They lined up in the cold last Saturday morning, waiting for a half-hour before moving inside to meet an author whose voice had touched them on a profound level.
The next morning, some of those same people met at the Memorial Field parking lot, shiny and wet after the season’s first plowing, and heard Renee Plodzik bark instructions. Run up the hill. Do jumping jacks. Ignore the snow.
Her husband, Jay, was there as well, puffing in the cold like everyone else.
It’s a support system with a rock-solid foundation. Plodzik’s year-round Sunday boot camps, fundraisers to fight cancer, optimism and energy have fueled a following, as loyal as Lassie, that refuses to sit by and watch her fight Stage 4 cancer alone.
Her new cookbook, “Eat Well, Move Often, Stay Strong,” is a hot seller, with “over 120 nourishing and seasonal recipes to keep you healthy and strong,” the cover reads.
Her book signing lasted three hours. The line formed early and stayed late. The line, in fact, said a lot.
“She’s done so much for other people,” said Amanda Kaulbach, fresh from receiving her autographed copy on Saturday. “We’re all here for her. We’re doing everything we can and she is the strongest person I know. She is very important in this community and very well-loved.”
Plodzik is a builder. She built her boot camp after beating breast cancer. She built her career as a nurse practitioner in Concord.
She built a system of collecting donations, funneling the money to wellness and fitness programs for Concord Hospital Payson Center cancer survivors and patients. And she wrote her cookbook.
She started 14 months ago. Before the immense pain in her hip stopped this fitness guru from her daily runs. Tests showed she had cancerous lesions in that area.
She was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer on her 42nd birthday, last Sept. 22. One month later, she finished writing. She simply re-wrote a portion of the last page. The one about herself. She’s good at adjusting.
“It was difficult, but I thought it was a nice gift for my friends and family,” Plodzik said. “I wanted to have a legacy for them, not knowing how much time I had left.”
That’s Plodzik. Steady, realistic, confident, never at a loss for words. She makes sure you have the facts, before worrying about anything else.
“Do you know what it is, Stage 4?” she asked. “There’s no cure, and an average person my age who has it has a 20 percent chance to live beyond three years.”
She continued: “I’m hoping to beat that and continue past that three years by eating well and exercising and embracing each moment.”
Plodzik’s no-nonsense Boot Camps are a jamboree of tough-love, camaraderie, fitness and fighting. Cancer is often the enemy, as it was for Plodzik in 2014. She beat that. Her forecast was good, a one-percent chance of the breast cancer returning.
“I never had chemo that first time and it came back,” Plodzik said. “I’m about supporting cancer survivors, but I don’t want my diagnosis to scare people. More, I want to inspire.”
Mission accomplished. At her book signing downtown, at Spruce Home and Company, Plodzik said she sold about 1,000 books, at $39.95 each, and has 1,000 more to sell.
Money will go to cancer patients and medical centers, and some will help the Plodzik family with expenses and her own medical bills.
She was there for her campers. They’re here for her now.
Bridget Windsor owns Spruce Home and Company. She met Plodzik at her store a few years ago. Plodzik was buying gifts for some of her hospice patients. Windsor’s father, Ken McKenna, died from cancer 10 months ago while at home in hospice care.
“We immediately connected and we opened up about a lot of things,” Windsor said. “I immediately wanted to support her.”
Sarah Spack of Penacook, who started working with Plodzik 18 years ago at Concord Hospital, received comfort after her mother, Marge, underwent open-heart surgery.
“I can’t tell you how much I admire her,” Spack said before leaving with her book.
Plodzik’s signature contribution is the Boot Camp she hosts at Memorial Field.
With sunglasses and hands on hips, she carved out a Douglas MacArthur-like figure, minus the corncob pipe, examining the troops, shouting encouragement, pushing people to be the best they could be.
Some of her more complex routines include pulling a 50-pound sled, flipping a 200-pound tire, scaling a four-foot wall and waving long thick ropes up and down.
She won’t quit in winter. She won’t let her ever-growing stable of supporters quit, either. Too much snow? Come on down for a little snowshoeing.
Last Sunday was billed as The 12 Days of Fitness.
Plodzik blasted “Santa Baby” and “Run, Rudolph, Run.” Campers twisted their torsos, bent their knees, simulated skipping rope, squatted, did pushups off of parked cars and ran up the hill, from the ticket booth to the main entrance on Fruit Street.
Her husband of 13 years, Jay, did the drills. He called his wife’s latest diagnosis “a kick to the stomach. I was picking up our (three) kids when I got the phone call. I think we are still in shock. I’m speechless on what to say about it.”
Meanwhile, Plodzik endures. She did some light running Sunday. Not much else. She began an oral form of chemotherapy three months ago. She said she was exhausted.
She’s tired a lot.
“I can’t run anymore; too much hip pain,” Plodzik said. “But I can do arm exercises and walk a mile and do yoga and replace all those negative thoughts with positive thoughts.”
She does that well. She’s quick to counter her vulnerable side with a show of strength.
And, recently, a cookbook.
“I’m not gonna sugarcoat things, it’s hard that I may not be here to watch my kids graduate from high school,” Plodzik said. “There are days I cry, but I try to make every day meaningful.
“And most days, I succeed.”