cool. So it forces me to be there. There's a deadline and no stalling."
Like several members of the walking group, Wessel is postmenopausal and at a higher risk for osteoporosis and heart disease. Several of the women have lost significant weight; others walk to stay fit and to keep their bones and hearts strong.
Men are welcome to walk with the group. From time to time, a gentleman or two will join, but none is a regular walker.
The Right Fit 4 U is not a social club, but the women converse while they walk. They'll talk about jobs they want, a wedding they are planning or challenges they might be facing.
Sometimes they socialize after their weekend morning walks. They celebrated their first anniversary in May by ending their walk with brunch at the Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel & Marina.
At 105 pounds, Tampa lawyer Betsey Hapner doesn't need to lose weight, and she gets plenty of exercise walking around the courthouse. She walks with the Right Fit 4 U on weekend mornings for networking and the chance to see different neighborhoods on foot.
"It's just fun. It's very sociable," says Hapner, 46, of Original Carrollwood. "Sometimes I have blisters by the time it's over, depending on what shoes I wear. But yes, I've always made it to the end."
For information about the walking schedule, visit the group's Web site at www.therightfit4u.com
- Tim Grant can be reached at 269-5311 or at grant@sptimes.com