FAST
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F R I E N D S
A little sweat can be good for
your mind, body and spirit,
especially when fitness helps
you find your soul mate.
By Virginia Sole-Smith
TRAIL BLAZERS
Miri Frankel e Kristine Mueller
Miri (right) and Kristine met
eight years ago during a
law-school semester abroad.
“We started talking in class and
discovered that we were each
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NICE CATCH
Megan & Ned Swann
When Megan started playing her favorite sport, Ultimate Frisbee,
in New York City’s Central Park in 2006, she was looking for a
low-pressure way to get a great workout. “I liked that I could meet
for a pickup game whenever I had a free night and never had to worry if
I couldn’t make it,” she says. “But then Ned started coming to the games,
and suddenly I was a lot more committed to the team!”
Megan, 35, and Ned, 27, quickly became friends, regularly showing up
for Frisbee on Saturday and riding home on the subway together afterward.
“I would secretly hope for a train delay so the ride would last longer and
we could talk,” says Ned, a managing director of a solar energy firm. The
pair had similar senses of humor. “We’d banter about completely random
things, like weird advertisements we’d seen or the city’s top-rated food
carts,” Megan says. Finally after several months Ned got up the courage
to ask her out. “It took a while because we were both shy about letting
on how we felt about each other,” she says. They began dating and were
married two years later near the Frisbee field where they’d met.
Now the parents of two toddlers—Walker, 2, and Perla, 1—Megan and
Ned have expanded their sports roster to include skiing, swimming and
cycling with their kids. But they still count Frisbee as one of their favorite
activities. “We keep disks in the diaper bag, the stroller and the car so we
can play wherever we go,” says Megan, a stay-at-home mom. They alternate
gym days so one of them can work out while the other watches the kids.
Even on date nights, Megan and Ned rarely sit still. “We’d rather go running
than see a movie,” Megan says. “Being active is what keeps us connected.”
PREVIOUS PAGE: TODD WINTERS. THIS PAGE AND PAGES 124 AND 126: AMY POSTLE
looking for someone to run
with,” Miri, 31, says. The women
bonded as they jogged three
or four times a week, gabbing
about everything from exams
to dating. By the semester’s
end they had become BFFs.
Even though they now live
hundreds of miles apart, Miri
in Minneapolis and Kristine in
Chicago, running keeps them
close. “I’ll e-mail Miri and say,
‘I’m shooting for an 18-miler
tomorrow’ or ‘Hey, do you ever
get this weird pain under your
kneecap?’” Kristine, 34, says.
They recently started training
with Bluetooth headsets so
they can chat as they run,
cheering each other on.
Miri and Kristine are as
passionate about volunteering
as they are about running, so
last year Kristine came up with
the idea of competing in races
in all 50 states to increase
awareness of their favorite
causes and raise money
for them. (They’re chronicling
their journey on a joint blog
called theracewithinus
.blogspot.com.) So far they’ve
received almost $3,000 in
donations for such charities
as Girls on the Run, a program
that teaches preteen girls about
healthy living through running,
and Hospitals for Humanity,
a global nonprofit organization
that provides affordable health
care to communities in need.
Kristine is determined to run
50 marathons, while Miri is
planning to do a combination
of half and full marathons.
Together the friends have completed more than a dozen races
in 12 states so far.
“Finding enough time to
train isn’t always easy, but we
keep each other motivated,”
Kristine says. “And it helps
knowing that the money goes
to a good cause.” Miri adds,
“There’s no way I could even
fathom doing this without
Kristine. It’s so much easier to
get to the finish line when
you’re in it together.”
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BOOT CAMP BUDDIES
Michelle HarrisìeìVanessa West
Isora Bailey eìLinda Hemphill
Jenn TuckerìeìTracy Naden
IN FITNESS
& IN HEALTH
Rebecca Phillippo
& Georges Rouan
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Commiserating over crunches at 5:30 a.m. has
a way of connecting people. Just ask (from right)
Linda, 56; Vanessa, 41; Isora, 34; Michelle, 41
(shown here with instructor Stacy Papakostas);
Jenn, 30 (not pictured); and Tracy, 36 (not pictured),
who met three years ago at NYC Adventure Boot
Camp, a fitness program whose participants gather
at dawn five days a week. “The workout we get is
great, but the best part is all the friends I’ve made,”
Michelle, a television editor, says. “We find the fun
in exercising.” Isora, an education administrator,
says: “We’re different ages and have different kinds
of jobs, but there’s a certain personality type that’s
willing to work out that early. You really respect
each other for doing it.”
The women regularly meet for girls’ nights out,
organized by Linda, the group’s “cruise director,”
but the workouts are the key to their relationship.
“When we say ‘See you tomorrow,’ we really mean
it!” Michelle says. The sessions keep them close.
