Oct 30, 2007
Kelly Stewart - Columbus Marathon Views- 500

Kelly Stewart ran in college for Shippensburg. After graduating from there, she made the move to Rochester Hills to train with the Hanson/Brooks distance team. After a few ups and downs with her training and health, she has since been training on her own. She recently just ran the Columbus Marathon and won the overall title in a very competitive time of 2:43.28. Read on to find out more about Kelly.


RM: Columbus Marathon Women's champion and 2008 Olympic Women's Marathon Trials qualifier, wow, how does it feel? What went through your mind when you crossed the finish line?

KS: I was definitely stoked. I just thought to myself, "It's about time."


RM: In the 2006 Chicago Marathon and 2007 Boston Marathon you ran 2:58:21 and 3:00:20 respectively and for Columbus you just ran 2:43:28, what did you do different these last 6 months? Who is your coach now?

KS: Well it helped that I wasn't injured this time. At Chicago I was coming back from a stress fracture and at Boston I was struggling with a torn anterior tibialis. So being healthy at Columbus certainly didn't hurt. As far as changing my training, I actually backed down my mileage a bit from what I did before Boston. I went into Boston feeling a bit burnt out so I wanted to make sure that for Columbus I was a little under-trained. While I lowered my mileage I also upped my speed. In the past I had been training to run 2:47 but this time around my goal was 2:45. I've been coaching myself but a lot of my training has mimicked what I did prior to Chicago and Boston as a member of the Hansons-Brooks distance project.

RM: Can you describe your race, from looking at your splits and Jessica Gall's splits it looks like you were behind her about 20 seconds at half way and a few seconds at the 20 mile mark and then you win by over a minute?

KS: I went out there to run my race. I didn't want how I ran to be affected by anyone else. This was especially true because the half marathon and the marathon started at the same time, so it was important not get carried away by running too fast at the start of the race. This being said my first mile was very conservative. Once I got going I just tried to run fairly consistently. My main hope is that if I hit a wall I'd still be able to get through the race with a decent qualifying time. And it must have worked because by maintaining a relatively steady pace I was able to catch a lot of the people who went out ahead of me.

RM: Since I know sometimes those last few miles can be very difficult in a marathon and you ran your second only 30 seconds slower then your first half ( 1st - 1:21:29, 2nd - 1:21:59), how did you keep yourself from not letting up those last few miles?

KS: When you've run 20 plus miles a single mile just doesn't seem all that long. I just took it one mile at a time, so it didn't seem too bad. The crowd support was definitely helpful as well.

RM: How was the weather in Columbus and did it have any affect on your race?

KS: I thought the temperature was great for the race. It didn't really start to heat up a lot until I was done. It was pretty windy but except for a few spots I didn't really notice it. I think the warm temperature made the wind more manageable.

RM: What made you decided to run Columbus over one of the other fall marathons like (Chicago, New York or Detroit)? And what do you think of the Columbus course and the city of Columbus?

KS: My college coach, Steve Spence, had won the Olympic trials in Columbus back in the day, so I had heard good things about the race from him. I also wanted to get away from Michigan but at the same time I didn't want to have to travel too far. So, Columbus seemed like the perfect fit. Columbus was great. From what I saw it is a beautiful city. The only thing that I found unusual was that most of the restaurants and stores around my hotel were closed over the weekend. I really liked the course. It was rolling course which transitioned between suburban style neighborhoods and city streets. I think the hills, along with the many turns in the course really helped me by making things more interesting. Also, the many volunteers and spectators at the course made it a great event.

RM: Now that you have qualified for the 2008 Olympic Women's Marathon Trials, how does it change the next 6 months of your training and racing?

KS: I didn't really have any plans in place yet. So, now that I have the trials to look forward to I can start forming my winter training plans.

RM: Now that you have run 2:43 for the marathon, how does it change the goals for your next marathon in Boston for the trials (April 2008)?

KS: What every runner aims to do: run faster.

RM: What did you do to celebrate your victory and a trials qualifier time?

KS: My boyfriend and I stopped at Coons Candy on our way home and got some delicious chocolaty treats.

RM: Congratulations, will you be taking a little time off and where will we see Kelly racing at next?

KS: Right now I'm enjoying my time off though I'm already ready and raring to go. I'm probably going to run some shorter faster stuff. So I'll probably pop up at one or two local 5-10K's this winter.