If they get an afternoon or evening to themselves, many couples with children go out to eat or catch a movie.  Madeline and Mike Meadows, who are registered nurses at Lewis-Gale Medical Center in Salem, are different.  They go out on what they call “workout dates,” which often include three- and four-hour runs and mountain bike rides.

The Charlottesville Women’s Four miler, Virginia’s largest all-women’s event, is open to runners and walkers of all ages. For the 16th straight year, the proceeds will benefit the U.Va. Cancer Center Breast Care Program. The proceeds stay locally and support cutting-edge breast cancer research, patient education, support services and community outreach. (UVA HEALTH SYSTEMS PHOTO)

The couple also competes together in sporting events.  This summer, Madeline, a clinical coordinator of cardiac rehabilitation, and Mike, who works in Lewis-Gale’s endoscopy department, participated in several mountain bike races.  And in early September, they took part in the Blue Ridge Relay race, an annual running competition that begins near the base of Mount Rogers, the highest peak in Virginia, and ends 208 miles away in Asheville, N.C.  Each running team has 12 members, and each competitor runs an average of 16.6 miles in the course of the race.

Madeline has also competed in 5k and 10k races, along with running a half-marathon and an ultra-marathon. 

“Anything on a trail, I’m there,” says Madeline.  “I’d much rather be in the woods than running on pavement.”

Participants at the start of the 2008 Charlottesville Women’s Four Miler on Aug. 30. (UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA HEALTH SYSTEMS PHOTO)

Mike and Madeline Meadows are two of the many nurses participating in sporting events around the Commonwealth.  In fact, another nurse from Madeline’s department ran on her team in the Blue Ridge Relay race; their team leader is a surgeon at Lewis-Gale.

Often, the charitable causes that many sporting events support appeal to nurses.  The Charlottesville Women’s Four Miler is special for Barbara Shephard, RN, for example.  For 16 years, proceeds from the event, which is one of the largest all-women races in the United States, have benefited the University of Virginia Cancer Center Breast Care program.

“The names of cancer survivors are posted along the last mile of the race course,” says Shephard, a transplant coordinator for the University of Virginia Health System in Charlottesville.  “It’s really moving.”

Shephard has participated in the race three times now with other nurses she knows.  This year, she ran it with her 11-year-old daughter, who also ran with her in the race’s training program.

Madeline and Mike Meadows, RNs at the Lewis-Gale Medical Center in Salem pause for a self-photo on one of their mountain bike rides.

“She ran with an intermediate group, and I ran with an advanced group,” Shephard says.

Shephard also runs in other relatively short races, but she says she’d like to try something a little longer.  “I’ve thought about doing a 10-miler program.  I may not have the time for that, though.”

Time is a problem for many weekend warriors.  So is pain.  Just ask Elizabeth Boyd, RN.  She’s preparing to run in the Richmond Marathon this fall, but she has been sidelined by a stress fracture.  It’s keeping her from running, but she hasn’t given up her goal.

“I’m resting and swimming and spinning,” says Boyd, clinical coordinator of radiation oncology at Thomas Johns Cancer Hospital at CJW Medical Center in Chesterfield County.

Boyd ran competitively in high school and college, and she has run the Richmond Marathon three times and the Boston Marathon once.

“I love marathons,” she says.  “It’s my favorite race – I love the training and preparations and the results you get to see in the end.”

Boyd’s best marathon performance came in at three hours, 11 minutes.  She says she plans on running in the Boston Marathon next year.

Adam Longest, RN, is relatively new to competitive running.  He participated in a 10k race in Richmond in March, and he’s training to run a half-marathon in Richmond in November.

“I decided I could run 13 miles and not die,” says Longest, who is an assistant nurse manager on one of the telemetry units at Henrico Doctors’ Hospital in Richmond.  “It’s different when you run the race, with people cheering and the adrenaline pumping.  You can run further and feel less pain.”

His long-term goal is to run a marathon.

“It’s a good example to people on the unit,” he says.  “It gets other nurses to exercise and do what they’ve been thinking about.”

Exercising also sets a good example for patients, Madeline Meadows points out.  “I think it’s so important for our profession to practice what we preach.”

Nurses are often overworked, she says, and they don’t always eat and exercise the way they should.  “They try to teach patients how to stay healthy, but it’s hard to listen to somebody who isn’t doing it themselves.  If they could find some time to work out, it would decrease their stress and lift their morale.  And they’d address issues at work more positively.”

Ultimately, Shephard says, winning isn’t the goal.  “Having a physical outlet for stress and being with friends are the things I know I get out of it.  It helps me with my job and with being a parent.”