Kathleen Resnick is the nursing supervisor at Greater Baltimore Medical Center, the first female president of the Pikesville Volunteer Fire Department and mom to three teenagers. And she still finds time to run with her Baltimore County ASA chapter.
 
“I actually got into ASA because a fellow firefighter, Howie Cohen,” she says. “We’ve known each other for 25 years, and we’re both runners. I’ll be 50 this year, and I would get upset when I couldn’t beat my race times.”
 
ASA made running fun again. “It just made me so happy to see the smiles on the faces of the athletes and families. It gave me the spark that I needed to get back into running.”
 
COVID-19 has put her ASA runs on hold, but has also made her professional life busier. At the hospital, she helped train staff and prepare the hospital for patients with COVID-19. As a firefighter, she is responding to calls of people with COVID-19.
 
Both the fire station and the hospital have put in place new protocols that require Resnick and her colleagues to wear protective equipment, keep surfaces sterilized, and undergo temperature checks as they report to work.
 
In the early days, she worried about her own safety and about infecting her husband and children. Now, three months into the pandemic, she’s settled into a rhythm and feels safe. “I just hope to get back to ASA soon,” she says.

​Credit: Karen Nitkin (ASA WingMan)

If you know Frederick WingMan Charlene Schultz, you probably know her as the “queen of flair” because she piles on the bling for races like the Turkey Trot and Candy Cane 5K. It just seems more fun to her when the athletes and joggers are decked out in festive gear.
 
Charlene started running five years ago, and joined ASA at the urging of her friend Kerry Blackmer, the chapter’s community coordinator.
 
These days, she misses the positivity and energy of her ASA family. “We cheer and support each other,” she says. “I love the families and the athletes. There’s a true bond there. You see the parents of the athletes every race. The athletes enjoy the run. They push us as much as we push them.”
 
But she’s keeping busy. Charlene, a CT technician at Howard County General Hospital, has been coping with the added stress of new protocols and concerns related to COVID-19. That includes wearing a face mask, shield and disposable gown for her entire 12-hour shift.
 
Though it has been difficult, she says, the support of her colleagues has made it bearable. “We tell each other daily it will be OK,” she says.
 
“I love what I do.  People say, ‘thank you thank you you’re a hero,’ but to me it’s my job. I do it every day.”
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Even though she doesn’t currently have ASA runs for motivation, she is still active, finding time to ride her stationary bike, lift weights or go out for runs with Blackmer. ”Any movement is good movement,” she says. “I could be addicted to keeping fit, but at 49, if this is my only addiction I’ll take it.” 

Credit: Karen Nitkin (ASA WingMan)

​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.