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On your mark, get set, Sneak!

Taking the 'first step' by walking the 5K

By Myung Oak Kim, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published April 28, 2008 at midnight

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Runners streak by. In addition to 29 elite runners, 3,801 people did the 5-mile course, 2,947 ran or walked the 5K and 245 did the 1-mile student run.

Photo by Javier Manzano / The Rocky

Runners streak by. In addition to 29 elite runners, 3,801 people did the 5-mile course, 2,947 ran or walked the 5K and 245 did the 1-mile student run.

More than 7,000 people flexed their sneakers - racing, running, walking - in the 26th annual Cherry Creek Sneak on Sunday. Hundreds more cheered them on.

Photo by Javier Manzano / The Rocky

More than 7,000 people flexed their sneakers - racing, running, walking - in the 26th annual Cherry Creek Sneak on Sunday. Hundreds more cheered them on.

Greg Weaver, left, and his two sons, Jack, 6, and Luke, 3, wave to wife and mother Jessica Weaver as she completes the last stretch of the 5-mile run Sunday at the Cherry Creek Sneak.

Photo by Javier Manzano / The Rocky

Greg Weaver, left, and his two sons, Jack, 6, and Luke, 3, wave to wife and mother Jessica Weaver as she completes the last stretch of the 5-mile run Sunday at the Cherry Creek Sneak.

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Thousands of runners and walkers turned out for the 26th Annual Cherry Creek Sneak Sunday morning in Denver. Among them was Suzanne McMillan, 37, of Littleton.

She didn't try to beat a personal-best time, or even run at all. She came to help women who are trying to begin a journey she's already made.

McMillan had been overweight since childhood, turning to food for comfort and never exercising. She weighed 248 pounds and developed health problems.

In 2001, she decided to turn her life around and began walking - every day for three months straight. She followed a low-calorie diet. Less than a year later, the mother of four shed 100 pounds. She's kept it off since.

McMillan also become a marathon runner, finishing her third 26-mile race last Monday in Boston.

McMillan walked the 5K Sneak with six women who want to lose weight and improve their health.

"I ask them to look at one step," she said. "If I can take that first step, they can take their first step."

Connie Brewer, 37, of Morrison, had gained weight after having three children. She had gone to high school with McMillan, but she didn't recognize the fit woman she ran into at a nail salon. McMillan asked Brewer to do the Cherry Creek Sneak with her.

"I thought 'Three miles? Oh my God. There was no way to do that,' " Brewer said.

But she did. She and the group walked the route and crossed the finish line in just over 50 minutes.

"I just felt great," she said.