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He's one in a million
Tulsans put their soles into mayor's exercise challenge
Frequent bike rides allowed Wayne Mark to log more than 19,000 miles at tulsamillionmiles.com. The Bixby cyclist was the top individual contributor at the site. SHERRY BROWN / Tulsa World
By CARY ASPINWALL World Scene Writer
Published: 11/5/2009 2:22 AM
Last Modified: 11/5/2009 3:25 AM
Of the more than 1 million miles logged by Tulsans through
tulsamillionmiles.com
, the biggest individual contribution came from a 60-year-old Bixby bicyclist.
Wayne Mark logged more than 19,500 miles through the site — all through his almost-daily bike rides.
"I try to get out about every day that I possibly can," he said. "Just for my own pleasure and enjoyment. The days that I can't get out, it's a downer."
His secret to getting so much exercise? Well, he's retired, so it's a little easier to rack up the miles now that he's not working as a chemist.
Tulsans of all ages and athletic backgrounds combined their exercise efforts to log more than 1,006,930 miles by the end of Saturday's Tulsa Run fun run — and the site's number of participants doubled after the race. It's the culmination of an effort spearheaded by Mayor Kathy Taylor to get the city exercising more.
"We've broken that first goal, now we need to go to 2 million," said Taylor, who logged more than 500 miles herself.
Mark signed up soon after the site launched —it wasn't that much of an effort, as he'd been tracking his miles for 30 of the 33 years he's been cycling.
"It just sounded kind of a cool thing to do," he said. More impressive to him than all the miles he logged? The more than 1 million calories he burned —a number tabulated by the site's calorie counter.
"I think that people who aren't active don't realize
that just the act of getting out and exercising makes you feel better," he said. "You just feel so much better."
Rhonda Freiner logged the most miles of any female on the site: more than 4,100. She works for Tulsa Parks, so exercise is her job — overseeing the adult sports leagues and getting locals to participate in sports such as dodgeball, beach volleyball and women's flag football.
She logged her miles riding her bicycle on the trails bordering the Creek Turnpike (or her stationary bike on rainy days) and swimming laps.
And now that Tulsans have logged more than 1 million miles together, she'd like to see them keep going.
"The big thing is: Don't stop, because once you do, it's very hard to get back in the habit again," she said. "You have to persevere."
Tulsa Million Miles top contributers
Men
Wayne Mark: 19,500
Ross Snider: 14,960
Oldest participant: 77
Women
Rhonda Freiner: 4,170
Maureen Phillips: 2,492
Youngest participant: 4
Cary Aspinwall 581-8477
cary.aspinwall@tulsaworld.com
By CARY ASPINWALL World Scene Writer
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