member spotlight
HAC MEMBER
RENEE BAFFONE by Renee Baffone and Jen Besten
January 2017 will be the three-year mark when I decided one Saturday morning to run instead of drive to my weight watchers meeting . Round trip six miles . I can ' t even begin to tell you how many times I had to stop and how long it took . Never in a million years would I think I would be sharing my story on how , with the help of running coach Jen Besten , my dream of qualifying for the Boston Marathon came true .
[ RENEE ]
First , none of this would be possible without God . He is the one that gave me the will , strength , and determination to achieve the goal he placed in my heart . My husband also blessed me with an amazing gift : I am a stay-at-home mom raising our four children . This allows me to come to HAC and work with coach Jen Besten and trainer Dina Saitis . There is not a day that goes by that I don ’ t realize how fortunate I am .
The first race I ever ran was the Caesar Rodney Half Marathon in March of 2014 . I was persuaded into running , and I honestly did not think that I would finish . I crossed the finish line in 2 hours and 14 minutes , and that is when I fell in love with running . Two months later , my husband and I trained and ran the Delaware Half Marathon together , crossing the finish line at 1:58 . That was the moment I knew I wanted to run a full marathon .
I kept up my training and registered for the Philadelphia Marathon that November with my friend Gina Way . I loved everything about the race . It was the most unbelievable 26.2 miles of my life , and I finished at 4:19 . A couple weeks went by and the thought of running the Boston Marathon entered my mind . I knew it was a very difficult goal and that I would have to shave off 34 minutes from my current marathon time just to qualify . Six months later , I ran the Delaware Marathon and crossed the finish line at 4:02 . I was very happy with my time and excited to have a new personal record ( PR ).
Again I continued to run on my own , and in my head I believed my next marathon time would be faster . Going into the Marine Corps marathon in October 2015 , I expected to break four hours , but instead crossed the finish line at 4:16 . I drove home from that race feeing defeated . I realized if I wanted to achieve this goal I would need help . After consulting friends at HAC , I contacted Jen Besten and asked to hire her as my running coach .
[ COACH JEN ]
I had seen Renee around HAC for years . She had even taken a few of my classes , some while she was in her third trimester of pregnancy . I watched how hard she worked and how she totally transformed her body by changing her diet and staying very committed to her workout routine . When she came to me with her running goals , I knew with some guidance she could definitely run faster . As far as qualifying for the Boston Marathon , I did not want to make any promises . I told her it would be a lot of work and we would have to make some changes to her routine to even
enhance magazine | JANUARY 2017 7