Even the leaden skies could not keep Alexis Gaskin and Erin Healy from the 5K race and walk Sunday at the seventh annual Kaiser Permanente Women's Fitness Festival.
"We're training for the Nike women's half-marathon in mid-October," said Healy, 26, of Sacramento. This run, a first for each, was a chance to see how they might fare in the San Francisco event.
As the walk and run wound down, approximately 4,000 participants swarmed about 20 fitness vendor booths and a Kaiser pavilion on the west steps of the state Capitol to have their body composition tested, or to experience a free-boxing workout or to consume healthy fare from Whole Foods Market.
The market and Blue Diamond Growers joined Kaiser in sponsoring the event.
Gaskin and Healy weren't disappointed in their race times.
Both are second-year students at the University of California, Davis, School of Medicine, and know the importance of training.
"I made my goal," said Gaskin, 25, of Sacramento. Her 5K time, she said, was 31 minutes, 45 seconds. But who's counting?
Healy crossed the finish line a little behind that – in about 35 minutes – but said she was happy with her performance.
Rain doused the women early in the downtown/midtown race, which began at 7:30 a.m. By 9 a.m., however, gray skies issued only an intermittent sprinkle.
In the Kaiser pavilion, Dr. Sarah Preiss-Farzanegan, a sports medicine physician, said she was delighted to be at the event, answering questions, helping women understand what to expect when they begin a training regimen.
Women asked a range of questions through the morning, she said, from stretching techniques to injury prevention and healthy eating habits.
"When you start out, I think it's good to get a baseline reading on your body composition," Preiss-Farzanegan said. "You are building lean muscle mass and you are losing body fat."
The progress shown in body composition, she said, tends to be a better motivator than the numbers on a weight scale.
A Kaiser spokesman said proceeds from the event benefit WEAVE, which offers crisis-intervention services for women coping with domestic violence and sexual assault.
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