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Read Lori Stich's Blog |
Date of Birth: May 1, 1970
Hansons-Brooks Distance Project start: December 1, 2007
Hometown: Austin, Texas & Stanwood, Michigan
College: Ripon College, Ripon, WI
Personal records: Marathon 2:38; Half Marathon 1:15; 10k 35:57; 5k 17:14
Miles run/week: 0-140 (currently ~80-100)
Why do you run?
Running is a great excuse to get outdoors, as well as to travel and explore new places while there, and it's a wonderful way to meet new friends! I ran my first marathon about a month after college. My college coach is a long-time marathoner, as are many of his friends whom I met at various meets, and hearing their marathon stories made me feel pretty sheepish calling myself a "distance" runner, so I just wanted to be able to say I had finished one, regardless of how long it took or whether I had to walk. Although I was in decent shape coming off of my last college track season, my longest run had been 10 miles, and I had no clue what I was doing. Horrified at the thought of using the field near the start as a restroom, I was in a port-a-potty when the race began, but I managed a 3:07 finish. As a novice marathoner, this meant nothing to me (I only cared that I had finished, and had no intention of running another, having checked "run a marathon" off of my list of things-to-do-in-this-lifetime); but then a friend-of-a-friend (a die-hard Boston-lover) got excited on hearing about it and told me that I had qualified for Boston, encouraging me to run it. That would be tricky, since Boston fell the day before my first final exam at the end of my first year of law school. However, I knew that lots of people try for years to qualify, and, not wanting to miss out on what I believed to be my "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity to run the Boston Marathon, I figured I'd better go. I discovered that this marathoning thing was a great excuse to take a cool weekend trip, and I was hooked.
The best thing about being a Hansons-Brooks athlete?
I love the team camaraderie; the coaches and athletes have made this feel like a home-away-from-home already. I also appreciate this opportunity to spend some time focusing on training while taking a break from "real life," with reduced work hours and a pervasive attitude of prioritizing running--something I’ve never done before.
What have you learned since joining the Hansons-Brooks ODP?
I’m brand-new to the team but already I'm appreciating the support and accountability fostered by the team training environment. And I'm learning a lot about the importance of pacing, mental training, and recovery (not to mention learning to run in ice, snow, and bitter cold, having moved here from Austin, Texas on December 1st!).
When did you start running?
In 1984. I began running at age 14, when I went out for outdoor track (my small, rural high school didn't have indoor track or cross country). Despite growing up on a farm, I never ate vegetables, and my parents thought that my eating habits might improve if I got involved in sports. The eating experiment was a failure (I'm still a junk food junkie), but I wound up doing okay on the track. I really wanted to be a sprinter, but sadly, I had no leg speed, so the coach did what he did with all the kids without talent: he threw me into the 2-mile. I broke the school record at our first invitational, loved the attention I got, and kept going.
What challenges do you face as an athlete? I'm not naturally gifted (I have classic slow-twitch muscles--my 5k pace isn’t much faster than my marathon pace), so I have to simply work hard and keep going, remembering that "the race is not always to the swift, but to those who keep on running."
What do you like to do when you're not running?
Anything and everything; running has always been a pastime for me rather than a passion. My passions include reading (favorite genre: historical fiction and satire), music (one of my undergraduate degrees is in classical piano performance; nowadays I mostly just playing at church, but I enjoy playing at home as well, and I do a lot of weddings), travel (I backpacked around Europe with a Eurail pass right after law school and was hooked; two years later I backpacked around the world, and I rarely miss an excuse to travel--I’m a member of the Nome, Alaska Polar Bear Club; have climbed Kilimanjaro & Mt. Fuji; visited the Taj Mahal, the Great Barrier Reef, Jerusalem, and the Great Pyramid; climbed the Sydney Harbor Bridge; run with the bulls in Pamplona; floated the Nile on a felucca; and hiked the Cinque Terre, to name a few favorite adventures), and above all, spending time with family and friends.
Favorite event: Fort Worth's Cowtown Marathon and Red's Rim-to-Rim Relay near Amarillo, Texas
Favorite workout: 2x10k with 1-mile recovery between, run at 10k PR pace as a marathon tune-up
Favorite pre- and post-race foods: I like breadsticks and cheese pizza the night before a marathon; fresh berries, hot tamales, and a Dr. Pepper are among my favorite after-treats.
Role models: My parents, who live the golden rule and then some. They're the kind of people who, had they lived in Nazi Germany, would have risked their lives to help save others'. I hope to emulate my Mom's gentle patience and genuine compassion, my Dad's hearty good-naturedness and work ethic, and both of their hard work, sincerity, and impeccable integrity. |
