Raetihi runner aims for life time fitness

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 6, Issue 267, 13 December 1988, Page 16

Raetihi runner aims for life time fitness

Angel Rapana believes fitness should be part of everyday life and she is living proof of her idea. Eight years a g o Raetihi's Angel was a five foot, ten and a half stone y o u n g woman who began running early morning and after dark so that no one would see her. She's been jogging and exercising ever since. Angel runs keep fit classes, similar to aerobics, in Raetihi and is starting a jogging club with some friends. She joins in with the Ohakune jogging club on Wednesdays and is hoping some of them will run with the Raetihi joggers on Monday nights. Her running led to

participating in the Army's Around the Mountains Relay every year for about eight years. "Now I can say 'Oh I only ran five miles today' once I couldn't run two blocks," said Angel. She says building up fitness takes a long time and motivation, but that's all. She says she wants to keep fit into old age, because she wants to be young at an old age rather than old at a young age. Her exercise classes have about 18 people attending and there too she has plans. She hopes to build the classes up to about fifteen classes a week, and to gain qualifications as a fitness instructor.