While most students are just trying to get through their first week back at school, a group of nearly 120 sorority women are preparing for the Louisiana Half Marathon on Sunday.
SoleSisters is a group of sorority women who are training to run in Sunday’s race. They have been training by running two short runs during the week and then a long run during the weekend, said mass communication junior Catherine Mahtook.
When they’re not running, they train using yogalates and workout videos.
Mass communication junior Carley Wahlborg said it was hard to work out as a group the fall semester because of their different schedules. She said the race is an opportunity to get together and run as SoleSisters.
Catherine and her sister Christina became involved with SoleSisters last year and have already participated in one Louisiana half-marathon.
To get ready for Sunday’s race, Catherine Mahtook said she and her sister have been trying to eat “clean” by eating plant-based foods like vegetables and fruit. They are also not working out as much this week.
Christina said she loves having someone to train with when she runs.
“I can’t imagine training on my own,” she said.
The sisters act as coaches and motivators, Catherine said. Whenever one doesn’t want to run, the other will push her to work out.
Catherine said she is excited for Sunday’s race and the adrenaline rush she experiences while running with her sorority sisters.
“Last year we ran and walked it, and this year we want to run the whole thing,” Christina said. “So it’s kind of another goal.”
After the race, Catherine said she plans to sleep and enjoy not running for a week.
Both Catherine and Christina were dancers in high school, but did not run much. When Wahlborg told them about the half-marathon, they decided they would just walk and run the race.
After completing their first race, Christina said she and Catherine fell in love with running.
“It sounds so cliché, but now it’s our release,” Christina said. “It used to be dancing, but now it’s running.”
Both sisters said when they run, they experience the “runner’s high” and even when they don’t feel like running, they become motivated once they start.
Because they fell in love with running, the sisters decided they wanted to run a health program after graduation called TASK by Twinatics to help people become “spiritually and physically fit.”
“TASK stands for ‘To always spread kindness,’” Christina said.
TASK focuses on plant-based diets, healthy eating, running, yogalates and other workouts, Christina said.
SoleSisters has fundraised throughout the semester to meet its goal of $3,100 to give to Girls on the Run of Greater Baton Rouge. Wahlborg said the group has raised more than their goal and plans to give the money to Girls on the Run in the next few weeks.
“It sounds so cliché, but now [running is] our release. It used to be dancing, but now it’s running.”
