Running For the Love of Josie

By Jess Jochims

   People driving on county highway E-16 between Mapleton and Schleswig in late December may have thought rural Mapleton native Jody Kleiger was crazy. Even in the snow and with temperatures in the single digits, Kleiger still kept busy running miles along the highway.
   While Kleiger, her husband and two daughters were visiting her family during Christmas time, she had to keep running; Kleiger was preparing for the 26.2 mile P.F. Changs Rock ‘N’ Roll Arizona Marathon on January 13, 2008.
   “Trust me, it was not fun, but it was OK,” said Kleiger as she finished the marathon in four hours zero minutes and 55 seconds. “At, the end, when I saw everybody, I was overwhelmed with joy.”
   The former Jody Jochims is a 1992 Schleswig-Ricketts High School graduate. She has lived in California for the past 10 years with her husband, Randy Kleiger, and their two girls, Lauren and Samantha. They live in El Segundo, California, but she never forgets about her Iowa upbringing.
   Last July, Kleiger’s sister, Josie Jochims, came down with diabetes. Feeling almost left out living two time zones away, Kleiger decided to help her sister in any way she could. She would dedicate herself in any way to comfort her sister.
   “I sent out pictures after the (half marathon) Disneyland run (I ran in) to friends and family,” the five-foot-six-inch Kleiger said. “Then (my sister in-law) Kathy said as a joke, ‘Next time you run, you should run for diabetes.’ And I was thinking great idea. So I looked it up and the only marathon with diabetes assistance was the P.F. Changs Rock-n-roll Arizona Marathon. So I decided to raise money and train.”
   With five months to go until the run in Phoenix, Kleiger laced up her blue and white Asics running shoes to prepare for a 26.3 mile run. The distance was sort of out of the ordinary since while she ran track in high school 16 years ago, she mainly ran sprints for the Hawkettes. But now she had a purpose to compete in a farther distance.
   “The hardest part of the whole marathon was the training,” Kleiger reminisced. “It takes a lot of discipline to go out five days a week and run. That is what you need to do to run a marathon.”
   Team D (Team Diabetes) had a coach, but he was in Arizona training the participants down there. So the 33-year-old was training by her lonesome in California.
   Without anyone pushing her to the limits, Kleiger maintained the schedule. After never having experience running over 26 miles, there were times when she trained 20 miles in one time. She normally ran along the Pacific Ocean where she routinely saw dolphins swimming, sea gulls, surfers and roller bladers in the hot California sun. But she had a purpose to help her sister in any way. The training had a different twist near Christmastime. The Kleigers came to Iowa to be with family for the holidays. With the marathon a few weeks away, she kept training, but instead of seeing dolphins and surfers, she ran in cold Iowa temperatures. She didn’t care where she was running, she pushed herself to get ready.
   “The thing is, she did it all herself,” Kleiger’s husband Randy said. “Her training was brutal and one day she had to do 20 miles. I think she ran well over 500 miles in total training.”
   After training in snow flurries, she was back at the job in hand in California. She kept training.
   Then on Sunday, January 13, she felt ready to run with the other 6,500 runners in Arizona. With the five months of running, Kleiger was waiting for the gun to fire, and the race to start.
   “I didn’t really feel nervous; I was anxious to hear the gun,” she said. “I felt well prepared. I was really excited to start running.”
   Everything was going smoothly for Kleiger on the flat streets of Phoenix and Scottsdale with the temperatures in the 50’s. She was keeping a good pace until mile 15, when her feet started to get sore. Even with loud music being played for the runners and total strangers lending their support, Kleiger had to dig deep to find the strength to finish.
   “When I ran mile 20-on, it was mind-over-matter,” Kleiger said. “I was thinking I was doing this for four hours. If Josie can deal with (diabetes), I only have four hours and Josie has her whole life to deal with diabetes. So I had to finish these last few miles.”
   Even as every stride hurt her feet, she finally reached her destination of Tempe and Sun Devil Stadium where the finish line was. She felt overjoyed when she saw Randy and their two daughters, Josie and some other friends at the end.
   Her time of 4:00.55 finished her in place No. 2,036 out of 6,500 runners in the Phoenix area. Her average of 9.1 minutes a mile put her at No. 94 out of 471 women between the ages of 30-34. She finished third out of 10 people who ran for Team Diabetes.
   “I feel very accomplished I can run a whole marathon,” Kleiger said. “Only one to two percent of all Americans ever run a marathon.”
   With her run, she raised over $1,000 for the American Diabetes Association (ADA).
   The work Kleiger put in day after day to prepare herself, didn’t go unnoticed.
   “No question (she’s impressive),” Randy said. “She has inspired me and more importantly, I think she has inspired Josie, which is the best outcome of this whole thing.”
   Participating in a marathon wasn’t easy, and to do it as well as Kleiger did in her first try was impressive.
   The 25-year-old Josie Jochims appreciates what Kleiger has done.
   “To see her cross that finish line and raise over $1,000 for the American Diabetes Association was overwhelming,” Josie said. “I cried as I saw a few tears in her eyes after she accomplished this amazing milestone. She knew how much I struggled to recover and I knew how much she struggled to finish the marathon.”
   The whole family appreciates what Jody did for diabetes, but they wouldn’t want to join her. The whole adventure of training and running the marathon was quite the experience. Kleiger was happy she did it, but she doesn’t plan on doing it again any time soon.

AOMV Middle School Spring Concert

   The Anthon Oto-Maple Valley Middle School Spring Concert will be held, Monday, May 12, 2008 at 7:00 p.m. in the Anthon Gymnasium. The jazz band will open the program with two jazz charts, “Jam ‘n’ Jive” and “Saxes With Attitude.” Several members of the band will be featured soloists.
   The sixth grade choir will perform an enthusiastic rock entitled “Agents of Change,” “America, The Free” and an old calypso tune called “Buy Me Chocolate.”
   The sixth grade band will play their large group contest selections and end with “Hang On Sloopy.”
   The 7th and 8th grade choir will begin with the women’s chorus singing “Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier,” and everyone joining in with a rock ballad “Tomorrow Needs Us,” and ending with “Dance Evolution” (medley) that gives a look at the history of popular dance from “The Twist” to “Thriller.”
   The 7th and 8th grade band will close the evening with their contest selections and ending with “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.”
   The public is invited and there will be no admission charged.