They’ve shared holidays, birthdays, happy times, and struggles. They’ve been through ten years of changes, ten years of great memories and have watched each other’s children grow up. But, Heidi McNelis, Jackie Mitchell, and Kathie Spraggins may not have ever met if it wasn’t for early mornings and long distances.

“I’ve kind of been running my whole life,” McNelis said. “My mom says I went from walking to running.”

McNelis started running with the Sports Backers Marathon Training Team in 2003 after completing the Ukrop’s Monument Avenue 10k. The mother of three young girls didn’t know anyone else on the team, and had recently left her job to be a stay at home mom. Her fortieth birthday was approaching, and while she had been running for exercise on her own, she wanted to do something significant to celebrate the next stage of her life. 

“I also wanted to do something to show my daughters that even if I was a stay at home mom I could still accomplish things that maybe other stay at home moms couldn't,” McNelis said. “It was a bit of an ego thing for me I guess.”

In addition to McNelis, 2003 also marked Jackie Mitchell’s first marathon. Mitchell didn’t start long distance running until she was 36. She had done the YMCA training team for the Ukrop’s Monument Avenue 10k with her church, and afterward signed up for the MTT. Mitchell frequently ran with another friend. One day her companion didn’t show up for training; not wanting to run solo she approached Kathie Spraggins.

“I just walked up to Kathie and said, ‘Hi can I run with you?’” Mitchell said.

It was Spraggins’ second marathon. She completed her first one on a New Year’s dare from her neighbors, and due to training too quickly, ended up injured. She had just recently moved to a new neighborhood, and was looking for a way to get outside her cul-de-sac.

“I needed to get out and meet some new people,” Spraggins said. “I was running with my neighbors, and between joining the training team, having not trained correctly, and then training correctly it took 48 minutes off of my marathon time. So it speaks volumes for the training team.”

Spraggins introduced Mitchell to McNelis, who she had met on a previous run, and the three quickly formed a tight bond. They soon realized they all lived close to each other in the West End, and began to meet for weekly 5:30 a.m. runs. Those runs quickly led to meeting for a drink every now and then, or a cup of coffee, and soon transcended into deep and meaningful friendships.

“I could not have done what I’ve done without them,” Mitchell said. “It was our destiny to meet.”

After a successful marathon in 2003, the three women kept at it and decided that summers wouldn’t be quite the same if they weren’t getting up to run on Saturdays with the training team. Ten years later they’re doing just that. Together they train through the winter, and have run over 30 races together, and about 12 marathons, including Boston.

“They're not just my running friends anymore,” McNelis said. “They're so much more than running friends. They're my bestie, bestie, bestie friends. I have a small family, so these guys are my fill-ins. They're my family.”

Over the years their husbands and families have become friends, as well as one of each of their three daughters that are the same age. They share a close-knit group of other running friends they have met through the training team that they affectionately refer to as the “R-Dubs”. All three women say they have loved the diversity of people the MTT has allowed them to meet, including individuals spanning from age 18-72.

“I believe that the training program teaches you how to do it the right way,” Mitchell said. “Too many people go out and say well I'm going to run three miles and then they run out and they never catch their breath and they're miserable and have a miserable run. Just learning how you have to warm your body up and relax and just keep increasing your mileage little by little instead of just saying, ‘I'm going to go do this.’”

Spraggins also thinks running with a group can prove helpful for most women when it comes to commitment and accountability.

“I get up in the morning because I know I'm going to meet my friends,” Spraggins said. “They're waiting for me. We get each other through a lot, it's incredibly therapeutic to get things out; even if nobody has the answers at least you know you have understanding people with you.”

Mitchell echoes her friend’s statements saying that women should consider their knack for being relational a strength when it comes to group wellness.

“I think women support each other; it's not as competitive,” Mitchell said. “It's more like, okay you can do it and it's positive.”

While the three contend that the modern mom has a lot going on between work and home-life these days, they want to stress to others just how easy it is to incorporate exercise into everyday life and how rewarding it can be.

“It’s something that you can own that's not wrapped around your kids; it's not wrapped around your husband,” Spraggins said. “It's for you.”

“I know for me as a mom, finishing a marathon and doing well, that's mine,” McNelis said. “It's not me doing something good for my kids or being a good supportive wife or something, that's like my own thing. Nobody gave it to me or did it for me and that's mine and I own it. I will shout it out to the world like, ‘Hey look what I did!’”

“Do something for yourself,” Mitchell said. “This is the beginning of what you can be and to get there you have to work hard at it a little bit. You just build up and you'll be surprised where you can go.”