Marathon Charity Partners

Coach John lives in Alexandria, VA, and has completed 17 marathons in his 6+ years of training and racing. He is a USATF-trained coach, entering his fourth year with Marathon Charity Partners. He is a member of the Marine Corps Marathon Runners Club, enabling him now to run that marathon every year, and has only 44 states to go before he gets his "50 States + DC" T-shirt.

With a 5:26 marathon PR (so far), Coach John works closely with the "Penguins," the back of the pack runners, who complete marathons in five to seven hours. "Speed is great if you have it, but you don’t have to be a speed demon to complete a marathon. So long as you can run or walk/run faster than 15 minutes per mile, you can complete the Marine Corps Marathon, and most other marathons, too. And there is no reason why anyone, at any pace, cannot become more fit and healthy by race walking or running a half marathon. In the MCP training program, we can help you accomplish either feat."

In addition to the walk/run method, Coach John trains runners in hydration, intervals and fartlek, negative splits, warmup and stretching techniques, strength and cross-training. He leads Tuesday and Thursday evening runs for MCP trainees in Arlington. In addition to coaching MCP, Coach John coordinates the "Walk-to-Run" new runner program of Arlington Cooperation Foundation each winter/spring, and serves as race director for a half marathon and 20 mile training race.

Ram has been working with Marathon Charity Partners since 2004 when he ran (literaly) into runners with the first Asha DC program. His major focus is on run quality through his Thursday Chevy Chase workouts. The hill and speed workouts have helped many MCP runners find their pace and improve their running form while building strength and endurance.

Humaira’s track record should be a source of encouragement to all new runners or non-runners. She is an MCP graduate who has stepped forward to become an assistant coach. Humaira started her running career as recently as May 2007, and that with a bang, i.e., a marathon (Marine Corps 2007), after training for just 5 months with MCP. While she did workout regularly for some years, she had never run a mile in her life prior to joining MCP marathon training program.

Having successfully completed the marathon, she also ran three other races (Riley’s Rumble Half Marathon, DC Road Runners 20-Miler, Cherry Blossom 10-Miler) and assisted coach John Steitz in Arlington Cooperation Foundation’s new runner’s "Walk-to-Run" program in spring of 2008. Humaira loves to share her experiences with running and is a great example of having three basic and essential attributes to be a long distance runner -- can do spirit, resilience, and trust in one self.