- After spending almost three years recovering from a rare vascular condition in her legs and the resulting complications, Lake Braddock alumna Kate Murphy raced again on Sunday, running 4:47 for the mile at the University of Washington Invitational. Here’s last year’s look at how she coped with the challenges she faced since qualifying for the 2016 Olympic Trials in the 1,500 meters.
- The University of North Carolina’s athletic department featured Georgetown alumnus and former coach Chris Miltenberg and his inspiration (partially fueled by Chantilly’s McGorty family) to take charge of the Tar Heels’ track program.
- Loudoun Valley alumnus Drew Hunter tells the story of his injury that kept him out of the 2019 World Championships and his subsequent recovery.
Name: Jason Lufkin
Self-described age group: 37
Residence: Capitol Hill
Occupation: Management consultant specializing in risk advisory & business transformation
Why you run: I spent a lot of time thinking about my Why statement. It’s simple though – I run because it gives me joy.
When did you get started running: I started running in 1996 leading up to freshman year cross country after my parents had forced me to sign up for a fall sport. I remember wearing basketball shoes to my first practice and thought the one-mile warmup was the entire workout.
Have you taken a break from running: I ran cross country, indoor and outdoor track all through high school and then into my freshman year at the University of Maryland. The transition to training at the collegiate level was difficult though and I found myself completely burnt out after the fall 2000 XC season. The break from running lasted until 2015 when my wife convinced me to sign up for a 10K with her. That race reignited my passion for running and racing.
Kathy Newberry’s running career has spanned nearly 20 years and has included six trips to world championship races and thousands of training miles, starting when she ran at Lake Braddock Secondary School.
Her secret to such a long trip? The same as the transoceanic flights to those races — plenty of fuel.
“I get that the regular person on the street has to be mindful of their diet, but when you’re running 120 miles a week, I’m sorry, I’m going to have four Dr. Peppers along with my bacon cheeseburger,” she said. “And my salad.”
That’s a message she has lived throughout her racing career and preached as a coach in both formal and informal capacities. As she approaches the last month before her fourth Olympic Trials, and her second trip to the marathon Trials, Newberry is as dedicated to eating right as she is to mileage and workouts. Now a Wellesley, Mass. resident, she qualified at November’s Monumental Marathon in Indianapolis.
“Your body needs fuel,” she said. “If you try to watch what you eat, it’s a gamble you’re eventually going to lose. That’s a lot of why I’ve stayed healthy all of these years.”
Name: Erin Cunningham
Self-described age group: I’m 30
Residence: Capitol Hill, D.C.
Occupation: Sometimes server, sometimes host, sometimes junior manager at Chloe, a restaurant in the DC Navy Yard.
Volunteer roles in the running world: I’ve never volunteered! Making a mental note to do some volunteering this year.
Why you run: I was inspired to start by my mom, who’s been running longer than I’ve been alive. She’s finished 32 marathons! I was never super athletic at any point in my life, always active to an extent, but that really dropped off during my twenties. Eventually I got the itch to start doing something and running seemed like a good idea. It’s also helpful for me because I work in a high stress environment and it’s a great way to relax, almost meditative.
As she cruised along the Rehoboth Beach Seashore Marathon last December, Callie Betman had a leg up on the rest of the runners.
She had the personal pacing help of a newly-minted Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier — her sister, Hannah Cocchiaro. Famous in their family, the Betman Racing Team, for her ability to keep an even pace, Hannah kept Callie steady on the course, not too far from the water that they would have been found in a few years before when they were primarily swimmers.
“It was really awesome,” Betman said. “It was so nice to have her there the whole time. It was good sister bonding time.
“Having grown up together (the sisters are roughly a year apart) she knew me well enough to be able to tell when I needed some encouragement and when I didn’t want her to talk. She knew the right times in the last six miles to say something quick and motivating when I was really struggling.”
Three weeks before, the Betman Racing Team (which includes their sister Leah Williams) was in Richmond, cheering Cocchairo (pronounced Coke-E-R-O) on to a third-place finish in 2:40:08, well ahead well ahead of the 2:45 standard that got her into the Feb. 29 Trials in Atlanta.
On Feb. 29, runners competing in the Olympic Marathon Trials will race a rough, hilly course in downtown Atlanta. Caroline Bauer will feel right at home, having started her journey there on similar terrain.
Four years and one day prior, she took off on the RRCA Club Challenge course in her then-hometown of Columbia, Md. It’s one of the tougher courses in Maryland, one that forces runners to scrap relative time goals and focus on the race’s inter-club competition. That didn’t shake Bauer, though, as she ran 1:01:33, finishing less than one minute behind Julia Roman-Duval, her Howard County Striders teammate who had finished 50th at the Marathon Trials two weeks before.
“I thought if I could run 65 (minutes) and change, that would be awesome,” she said. “I was trying to tuck into a pack, but at four miles I felt like it was too slow. I ended up negative splitting every mile on the course. I didn’t know where that came from.”
- The Montgomery County Department of Transportation is having a community meeting at 7 p.m. Jan. 29 at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School to discuss designs of the Capital Crescent Trail tunnel and surface route through Bethesda.
- Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich did not include any money in his budget proposal for the county’s for a tunnel to carry the Capital Crescent Trail under Wisconsin Avenue.
- The Marine Corps Marathon has permanently banned a 55-year-old woman from its race series after an investigation showed she had cut several race courses over four years. A consistent absence of on-course photos and timing mat data helped the race organization come to that conclusion.
- St. John’s College High School’s Desmond Dunham was named the National Federation of High School Associations Coaches Association’s girls’ track and field national coach of the year.
- Dunham and Gonzaga College High School’s John Ausema were named cross country coach of the year by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
Name: Nate Rathjen
Self-described age group: slowly admitting I’m not a recent college grad anymore (25)
Residence: Historic downtown Leesburg!
Occupation: IT guy
Volunteer roles in the running world: Treasurer, Loudoun Road Runners
Why you run: What’s not to love? It’s free. I love exploring on foot. I meet awesome people. It’s a really time-efficient way to stay in shape. Also, I’d be lying if I said part of it wasn’t being able to eat whatever I want. Food’s a big motive.
When did you get started running: Actually, it all started when I ended up on UVA’s club quidditch team in 2012, my first year there. If you’re wondering what that looks like as a sport, combine basketball, rugby, and dodgeball, move the whole thing outside, and you’re close! Later that fall someone started group runs to work on the team’s conditioning, we became training partners, and the rest is history.
Sarah Anyan’s feet hurt, and her shoes weren’t going to make things much better. But as much as she and Tyler loved running, they weren’t going to walk down the aisle in cushioned trainers.
So, months of plantar pain be damned, she danced and had a great time at her wedding. And when she woke up, she felt…better.
It was a little more than three months until the California International Marathon.
“I felt like I could for a run and it didn’t hurt all the time, something changed,” she said. “I can at least run through whatever I felt — before it hurt to walk.”
When the couple got back to their Arlington home, Sarah joined Tyler for their family goal of qualifying for the Olympic Marathon Trials.
Name: Hannah A.
Self-described age group: Millennial (25)
Residence: Crystal City
Occupation: Pediatric Speech-Language Pathologist
Why you run: Because I can! Running has not only helped keep me in shape but also allowed me to achieve some of my biggest dreams and goals. Plus, living in this area, it’s the perfect excuse to do some local sightseeing!
When did you get started running: I ran JV cross-country all four years in high school and ran here and there throughout college until the summer before my junior year when I decided to train for a half marathon. That was August 2014, and I’ve been hooked ever since!
