Women who participate in sports are not only feeding their bodies the exercise they need to stay healthy. They are also benefiting from it in academics, self-confidence and longevity.

According to the Women’s Sports and Physical Activity Facts & Statistics, both white women athletes and women athletes of color who are on scholarships graduated at higher rates than their counterparts in the general student population.

In a study of 2,993 women, older women who exercise tend to be motivated toward physical activity by expectations of benefit to their health and longevity.

Women who exercise weigh less, have lower levels of blood sugar, cholesterol and triglycerides and have lower blood pressure than non-exercising women. They also report being happier, believe they have more energy and feel they are in excellent health.

The trend of women doing good things to feel good is no stranger to locals.

Women throughout the area are sweating at the chance to stay fit.

And it’s not a dreaded activity for them. It’s a way of life.

Competition puts recent grad in the swim

Nine-year-old Morgan Farrell was a horrible swimmer. But all of that had to change if she was going to live out her dream.

“I wanted to go to the Olympics,” Farrell said. “It was just my dream. I was pretty bad when I got started. It probably took me about a year or two (before I got the hang of it). But I kept with it.”

Farrell, now 18 years old, recently graduated from Washington High. She has been to swimming state competitions each of her high school years, junior nationals last year and this summer will be the second time she has been to nationals.

She’ll attend the University of Tennessee in the fall on a swimming scholarship. Hopefully, that will take her on to perform in NCAA competitions, she said.

Farrell practices 10 times a week with the Greater Pensacola Aquatic Club, and works out regularly with her team to build her strength. Farrell said being a good swimmer doesn’t only include swimming laps in the pool.

“We lift weights and medicine balls with a partner, run, do pushups and sit-ups,” Farrell said.

Those workouts are greatly needed to keep Farrell in shape for each of her swimming categories that she participates in, which are 50-meter (one lap to the end of the pool), 100-meter, 200-meter, butterfly, freestyle and her favorite, the backstroke. The dreaded competition she avoids is the breast stroke.

“I’m just not made for it, I guess,” she said. “Backstroking, you can breathe whenever you want.”

Looking at Farrell’s pool action, it’s hard to imagine her being bad in any aquatic setting. Before jumping in, she pulls her hair back and wraps it in a bun. She slides her swim cap over her hair neatly. With a couple of light, barefooted steps, she’s at the edge of the pool with a slight lean before jumping in.

On her first contact with the water, she jumps in feet first to submerge herself in the water. She surfaces and starts to peddle her arms like a vessel, made one with the water.

“It takes time to get with it,’ Farrell said. “And it takes a lot of good work. If you do the work hard, you’ll get better.”

Surfer and familiy hooked on the feeling of nature

Growing up on Pensacola Beach, Courtney Fell always felt comfortable in the water. But when it came to surfing, she sat and watched all the boys catching waves.

After torturing herself long enough on the shore, Fell had an epiphany.

“I was watching the guys one day, and I said, ‘I don’t have to just watch,’” Fell said. “I just paddled out and learned on my own. I don’t know why it didn’t dawn on me to start surfing until college.”

At age 18, Fell toughed out the waves with the boys from then on.

Eventually, more and more women have started to leave their towels on the sand. It’s a common sport among women on the Gulf.

At 19, Fell bought her first surfboard. Since then, she has had several. But it’s not hard for her to find them.

Courtney, now 30, and her husband, Sean, own Waterboyz, a surfboard store at 380 N. Ninth Ave.

However, it is difficult to select one that fits your unique surfing needs, Fell said.

“It’s tricky trying to pick the dimensions for you,” she said. “How thick it is. How long it is. It’s like finding the right lipstick.”

Courtney and Sean take their boards out whenever nature calls. They met and knew of each other via surfing. Back then, it was fun for them with friends. Now it’s a family outing. They share their addiction to the water with their two boys, 5-year-old Jackson and 7-year-old Seth.

“We’ve had them in the water since they were like babies,” she said. “Our family works our life around it. If we can, we drop everything and go. It’s interesting because now it’s like a family affair. It’s about getting the kids in the water and passing that on them, to hang on to the feeling.”

