Going the distance – Midland Daily News

Over the course of four summers, one Midland woman’s dedication to fitness has taken her on a tour of nearly the entire city.

Kara Bingham started running seven years ago, and has not stopped since. Bingham, then 33 years old, started her “running journey” as a way to get in shape.

“When I first (started) running, I could maybe run a tenth of a mile without stopping to walk,” Bingham said. “Little by little, I kept getting better and better.”

Three years ago, while training for the Detroit International Half-Marathon — which takes its runners across the United States/Canada border twice, over the Ambassador Bridge and back through the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel — Bingham was looking for a goal to motivate her running when inspiration struck.

“I saw these paper maps locally, and I thought it would be really cool to run the map of Midland,” Bingham recalled. “I had no idea how long it was going to take, or how many miles it would actually be.”

Using apps that allowed her to track her movements and highlighting the new streets she had covered each time she got back from a run, Bingham slowly began filling out her map, planning each run to take her on a slightly new route.

Now, with only a small cluster of streets in downtown Midland remaining unmarked, Bingham has run up and down nearly every street on the entire map of Midland, bordered by U.S.-10, U.S.-10 Business, Main Street and Dublin Avenue.

“I’ve been in all of the neighborhoods, so I’ve seen all of the streets and houses and schools and people,” Bingham said. “It was really a fun thing to do — how many people can say they’ve been on every street in their city.”

Altogether, Bingham estimates she has run a total of about 1,000 miles on her odyssey across Midland. Only using wherever she was living at the time as a starting point, Bingham often has to retread ground she has already covered to reach new routes.

“Sometimes I find myself turning around — there’s a lot of cul-de-sacs, so essentially I’ve run all of those twice,” Bingham said. “It winds up be a lot of extra miles than what the quantity of miles in Midland actually is.”

In order to reach the small portion of Midland left unhighlighted on her map, Bingham will have to plan a run six-mile roundtrip.

Bingham typically runs between three to five days a week, depending on what the fitness apps she uses tell her to do. Bingham does not consider herself to be a professional runner, and relies on apps like those produced by Active.com to help her maintain a consistent fitness regiment.

“If I give myself goals, then I’ll do it,” Bingham said. “If I don’t have a race coming up, or something to motivate me, then I don’t really feel like running.”

Bingham maintains what she calls a “love-hate relationship” with running, considering it a great stress-reliever and an effective way to stay healthy despite the physical strain of the exercise.

Bingham has lost 20 pounds since she started running consistently, and has seen a considerable drop in her heart rate, blood sugar and cholesterol. Her new workout also severely reduced the effect her asthma had on her fitness; Bingham can now complete an entire run without using her inhaler.

Though other responsibilities — like her job for the Alma-based Avalon Pontoons and her role as co-owner of the Good To Go: Specialty Takeout restaurant in downtown Midland — have reduced the number of races she takes part in every year, Bingham still regularly gets involved with her favorites, like the St. Patrick’s Day Race in Bay City, as well as the annual Dow RunWalk and Detroit Half-Marathon. Her running resume also lists involvement in local events like the Loons Pennant Race and the Run the River 5K, as well as various color runs, zombie runs and other such activities.

After she completes her coverage of Midland, Bingham is not sure yet what her next goal will be. Options she has considered include venturing further outside city limits, though that would mean having to travel even further on each run in order to reach new territory. She has also thought about simply buying a new map and starting over from the beginning.