A guide for running marathons, walking 5Ks

A Marysville resident who has completed 12 marathons, Tory Klementson is offering to share her knowledge and experience with beginning runners, especially people interested in changing their life style to lose weight.

August 19, 2008 5:39 pm
Tory and Roy Klementson run the Disneyworld Marathon a few years ago. They have both lost a lot of weight by eating right and getting active and are now offering a guide service to people who want to learn to run or walk.
Tory and Roy Klementson run the Disneyworld Marathon a few years ago. They have both lost a lot of weight by eating right and getting active and are now offering a guide service to people who want to learn to run or walk.

A Marysville resident who has completed 12 marathons, Tory Klementson is offering to share her knowledge and experience with beginning runners, especially people interested in changing their life style to lose weight.

In Spokane recently, she did her first Ironman 70.3.

“I swam 1.2 miles, and then some, man did I get off course, biked 56 miles, and ran 13.1,” Klementson said.

“I’m currently coaching a group of women for their first 5K run, the Aflac Iron Girl in Seattle in September, and I’m starting a half marathon training program in Marysville for the Seattle Marathon,” she said.

Klementson, and her husband, Roy Klementson, are teaming up to offer a program which meets at

8 a.m., Saturdays, in Jennings Memorial Park.

“I guide the runners and Roy guides the walkers,” Tory Klementson said.

“I’ve been coaching for two years in Seattle, and once I struck out on my own. I decided I’d like to get something going in my own hometown of Marysville.

“I know we have a lot of runners in the area, I see them run past my house and nod and greet them on the road,” Tory said. Her husband is known around town as drama teacher at Marysville-Pilchuck High School.

Tory lost 100 pounds in 12 months back in 2002. After all that, she had surgery which set her back for a bit, but then she started running marathons in 2005. She did her first full marathon in Vancouver that year and has since run her way across the country, including numerous runs in Seattle, Portland, Eugene, Salt Lake City, New York, San Diego and Disney World. Her most recent marathon was Gramma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minn. and she is now training to do Chicago in October.

“Minnesotans are very friendly,” she said that’s another good reason to run marathons: It gives you a reason to go someplace new.

Her husband runs some half marathons, or accompanies her for support.

The Klementsons feels they have a lot to offer to others who want to transform their lives.

“I know how boring it can be to run the weekly long training runs alone,” she said. “Right now I am training for Chicago and if I can con a friend into running even a part of my long run with me, it is so much more enjoyable.”

She is currently starting a new group training for the Seattle Marathon on Thanksgiving weekend. Both Tory and Roy will accompany the runners to the Seattle Marathon and run and walk with them from beginning to end, Klementson said. She is also planning to start a group to prep for a new marathon in Seattle next June. The Rock-n-Roll Marathon features music at every mile, she said there are rock-n-roll marathons popping up all around the country, with one in Nashville which is actually a country music marathon.

“It will be a lot of fun,” she promised.

Klementson is taking new clients through the end of August. Cost of the program is $150 and includes group training, coaching, a training schedule, seminars and other benefits.