During the fall and hurricane seasons are the best times to surf, when the water is most rambunctious, Fell said. The Gulf Coast isn’t known for feisty waves, and you can’t plan to surf whenever you want. You have to plan to surf when the surf is up. When it’s possible, Fell said she surfs three or four times a week.

But to Fell, it’s not always about standing on a board on a 10-foot wave. It’s about being there and becoming one with the water.

“I like the whole thing combined,” she said. “I like being in the element. I don’t mind if I don’t catch anything at all.

Surfing is a sport where you have to depend on nature. You have to catch it when it’s just right. You have to be patient with the Gulf. It doesn’t get that good that often.”

Proper tennis training puts Watson in the game

Four days a week, you can catch Tracey Watson running ramped after a lime-green bouncing ball.

“I’m a tennis fanatic,” said Watson.

Watson said she has always been active in sports, but she started putting more time toward tennis just after turning 35. She is one of about 1,000 women to play in the Greater Pensacola Ladies Tennis League. Watson said she plays on Gulf Breezes’ Championship Flight 6 Ladies Tennis Team. She also plays for the United States Tennis Association, a nationwide tennis organization that competes on state, regional and national levels. She plays in a tournament once a week for each organization.

“I think other sports helped me prepare for (tennis),” said the 41-year-old. “I’ve played in the past, but I didn’t really put much time into it. I almost excelled immediately once I got the proper training.”

Watson has played ice hockey, softball, golf, track and field, volleyball, basketball and fishes regularly. But Watson said her talents don’t come out of the blue. It’s all in the family.

“I’ve sort of mastered other sports,” Watson said confidently. “It’s genetics from my mom. My mom was athlete of the year in college. She played a lot of sports as well. She’s a strong woman.”

Watson said she is one of seven children that her mother gave birth to in Canada. He mother remains there. Watson said she moved to Pensacola in 2004 so she could play tennis year round.

“We moved here Sept. 1, 2004, just before Hurricane Ivan hit,” Watson said. “But things have gotten better. I love it.”

Watson said she has gained a great respect for the sport that welcomes all. Playing tennis is a heart-pumping sport that all ages can take part in.

“Tennis is excellent for cardiovascular muscle development,” Watson said. “You’re using your entire body. You can play at any level, from kids to senior citizens. Share with family and friends. It’s even good for making business connections and networking.”

Although all can compete in the sport, Watson doesn’t recommend jumping into the swatting-racquet sport without a few preparations.

“Start to walk, bike or swim to get your cardiovascular exercises up,” she said. “Get used to sweating. Lift weights.

You’ll need strong arms as well. Warm up at a local (recreational) center.”

Lady tennis beginners can sign up with Flight 8, the beginner’s league of the GPTA.

“They’ll tell you what you need and help develop skills and friendships,” Watson said.

6 TIPS FOR BETTER TENNIS

Keep these six tips in mind to step up your beginner tennis game, from www.tennismindgame.com.

- Don’t try too hard. Even if your coach tells you to do something, it’s not an order. What they are really saying is give it all your best, and we’ll see what happens. Even when you miss, you get feedback as to what happened.

- Do your best to have no expectations. You are improving as fast as you are. The only problem that can arise is in your mind — if you believe that you are not improving fast enough.

- Focus on your feel and how this affects the outcome. Of course — listen to your coach and do your best to do the correct stroke. But this is not the most important part of a good shot. Feeling for the ball and racquet is.

- There are no mistakes, only feedback. If you hit into the net, hit higher next time. It is that simple. You don’t have to complicate things with knees, going under the ball and following through. It will all happen by itself.

- Keep moving. Dance, jog, make small hops, whatever you do, just keep moving. Standing in one spot makes your moves even tighter than they already are.

- Wait. Yes, wait, because it takes time for your brain to start making adjustments from all that information coming in.

So when a coach instructs you to hit in a certain way or aim for a certain area of the court, do your best to hit that. And then wait until your body adapts. Don’t look for results after 10 to 20 shots. Wait. The results will come. Be patient.

Climbing takes Pensacola women to new heights

Any sport with reaching, grabbing and pulling usually doesn’t involve a 108-pound woman, especially, when it’s done several feet off of the ground.

