Finding your inner athlete. (snapshots).(First Strides)(fitness regime for women)(Brief Article)

How do you change your life for the better? Just ask the dozens of women who meet once a week, rain or shine, in an Allentown, Pennsylvania, park. Thanks to Jane Serues, they're changing their lives one step at a time.

Serues is the founder and director of First Strides, an independent, community-based program dedicated to helping women of all ages and abilities achieve physical fitness through walking and running. And as the self-described "head mentor" to the group, Serues also serves as the leader who helps inspire confidence, encourage fitness and--above all--get middle-aged rears in gear.

After all, the first step in any fitness regimen is always the hardest. And the 54-year-old Serues created First Strides five years ago after noticing how many women--especially those of her own generation--seemed intimidated by any kind of serious fitness challenge.

Serues decided to organize a small beginner's class aimed at women who had either walked or jogged in a local 5-kilometer race. "I had a few phone calls about it," she says, "and I thought it would be neat. I figured I'd get 30 or 40 women to join."

But to Serues' surprise, 150 women showed up for the first meeting. Since then, the Allentown class has grown to include more than 300 women of all shapes, sizes and abilities. And a sister class in nearby Bethlehem has nearly 200 participants.

What's behind the program's enormous success? For starters, Serues--a former college athletics coach who qualified for the women's Olympic trials in 1984--bills her 12-week course as a "beginner" rather than a "runner" class to draw out the shy and tentative.

She's also careful to emphasize the amount of time class members spend walking or running instead of distance covered--another way to cater to runners of varying endurance levels and help participants monitor their own progress. Members start out walking or running ...