Profile and Interview with Jane Larkindale; A Real Trail Running Mother

I recently sat down and talked with Jane and her husband Jim in their home in Northeast Tucson. I was interested in getting Jane's story due to the fact that in the prime of her running life she and Jim planned to start a family. Both of them are dedicated to outdoor living and endurance activities. I found Jane to be a very focused runner who really enjoys exploring her limitations. We talked about her pregnancy and some of her secrets to trail running success. Even I learned a couple of new things. Here is her profile and the conversation we had.

PROFILE OF RUNNER:

A.  Name, age, city and state, how long lived there?  

Jane Larkindale, 36, Tucson, lived here for 9 years.

B.  Place of birth, where did you grow up, high school, college, military, other?

Born: Vienna, Austria.  Grew up on planet earth (I’ve moved country 10 times).  High school - Wellington Girls’ College in NZ and St. Paul’s Girls’ School in England.  College - Otago University in NZ then Oxford University in England.


C.  Other than running – hobbies, interests, pets, kids, current employment?

Hobbies: Adventure Racing, Search and Rescue, Hiking/Backpacking, biking, kayaking, canyoneering, orienteering and anything else outdoors.
Interests: Outdoor stuff/ cooking/ reading
Pets: 2 dogs, Dingo and Hopper
Kids: Baby Amelia (3 months)
Employment: Director of Translational Research for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.


D.  Favorite distance to run or race on trail and on the road?

Trail.  Any trail.  50 milers are probably my favorite.  I don’t run on roads much.


E.  Favorite race course or event?
I have a soft spot for Old Pueblo 50 as it was my first ultra, but Zane Grey has to be the favorite.

F.  Favorite Tucson area trail to train, run, hike?
I don’t have a favorite - I like to explore new places and make up new loops.  My favorite is anything I haven’t done before! I like variety - Blacketts one day perhaps, and Bear Canyon the next, then loops around the low trails in Sabino another day.


G. Favorite vacation destination?
New Zealand


H.  Favorite post-race/run food, drink and activity, ie. hot tub, ice cold river soak, etc?
Sleeping!  


I.   Pet Peeves?
Treadmills, running in circles.


J.  Current book you are reading or favorite author?
Currently reading a “Fire Season.”  I don’t have a favorite author.


K.  Favorite quote or saying to live by?
“It doesn't have to be fun to be fun.” (which gets translated into “It’s the other kind of fun”).


L.  Person you look up to, emulate, hero?
In terms of runners:  Karl Meltzer (success in tough races for a really long time), Darcy Africa (success in tough races, quick come back after having a baby), Krissy Moehl (just fast). Diana Finkel.

INTERVIEW:

Trail Aficionado (TA):  Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to talk and share your thoughts and ideas about life and running.

Jane and Jim:  You are very welcome. It’s good to see you again.

TA:  I hear you are running a 50-mile race this weekend…that’s impressive for four months after your daughter was born. How are you managing?

Jane:  You have to jump in at some point. I would prefer to do a 50K first.

TA:  This is the start of your preparation for Bear 100 in September?

Jane:  Yes, it is called the North Fork 50 mile in Pine, Colorado, about 50 miles southwest of Denver.

TA:  At the age of 36 you are in the prime of your ultra-running life. Your last four races prior to your pregnancy were all first place finishes. Did you and Jim plan to have a baby?

Jane:  We had been planning for what...Three years now?

Jim:  We got married four years ago. We had entered a big adventure race in Montana in 2008, a team event, so we committed to do this with two other teammates. We set aside an entire year to train so we didn’t try to start a family until afterwards. We tried for a year after that and nothing happened so when we entered another event we finally got pregnant and had to change our plans.

TA:  Great! Then you were into adventure racing before you got into the trail ultra?

Jane:  Yes, our original team was Jim and I and our friend Gerry, who is in his 60’s. We started in 2004. That gave me the confidence to run the Tucson Marathon. I did really badly and then ran it again the following year. I felt after this I could probably run my first 50-miler in 2007 at Old Pueblo.

TA:  You never really trained on the roads or for the marathon specifically?

Jane:  Correct, virtually all of my training was on trails and off-trail doing adventure racing.

