To Run, To Learn, To Teach
Raleigh Court teacher Kevin Spencer began running to memorize Scripture and lost weight in the process.
Roanoke Times, May 2006
By Evelio Contreras

He opens his eyes and turns off the beeping alarm clock.

It's 3:50 a.m.

Another alarm is scheduled to go off in 10 minutes, but Kevin Spencer is already up.

In less than an hour, Kevin, 41, will pull on his gray running shorts, white long-sleeved shirt and a thin vest with yellow reflectors.

He is meeting his 38-year-old brother, Keith Spencer, in Vinton for an early morning run.

"My family likes it," Kevin said of his morning routine. "Though they say we run too much."

The Spencer brothers run three days a week in Vinton, where they meet at the parking lot behind Vinton Baptist Church and meet a group of runners who congregate at 5:20 a.m.

On this Tuesday morning, Kevin will join his brother at 4:45 a.m. so they can squeeze in an extra 30 minutes of running before joining the group. Kevin's goal is to run six hours a week, or 12 full days of running by the end of the year.

"Our normal time is an hour," Kevin said. "I always tell Martha, my wife, that I run to make her proud."

Running has played a major part in Kevin's life for the past four years.

He reads Runners World regularly, listens to running podcasts and watches marathons on television.

Running has also changed the way he looks.

Kevin weighed 260 pounds when he took up running in the spring of 2002. He lost more than 80 pounds in three months.

But losing weight, he said, wasn't the catalyst for running.

"I was trying to memorize the Scripture," he said.

Kevin's pastor at Rainbow Forest Baptist Church in Troutville asked churchgoers to memorize passages from the Bible. Martha had plenty of time to study.

"My wife had major surgery and she was on her back," Kevin said. "When she was having time to rest and couldn't get up and do other stuff, she began memorizing the book of James."

Kevin, on the other hand, felt too distracted at home to study the Bible. He would get on the Internet or read the newspaper in the mornings when he tried to study. So, one day before Memorial Day weekend, he went outside to walk and listen to the book of Philippians on his Sony Walkman.

After five weeks of walking, he decided to run.

"At one point, I memorized 80 verses of Philippians and lost 80 pounds," he said. "I was like almost memorizing a pound per verse."

He memorized two chapters that summer.

It's almost 4 a.m. Kevin gently kisses his wife on the forehead as he gets up.

"I used to always hear him get up when he first started going out really early in the morning," Martha said. "Now, not so much. If the weather's bad I'll definitely wake up."

She doesn't want him to be outside in bad weather. Instead, she'll tell him to stay at home and ride the stationary bike in the basement. He's ridden it only three times this year because of ice on the road and thunderstorms.

A gray fog covers the early morning sky.

There is no rain, but the morning mist hovers above the blades of grass surrounding the Spencers' Northeast Roanoke home.

After Kevin kisses his wife, he tiptoes to the couple's bedroom door and slips into the darkened hallway.

The two-story house was built in 1929. The hallway floor creaks when someone walks near the left side.

So, not wanting to wake up his wife and two sons, Edward, 7, and John, 5, Kevin walks on the right side of the hallway.

Esther, a cream-colored cat, waits for him at the bedroom door and almost betrays him. She is a fluffy cat who looks like a cup of coffee with too much milk in it, Kevin said. And, "she makes a lot of noise," he said.

Esther doesn't particularly pay attention to the creaky boards. But every day, she knows when to meet Kevin so he can take her to the basement and feed her.

"She's more in a routine than I am," he said. "She goes upstairs and waits by the back door and goes down with me. She gets excited when I go downstairs to the basement. I give her food, water and get myself ready."

After eating a banana and a bagel with peanut butter in the kitchen, Kevin dresses in the basement and turns on his Apple iBook to check a few Web sites and the morning weather.

"It's 40 degrees at 4 a.m.," he said. "A lot colder than yesterday."

A fifth-grade teacher at Raleigh Court Elementary, Kevin took it easy the day before.

"I slept in a little late yesterday because it was Monday of my spring break," he said. "I woke up at 5."

Kevin has also gotten his pupils involved in the sport. Two years ago, he started two running groups at Raleigh Court Elementary.

Kevin's fifth-graders run laps in physical education class three days a week. On Thursday afternoons, students from all grades run behind the school or at a nearby track. He hands each runner a laminated card that helps the children keep track of how many laps they run.

As of April 13, Spencer's 37 fifth-grade pupils have logged 1,535 miles. The 35 after-school runners have completed 615 miles.

"In class, I tell my kids anybody can start a marathon, anybody can start running," Kevin said. "I ask them sometimes, 'What's your goal?'

"If your goal is to run a 5K, you can't just wake up and run it," he said. "If your goal is to get straight A's in math, you have to do stuff to get there. You just can't get a report card and expect an A."

Kevin walks out the front door and steps into his red Chevy Blazer to drive to Vinton.

His license plate reads "FINISHR." It's a reminder to him that he's not the fastest runner -- he'll never finish a marathon with the best time -- but he will complete a run he sets out to do.

"I've finished two marathons," he said.