“With my other friends, we’re busy with work and
life, but these women see me day in, day out,”
Isora says. “That means we share everything: how
a presentation at work went, who had a fight with
her boyfriend, you name it.” The group has also
reaped plenty of fitness benefits: They’ve all lost
weight—Michelle has dropped 20 pounds; Linda,
15—and gained energy, and some of them have
started running races. “We’re more confident now
because we’re getting so strong,” Michelle says.
“We feel like Charlie’s Angels!”
When Rebecca met Georges, a fellow competitive mountain biker, in
the spring of 2009, she couldn’t get him out of her mind. “I’m usually
too focused on my race to notice guys, but there was something about
Georges,” Rebecca, 37, a travel consultant, says. “I thought, he has an
adorable smile and he loves cycling; what do I have to lose?” Little did
she know that Georges, 38, a director of sales and research at an investment company, was way ahead of her. “I’d spotted Rebecca at another
race and had a crush on her,” he says. Rebecca asked a mutual friend to
introduce them, and the couple, who live in Tarrytown, New York, have
been inseparable ever since, riding and training together. “With Georges
I don’t have to choose between him and cycling or explain why I need a
two-hour nap after a long training ride,” Rebecca says.
In April 2010, just as the biking season was getting under way,
Rebecca discovered a lump in her breast. She was diagnosed with stage
three breast cancer and needed a double mastectomy, four months of
chemotherapy and six and a half weeks of radiation. “I was devastated,”
she says. “But Georges has been by my side every step of the way.”
He has literally kept her moving forward. When Rebecca started
radiation treatments, Georges would coax her onto her bike at least
once a week. “He’ll say, ‘Let’s do 30 minutes.’ I may not want to at first,
but I know that if I just get myself on the bike for a bit, I’ll feel so much
better,” Rebecca says. “It’s our special time together, a little normalcy
that we can hold on to. As long as I’m still riding with Georges, I know
I can beat this.”
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Some husbands and wives like to play a friendly game of tennis. Diane
and Blake? They’d rather do a triathlon. “That’s how we’re wired,” Diane,
38, says. “Blake and I are the type of people who, if we don’t exercise for a
few days, get grouchy. Fitness plays a big role in our lives.”
The couple met when Diane was training for her first Ironman triathlon,
in 2005. “My coach introduced us and said, ‘Blake’s a great runner; let him
give you some tips,’” Diane, a marketing consultant in Westport, Connecticut,
says. The pair started running together and found that they also shared a
passion for downhill skiing. “We had so many of the same interests and
values, it felt like every week I discovered a new one,” Blake, 34, a banker.
says. “We had such great chemistry, I’d forget I was on a run when I was
with her.” The couple had their first date a few months later. In October of
that year Blake went to Kona, Hawaii, to compete in the Ironman triathlon,
and Diane flew out to cheer him on. “At the end he gave me his finisher’s
lei,” Diane says. “His mom told me that was when she knew I was the one.”
Two years later the couple were married. They kicked off their wedding
day by hosting 5K and 10K fun runs in Central Park for family and friends.
“It felt like the perfect start to our big day,” Diane says.
Now the parents of a two-year-old and an eight-month-old, Diane and
Blake continue to run, cycle, swim and do yoga together. And they still
compete—and complement each other.“Blake motivates me to go longer
and harder, and I keep him balanced with time for friends and family,”
Diane says. “We support one another in every sense of the word.”
Flex Your
Happiness
Muscle
Working out can strengthen
your relationships, just as it
tones your body, research
shows. In fact, sharing a fun
activity or hobby is the
number-one predictor of a
happy marriage, according
to research at Brigham
Young University in Provo,
Utah. It can also take your
friendships to a whole
new level. Here’s your getactive-together plan.
Bond better. Thanks to
the feel-good endorphins
that are released when
you exercise, activities that
get your blood pumping
may help bring you closer
to each other, says Sonja
Lyubomirsky, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the
University of California,
Riverside, and author of
The How of Happiness.
Invite a friend or your significant other to go for a
twice-weekly bike ride (you
choose the route one time,
he picks it the next) or
suggest that you sign up
for golf lessons together.
Double your benefits.
“We’re all so busy today
that we rarely have enough
hours to hang out with our
friends and family,” says Kim
Olver, a life coach in Chicago
and author of Secrets of
Happy Couples. Point out
to your pal or partner that
exercising together is the
perfect way to multitask:
You both score a good workout, and you have uninterrupted time with each other
to really talk.
POWER COUPLE
Diane & Blake Benke
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Get pumped. Working
toward a shared goal means
that you constantly have
someone pushing you to go
stronger, faster, harder. So
sign up for a race with your
guy. “There’s a real sense
of team spirit when you work
out or train with someone
else,” Olver says. “It unites
and energizes both of you.”
—Karla Walsh