Runner Enjoys Chick Chase

“Really?! This is so cool! I didn’t even know I was in the running!” This is how Chattanooga Track Club (CTC) member Amy Klutho says she reacted when she was awarded her first Battle for Chattanooga medal in 2023.

Klutho, new to Chattanooga in 2021, took up running again, after a 30+ year break, to get into better shape and to meet new people. She says she started out walking, gradually increased to running, and joined the Chattanooga Track Club at their kickoff in August of 2022. Although she had been meeting up for runs with her sister [Karen Leavitt] and a few other women, most of the ladies, including her sister, were members of the CTC Track Team and running at paces she says she couldn’t match. She says once she joined CTC she was happy to find runners of all paces and distances, and even some whose paces were, she says, “as slow as mine. I had felt so out of place jogging with so many incredible long-time runners who were so fast and never seemed to struggle as much as I did back then. What I’ve since been able to see is that I am more similar than different – I set goals, I train, I try to push myself, I feel disappointment but maybe a week later elation. Some runs feel awful, some feel great.”

Klutho says once she started meeting up for CTC Saturday morning runs she found new friends and also saw the value in running organized races. She registered for the Battlefield 5K to keep motivated going into the colder months and, she says, because she thought it seemed like a neat race. She kept running through the winter, both with the CTC Saturday runs, with other new friends, and with her sister and her sister’s (fast!) group during the week. In her first Chickamauga Chase 5k, she surprised herself by running a pace fast enough to take third in her age group. She says that year Missionary Ridge seemed like a stretch for her – she had hardly run 5 miles all at once let alone race almost that far. But she says she finished the race and was delightfully surprised to get a Battle for Chattanooga race medal.

From then on, Klutho says she has made sure to run the three races that lead up to the medal. In 2024 she opted for the 15k for the Chickamauga Chase, she says, “to push myself, and because I wanted to get ROY points [Runner of the Year] by going the longer distance! I wasn’t sure I could go that far, so I sort of looked at it as ‘just a long run.’” Klutho not only finished, she earned an age group award – and the ROY points she was looking for. At her second Missionary Ridge Road Race, she earned another cool Battle for Chattanooga medal.

Klutho says the CTC has been a great resource, and CTC and her sister and her “fast” friends have been motivational and inspirational. She joined most Saturday long runs to train for the Battlefield Half in November and made even more new friends while she was at it. She completed the half and is looking forward to this year’s Chickamauga Chase. “It’s a nice race and a beautiful area. The 5k goes through streets where some of the neighbors are out cheering for us. And, of course, it’s the second race in the Battle for Chattanooga. Once I finish ‘Chick Chase,’ trying to get that medal will keep me motivated for Missionary Ridge.”

Battle for Chattanooga is a series of three Chattanooga Track Club (CTC) races held in locations of historic significance during the Civil War Battle for Chattanooga. Participants who complete one event in each of the three races in the series receive a Battle for Chattanooga finisher’s medal. In 2025, Chickamauga Chase is April 12, Missionary Ridge Road Race is August 2, and the Chickamauga Battle Races, which start the next series, are November 8.