Yuba City women run to raise cancer funds

They don't have just any old run in mind.

Shanann Amarel will run the unfamiliar streets of Bakersfield, in between her parents' and grandmother's houses.

Jennifer Chappell has outlined a well-trodden course in her Yuba City neighborhood.

And sisters Kelly England and April Graziano will tie on their tennies to run streets they take on every week, some with a view of the Sutter Buttes.

It may sound strange, but the Yuba City residents will be running with thousands of women across the country Sunday. Using Nike+ GPS technology, they will pound out 13.1 miles in a race that takes place whenever and wherever they want as long as their feet cross their necessary finish lines by midnight.

"We aren't gonna have the bands, the cheerleaders," Graziano said. "We are just going out for a long run and going to have fun."

The Nike+ Women's Half Marathon is a spinoff of the fitness corporation's fall San Francisco race — the largest women's marathon in the world — and a fundraiser for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The cause is dear to the Yuba City women's hearts because a friend who had the disease was why they started running the original marathon three years ago.

"It hit home for all of us," Amarel said. "Here was somebody very healthy and took care of herself and her family and — boom — out of nowhere, she went to a random doctor appointment and they said, 'You have this.'"

There was not much the friends could do, but they could run and raise money for a cure.

"We have all stayed with this race because it is in her honor and for all the people who are sick with it," Amarel said.

Discovering their pace

The crazy part is none of the women were runners until a few years ago.

"We've never been athletic. We went out and started running a block and walking five minutes, panting and dying in that block" England said. "And now, we are marathoners."

Together, the friends have run half-marathons, pushed their bodies through 26.2-mile races and racked up thousands of recreational and training miles around Yuba-Sutter.

"Some women go shopping together, and some go out and eat," England said. "We have something that's really good for us, and the husbands love it because it doesn't cost anything."

England started four years ago as a stress reliever and to set an example for her children. After her first marathon, she was addicted.

"It's the excitement, so many people in one place that share the same love of running that you do," she said.

Even though she will run with only her sister Sunday, England expects a similar thrill, especially because the first runner they have trained will accompany them for at least half the run. She cannot wait to cross their finish line.

"It's a mixture of relief and excitement," she described, from experience. "It's exhaustion with a burst of energy."

A virtual marathon is new for the women but no less exciting.

"One good thing is you can run your own race," Amarel said. "When you are with a group of thousands, sometimes you tend to run with others that are maybe not at your pace. You see somebody passing you and you think you should speed up."

There is also an advantage to being on home turf, she said, and the race's freedom is great for mothers who don't have time to leave town for a marathon.

"They can do it at 5 a.m. or 8 o'clock at night," Amarel said. "They don't have to be at a starting line at 8 in the morning."

The challenge Sunday is with no aid stations, the women have to stash their own or carry nutrition and water on the run. They'll also miss the supporters.

"Sometimes you can run 22 miles really easy and others you are struggling through four," Amarel said. "Those people that are cheering for you when you are dragging, it gives you a little boost — 'I can do one more mile.'"

The women are familiar with each other's paces, and so with each mental mile mark, they'll be imagining how much farther their friends have to go, even if they are miles apart. They registered as with the Facebook-fueled "Team Victorious," an online group that aims to be the race's largest and therefore snag automatic entry into the Nike Women's Marathon this fall.

One in 100

Runners statistics say less than 1 percent of the U.S. population has run a full marathon, and the women say they are proud to be part of that select group.

Amarel started running after she had her son, who turns 6 in March. After a few 5Ks and 10Ks and then her first half marathon, she now does two marathons a year, and a "short run" in the orchards near her house is a six-mile loop.

"I am really busy with my children and our farm, so for me, it's personal time," she said. "It's my therapy. It's just you and the road."

For that first Nike Marathon, Jennifer Chappell was pregnant so she cheered from the sidelines instead. But after her son was born, she has been striding alongside her friends ever since.

"It's kind of surreal that it's been two years, and I've accomplished a marathon," she said. "My daughter wants to start running because of it."

Together, Graziano and England have spanned most roadways in the area, from Tierra Buena to Marysville and from the tops of the levees to the riverbottoms. They ran their first full marathon in December and like always, crossed the finish line holding hands.

"It's a treasure," Graziano said. "You just feel a prize at the end. Tears are flowing. It's something special that not many people have done."

CONTACT Ashley Gebb at agebb@appealdemocrat.com or 749-4783. Find her on Facebook at /ADagebb or on Twitter at @ADagebb.