Tell that to 23-year-old Anamarie Martinez of Pensacola. She’ll travel for miles to boulder climb.

Boulder climbing is done without rope or a harness. The participant climbs up 8 to 15 feet high. All you need are strong limbs, determination, chalk and proper shoes.

“It’s just simple freeness,” Martinez said. “Some people enjoy the ropes and the gear. I’m like, ‘Give me the shoes and the chalk bag.’”

Martinez is an employee at Weatherford’s Four Season Apparel, which has a 30-feet high climbing wall. When she isn’t working and instructing others on how to use the climbing wall, she enjoys taking trips of her own for the real experience.

Florida is a pancake-flat state, so Martinez has to cross state lines to get her high. She usually gets that adrenaline rush at one of her top favorite spots — Sandrock, Ala., Palisades Park in Oneonta, Ala., Little River Canyon National Preserve in Fort Payne, Ala., and a cliff or two in Tennessee.

As a safety precaution, there should be a crash bag and a spotter designated on the ground in case the boulder climber falls. The spotter is there to help the climber land on the crash bag. Martinez said the chalk is to help keep her hands dry while climbing. Her size 6 1/2 shoes are made with an extra rubber, sticky sole beneath the toes.

“All of your weight goes to your toes when you’re climbing,” she said. “It’s not upper-body strength. It’s (about the force of the) legs. If you can stand up, you can climb, basically. Most new climbers use their upper body. Then they learn to use their hands and balance.”

When Martinez started climbing more than 3 years ago, she said she learned quickly that it wasn’t a sport for prissy girls.

“If you want pretty hands and fingernails, this is not the sport for you,” she said. “Your hands get pretty messed up.”

That wasn’t the only thing that has been messed up since Martinez started reaching for the sky. The first time she decided to take an introduction to rock climbing, there was a little hair pulling tension.

“My first experience was really bad,” she said. “My hair got caught in the grigri.’’ The grigri is a self-braking system so if your rope suddenly comes under tension (in a fall), the cam pivots to pinch the rope, and helps the belayer stop the climber’s fall).

Martinez hasn’t let a little hair and hangnails get in her way. She’d rather be hanging from a rock. So she takes all safety precautions and stretches all 5 feet, 2 inches of herself across the hard mass of minerals.

“Safety should always be first,” Martinez said. “Check knots, belay device and set up properly. It’s the sure-fire way to make sure you don’t die. I trust it. I haven’t hit the ground yet. But I’m pretty particular about who my spotter is.

Pay attention to your spotter, and just relax.”

MUST-HAVE CLIMBING ACCESORIES

For those women who are ready to gear up and climb a wall, rock or rocky hill, here are a few dire necessities you may find handy from Weatherford’s Four Season Apparel and beyond.

- Dynamic Rope is definitely needed if you plan to climb above 15 feet. The rope keeps most of the tools connected. Sixty meters of rope may be enough to help you reach as high as you want to go. $130.

- The Metolius Safe + Tech harness for women is made to fit the curves of a woman. It gives her gentle support that can help her climb any mountain in her way. $95.

- The Metolius chalk bag comes in all different styles to complement a woman’s climbing attire. Just because her nails are being ruined and her hair is sweaty, doesn’t mean her accessories can’t be jazzy. $19.

- Petzl William grigri is a repetitive name for a repetitive task. It’s a belay device used for auto locking. It basically clinches the rope so it stops the fall of a climber. $90.

- Petzl William lock-screw gate is an indispensable gadget for belaying directly from the anchor point with a Munter hitch on single or double rope. The large size and pear shape allow the Italian hitch to invert easily even when the rope is icy or muddy. $14.

- Metolius quickdraw is used to clip on a bolted rock. Once a rock has been climbed, usually, there are several areas of the rock that have been bolted. Once you reach each one, you clip it. This is so that if you start to fall you will only fall from that space to the last bolt you clipped. $85 for a six-pack.

- Sapphire climbing shoes are a little hard to find these days, but provide great security while climbing. The thin-sole shoe has an amazing grip under the toes for great sporting support. $99.

