Melinda Thomas always wished she was a runner.

“I had a variety of different excuses for not doing it,” she said.

But she found her inspiration with the book “Run For God: The 5K Challenge,” written by Mitchell Hollis. The book is a 12-week training program to prepare for a 5K, with a devotional each week that relates running to following Christ, combining spiritual training with physical training.

Thomas of Plano first saw the book several years ago but didn’t buy it until she came across it again recently.

“I thought, ‘this is more than just a coincidence. I need to pursue it,’ ” she said. “I’m not a theologian. I’m not a runner. But I decided to give it a shot.”

She hosted an introductory meeting at First Baptist Church to see if others were also interested in the program.

“I’ve been amazed when I started,” she said. “I hoped that we might have 10 people come, but the first night, we had 28 people show up. … It was just so exciting to me to see the response to it. I just get encouraged.”

Each Wednesday evening, the group meets in First Baptist’s Recreation Outreach Center for an hour, spending 30 minutes discussing a lesson from the book before running for 30 minutes around the facility’s indoor track.

The program encourages participants to run several more times a week in addition to the weekly group meetings. The goal is for them to run a 5K at the end of the 12-week program.

“We’re still picking which one to do,” Thomas said. “My goal is to finish in one hour.”

She’s already planning to host the program again in the fall because there are many people interested in participating who weren’t able to this summer.

“Run For God” gave Heather Shadwell of Alvaton the push she needed to get serious about running.

She enjoys the encouragement group workouts give and has become less self-conscious when running.

“I’ve gotten faster at running, and I find myself now praying while running,” she said. “I concentrate less on how I’m running and more about what I’m thinking about and praying about.”

Lisa Allen of Bowling Green joined the “Run for God” group to get more motivated about running, which has worked out well for her. The program lets her alternate between walking and running before gradually switching her over to just running.

“It’s slowly getting to where you build up your running,” Allen said. “It transitions you over.”

She also enjoys how it incorporates exercising her body and exercising her faith at the same time.

“It’s intertwining both, and I like that concept very much,” she said. 

— Laurel Wilson covers faith and general assignments for the Daily News. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/FaithinBG or visit www.bgdailynews.com.