JEANNE PARE STAYS FOCUSED, TODDLER, MEDICAL PRACTICE AND RUNNING
She’s out early nearly every morning, sometimes pushing a baby jogger with her daughter Kerry, sometimes not. She’ll run down into Mendham from her home on the Randolph, Mendham border, using the hills on her course to gain strength.
Once the run is finished, Jeanne Pare, 44, assumes the other role she plays in life, that of a medical doctor specializing in rheumatology. That’s not so unusual, except that this running doctor often wins the races that she enters, even when she hasn’t been able to do the speed training that she thinks she needs.
“My racing is just memory cells,” said Pare. “I can train at nine minute pace and race somehow at 6:15 pace. I have no idea how that happens.”
Two weeks ago Pare won the first annual St. Paddy’s 5K in Morris Township with a time of 19:25.
“I was shocked. I thought I had run 6:30 pace and it was actually 6:15 pace.”
Pare started running while attending Brooklyn college and was soon sponsored by Nike. She credits her early development to the Lydiard method of high mileage over a period of several months.
“I have great respect for his training method but of course who has time for doing true Lydiard training these days?” she said.
Lydiard, a New Zealander was a good friend of Pare and had just visited while on a visit to the states in 2004. The famous Kiwi passed away this past year.
“He was a fantastic individual,” said Pare. “I still have his book.”
Last fall, after winning the women’s race of the Liberty Waterfront Half Marathon in 1:25:06, she competed two weeks later in another half marathon in Rhode Island with a 1:24. Her training for New York seemed on target.
“I was in fairly good shape and then a few weeks before it I had a hamstring injury,” said Pare. “Which unfortunately slowed me down tremendously. I wanted to run 3:05 and not 3:12.”
“I was kind of disappointed but the week before I wasn’t sure I was going to run,” she said. “Either do it and risk being dissatisfied with the time or not do it,” she said. “And I choose to do it. It wasn’t a bad decision but I had to take it easy afterwards”
After the marathon Pare went into maintenance running. She will be studying for re-certification for her rheumatology boards in May.
“So in addition to raising a toddler and running a full time medical practice I have some studying I have to do,” said Pare. “Once my boards are done with in May I’ll be able to approach running more seriously again.”
Her boards are right before the Midland Run 15K. Last year Pare placed fourth woman overall and first masters woman with a time of 59:48.
“I was hoping to run that, but probably I’ll get my energy redirected toward my training in May,” said Pare. “Hopefully I’ll be ready for the fall races and then the marathon again.”
“Running is truly a lifestyle for me,” she said. “I feel better. I feel more effective at work. I definitely think it’s a very healthy way to live.”
While Pare is an impressive masters runner, she was highly regarded during her high performance years. She qualified for the Olympic Marathon in 1988. At the New Jersey Waterfront Marathon, she placed second woman with her personal best time of 2:44
“That’s when I used to run fast,” she quipped.
Indeed she did. She has a personal best of 1:14 for the half marathon and 34:13 for 10K. She can’t recall her 5K best and tends to overlook her masters times in which she routinely finishes under 20 minutes for 5K at local races.
She blames her lack of training for not being faster at 5K. She can do fartlek training on her morning runs and she gets plenty of hills, but what is lacking for her is track speed work.
“I can do that in the morning, and it may not be fast, but it really works,” she said. “It’s all about cardio vascular fitness and I believe that fartlek runs help you with long distance but it won’t produce fast times for 5K.”
“I have always believed that if I could do hills and fartlek and could get into very good shape and then I would probably only need five to six weeks of speed training.”
“I’ve always felt it lead to fewer injuries than individuals who train primarily on the track,” she said. “You have better cardio vascular fitness over the years.”
“Right now I would like to focus on keeping my mileage, doing my morning runs, and staying fit and doing some workouts toward the later spring,” said Pare.
She’ll have her focus on local races like the MK5K in Denville in May and the Exercise 5K in Chester in May. She has been selected as the first New Jersey alternate to compete at the national Masters 5K championship at Friehofers in Albany this June.
“Just to get ready for the fall again,” said Pare. “Just enough to keep my feet wet until I can focus better.”
Most people would conclude that Pare is doing a fine job of focusing right now.
First published in the DAILY RECORD of Morris County, Sunday, March 27, 2005
Copyright 2005 Madeline Bost