- Crash pads can help cushion your adrenaline-pumping trip. When you reach for that next hand or foot placement and it doesn’t work out quite how you planned it, the crash pad will catch you (with the help of your spotter). They can be found at www.bittersweetclimbing.com. They range in price from $139.95 for a single pad to $189.95 for a double pad.

Healthy benefits of running worth every step for young mother

Suzanne Turbyfill considers herself a lazy runner. But anyone who runs at least 25 miles a week is no slacker.

It’s not how much she runs that makes her a nonchalant runner. It’s her running schedule and technique. Besides meeting and running six miles with a group of eclectic runners at 6 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, she runs whenever the wind blows her.

“I run about three or four days a week,” Turbyfill said. “It kind of just depends on who runs with me. I’m very flexible. I just jump onto other people’s training schedules. I’m the laziest runner you’ll probably ever meet.”

When Turbyfill’s friends train, she jumps onto it, along with running other marathons herself. Turbyfill, 39, said she has been running since middle school, back when she was on the track team. She admits that the sport has drifted from her radar a few times, but it always came back at some time or another. A few years ago, Turbyfill decided to become more consistent with her running. She decided to make a promise to herself that would keep her moving.

“I started running in Pensacola seriously as a New Year’s resolution in 2004,” she said. “I left my house, and I would run as far as I could. I mapped out a course. And each map after that I would add another house until I got up to three of four miles. I probably ran three or four times a week just to get my legs into shape.”

Shortly and surely, Turbyfill built up her tolerance. That year, she and a good friend and resident of Atlanta signed up and competed in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race 10K, the largest 10,000-meter road race in the world. She has run in it ever since.

“I can run a 10K pretty easily now,” Turbyfill said, laughing. “It’s a lot easier than back then.”

Since then, running to Turbyfill is a way of life. It gives her a since of obligation to be there for her fellow running mates. It stimulates a sense of restlessness and self-worth. The motivation from the morning run carries on throughout the day with the rest of her tasks.

“It gives me time to reflect, to be alone,” said Turbyfill, a stay-at-home mother of two, 4-year-old Taitem and 7-year-old Trent. Even if you run with other people, it’s time to meditate and pray. It gives you that perfect time, which is hard to carve out when you have small kids.”

Although running is usually time spent away from her family, it helps jump start her day and teaches her children valuable lessons and, she said.

“I think I’m probably a better parent in life (because I run),’’ Turbyfill said. “It’s a good stress reliever. My husband is very athletic. My kids now like to run because they see us do it.”

The healthy benefit of running bleeds over into doing other healthy things, she said. Once you get in the habit of running, you want to eat healthy as well. The overall effect leaves a replenishing and energizing feeling that is worth every step.

“If you know you’re going running at 6 o’clock in the morning, you don’t want to get down a big meal the night before,” she said. “It just forces you to have healthier choices.”

Taking the first step to becoming a healthy runner is anything but complicated, Turbyfill said.

“Running is easy,” she said. “Truly, you just need a pair of shoes.”

WANT TO RUN?

Prepare for the marathon challenge at the Galloway Training Group’s free running clinic.

The free running clinic with Olympian Jeff Galloway will be Thursday, Aug.2. The meet and greet session will be held at 5:30 p.m. and the run/walk clinic and info about the training program will begin at 6 p.m.

Join the Third Annual Pensacola Galloway Running Group and in six months they will show you how to complete a marathon. The first group run is 6:30 a.m. Saturday, Aug.4. They will meet at the Gulf Breeze Office Depot parking lot. This is prior to the Bushwacker 5K.

You will be training for the following races in 2008: Pensacola Beach Half Marathon and Disney Marathon or Half in January; Breast Cancer Marathon or Half in Jacksonville, Pensacola Marathon or Half and Mardi Gras Marathon in New Orleans in Feb.; and the Seaside Half Marathon in March.

The previous two Galloway Running Groups have had a 90 percent success rate. Runners range from beginners to Boston qualifiers.

For more information, contact Kris Baughn at (850) 380-9050 or krisbaughn@yahoo.com, or contact Jackie Brown at (850) 516-9445 or jdb1@netzero.net. For more information about Jeff Galloway, log onto www.jeffgalloway.com. There you will find the answers to: How to avoid aches and pains, how to run faster and how to stay motivated.