​Later this month, Hannah Cocchiaro, 28, heads to Atlanta for the U.S. Olympic team marathon trials. The Howard County resident and special education teacher isn’t afraid to set ambitious goals for herself, and then work hard to meet them. But the Olympic qualifier was nervous about joining ASA.

“I had seen the athletes and WingMen at different races and I just thought it looked really cool,” she says. “But it took me a few times of seeing them to get the courage to sign up. It was just scary for me to do something new. It seemed like a tight group, and I’m kind of shy.”

Hannah joined ASA in the fall of 2017 and soon after became a WingMan Captain. She has a vivid memory of her first training run. Stephanie Blades, Howard County Community Coordinator at the time, was there, and she made Hannah feel like she belonged. “She’s the most welcoming person I’ve ever met,” Hannah says of Stephanie. “She made me feel comfortable right away.” Hannah now practices and runs races with ASA as often as she can.

 “I love using the legs that I have to help the athletes do something they wouldn’t be able to do on their own. I never get tired of seeing the impact that ASA has on the athletes and their parents. Even on the training runs, we give the parents an hour to themselves. Being able to give back to the running community means so much to me. And of course there’s nothing like those finish line smiles.” 

Michele Howe, 49, is the Baltimore County Community Coordinator and has been a WingMan since 2012. She got involved after  seeing how much fun the athletes and WingMen were having on the course at the Baltimore Half Marathon in 2011.

 “It really was amazing that first season, going out and training on the NCR [North Central Railroad] trail. You really got to know everybody you were running with. And I stayed.”
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This is her third year as Community Coordinator, a volunteer job that involves putting teams together and managing them at group training runs and races. Support from WingMen and from ASA leadership make the workload manageable, says Michele, who is an assistant preschool teacher.

Michele’s favorite race is the Across the Bay 10K. The ASA Athletes start first, so the bridge is empty and the sun is just coming up over the Chesapeake Bay. There’s time to stop and take photos before the elite runners come through. “There’s just something really neat about running on the bridge,” she says.

Michele started running in 2007, when her twin girls turned 2. “I needed to get out of the house,” she says. “I started by just literally running around the neighborhood. I couldn’t even do a 5K.”

But it wasn’t motivating or fun for Michele to run on her own. “With ASA, you know you’re going to have a great time, plus people are relying on you so it makes you want to get out there,” she says. “Running with the group is just so much more rewarding for me than running by myself. I do most of my running with ASA.”
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If you’re thinking about joining, she says, give a Group Training Run a try. “We need more WingMen,” she says. 

Joe Camacci, 32, lives in Hershey, Pa., and is a WingMan with the Dauphin County (PA) Community of Athletes Serving Athletes.

Joe is a serious runner who often places in his age group. But with ASA, he doesn’t worry about speed or distance. He’s learned to slow down and enjoy ASA’s mantra that nobody gets left behind. The real reward, he says, isn’t a spot on the podium, but getting to know people and having a fun time out there.

Still, Joe is competitive and he says pushing the Athletes in their joggers up Pennsylvania’s steep hills has helped with his leg strength.

Joe learned about ASA in 2014, when he ran a local 7K called HARRC After Dark, put on by the Harrisburg Area Road Runners Club.  “I saw this big group of WingMen,” he recalls. “I remember them going down this steep hill and thinking it was crazy. They had to brake a lot, but they did it.” After the race, Joe approached the group and met the Athletes, WingMen and Community Coordinator, Christina Beaverson. “The Athlete’s father recognized me,” says Joe, a respiratory therapist. Joe was smitten, and signed up right away. Within a year, he was a WingMan Captain.

Joe runs between six and nine races a year with ASA, including the Hershey Half Marathon, which is one of his favorites. The October race goes through Hersheypark and the campus of the Milton Hershey School. “The energy is always really high,” he says. He also likes the Harrisburg Mile because even runners who aren’t used to long distances can do it. “We really need people of any pace, who can run long distances or short distances,” he says.