When newbies join KRC, they choose an alliterative adjective describing a trait they aspire to embody. They also pick a motivating Bible verse. “The idea is to give you something to hold you up throughout a race,” says (Supernatural) Sharon Stewart, the club’s director.

Although belief in a higher power is at the heart of this group, that doesn’t mean its members count on divine intervention to get them to the finish line. When Stewart and 30 other members of the Living Word Christian Center, a nondenominational church in Forest Park, Illinois, decided to train for the 2003 Chicago Marathon, they realized they needed to learn a few things. “We wanted the challenge of the marathon but didn’t know anything,” she says. So she and her fellow newbies tapped resources in their community to gather training advice.