Hilton Head Monthly Magazine Voice of the Lowcountry 
To anyone else, it looked like a routine spring training appearance. A quick inning of work on one of dozens of indistinguishable Grapefruit League afternoons.
For Ryan Kelly, it was the biggest game of his life, because as far as he knew, it might be his last.
Running is getting to be a messy affair, from mud runs to color runs to evading zombies.
Color runs, where runners are covered in colored powders throughout the 5K run, are popping up all over, including Charleston and Savannah.
Hilton Head Island has a run attached to just about every holiday and festival, from the Firecracker Run to the Shamrock Run to the Hog Jog to the Zombie Run.
Pastor Jon Heiliger is never running on empty.
Every day he is serving the lord, running the Lord of the Life Lutheran Church in Bluffton.
During his off hours, he is running on the trails of Bluffton as often as his schedule permits.
Heiliger, 53, was a latecomer to running as he started in the sport in 2007 after noticing some health warning signs.
“I started running for fitness since I was so out of shape,” he said. “I would walk a mile and I was completely exerted. I started running a mile or two and built up from there.”
Rich Vidinha didn’t think much about how easy running was, until the day he realized everything else was hard.
During Vidinha’s 10 years in the U.S. Marine Corps, including time spent as a drill instructor on Parris Island, physical fitness had been a natural part of his life.
“I wouldn’t call me a runner,” says Vidinha, 35. “But when we ran, I always enjoyed it.”
Hampton Lake resident Mike Beckwith, 63, just completed his fifth marathon. That’s more than most people can say about their running records, but this most recent race is also the first marathon he’s run in about 20 years.
“Running the Savannah Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon was important to me because it had been 20 years since my last one,” he said. “Mentally and physically, I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it again. My biggest challenge was getting to the 20-mile marker, but once I got there, I knew I was almost home.”
Last year, when runner Sarah Cooke showed up at the starting line of the 3K event for 9- and 10-year-olds at the state’s Junior Olympics in Charleston, she thought she was way out of her league. There were close to 60 girls there, all attached to running teams and wearing matching uniforms, and all stretching and chatting in small clusters.
When Hilton Head Island resident Amanda Walton laces up her running shoes and hits the pavement with a group of area girls, she’s doing more than taking those girls for a run. She’s teaching them about friendship, self-worth, body image and a lot more.
If you look in the state high school record books for the fastest 5K cross-country runner, you’ll see David Adams’ name next to a blistering 14:37.
“I broke a state record that stood for 11 years before I broke it,” he said. When you consider that his record has now stood for 15 years, you realize what an impressive runner Adams was back in the day. In fact, he nearly beat the state record in the 2-mile but missed it by a single second. The record holder for that was the same guy he beat for the 5K record.
The Lowcountry offers the perfect combination for pavement pounders: Flat, friendly and beautiful“If you want to become the best runner you can be, start now. Don't spend the rest of your life wondering if you can do it."
— Priscilla Welch, master marathon great
It all starts with running few a steps a couple times a week, then a few more the following week and the week after that, and so on.
Keep taking those steps, and soon you too will be a runner and join the ever-growing legion of runners across the country.
Fortunately, we’re standing in one of the best places to run: It’s flat, beautiful, covered with miles of trails and warm enough for year-round running.
You’re on the tee box at Port Royal Golf Club dressed in loose-fitting clothing and athletic sneakers when you take a running start and kick your soccer ball as far and straight as you can down the fairway.
by Chris Katon
Photos by Jack Davis