TA:  Were you living in Tucson at the time? Were you involved with Search and Rescue (SAR) then?

Jim:  We were living here.

Jane:  SAR is how we met. Jim’s been involved since 2002 and I have been since 2003.

TA:  When and how was your first involvement with the Tucson Trail Runners (TTR)?

Jane:  The first time we ran into the TTR, our adventure racing team was speed hiking on Mt. Wrightson and we came across these really crazy runners and said “You can’t really run this mountain!?” We caught up with a couple of the runners on the way up and then started talking to Ross.

Mt Wrightson Elevation Profile

I used to think they were these super-human people that ran up the trail to Finger Rock as opposed to run / hike.

TA:  Did you have any background with athletics as a kid in school?

Jane:  I was actually a fencer. I basically started because I knew it would not last because I was crappy at sports. I started that around age 12 and ended up continuing until the age of 26 or 27. I had a fair amount of success.

TA:  How did you get in shape for fencing?

Jane:  That is actually why I started running because I wanted more fitness than I could get from fencing. When I was in college I got interested in how far I could go. I was like everyone else, running three miles. I was really proud of myself when I got to 13 miles.

TA:  You were doing this by yourself, no one giving you advice or encouragement?

Jane:  There were about eight women living in the house I moved into when a arrived in England. The week we arrived, everyone claimed to be a runner (20 year old girls: running = weight loss).  One by one each of them came up to me and suggested that we run together because everyone else in the house looked like they would be too fast to run with.  I was the short, fat one who everyone thought would be slow.  By the end of the week, I was the only one left running.

TA:  So how did the love affair with adventure racing begin?

Jane:  Well it was really our friend Gerry. He convinced us to go up to an event in Phoenix to volunteer. Based on what we saw from the competition we thought we could finish a race and not be last. We did an event in Prescott that was put on by the Boy Scouts. It was really fun.

Jim:  We were in first place after a half an hour and couldn’t figure out how this could be. We finished in third. Our navigation skills really helped. It kind of took off from there.

Jane:  The thought was…if I can do an 8 hour race, what would a 12 hour or a 24 hour race be like.

TA:  It sounds like orienteering is a big part of it? Were you involved with the orienteering club?

Jane:  Yeah, the whole race is navigation. It was really our strong point.

Jim:  We’ve done some with the club as well as the Rogaine, the 24-hour, the North American Championships on the Mogollon Rim.

TA:  Let’s switch gears a little. I have to ask how you handled the pregnancy during and after your daughter’s birth. Did you get advice from other women concerning fitness?

Jane:  I looked for any information I could get and there was mighty little. I went a lot by how my body feels. I talked to Pam Golden quite a bit. I had been walking and a little running most of the way through the pregnancy. There was about a month and a half that I didn’t really feel good about running. The main thing was as long as it feels good; if you get dizzy or feel bad, stop.

TA:  What advice you can give to other pregnant mothers out there.

Jane:  Don’t worry about what happens afterwards. Fitness comes back. Ultra-running in particular is about what’s in the head and you’re not losing that. Take the time to recover from your previous training.

TA:  Very good. When you are exercising for more than yourself in one body did that cause you to change your diet?

Jane:  I found I was going hypoglycemic. I normally run before breakfast so now I started using sports drink, something I never use. It was definitely different. I was relearning my body. I’m not what I was.

TA:  Do you think you will use these new carbo-loading tools on your races?

Jane:  I’ve always had a plan in the past. I take a gel every 20-30 minutes. I’ve never done anything else. I don’t like them but they work; they are nauseatingly sweet. I use the Power Bar Gel brand because they have electrolytes.

TA:  What about aid stations? Do you take any food or use any supplies?

Jane:  Mostly water, an occasional Coke.

Jim:  Essentially we just trade out Nathan packs filled with water and as many gels as she needs. She is in and out of aid stations in a minute.

TA:  So you are focused on not losing time at aid stations?

Jane:  Do you know how hard it is to run up Sabino Canyon Road
one minute faster and how easy it is to waste one minute at an aid station?

TA:  Good point. I see you have completed San Diego 100 three times and Wasatch 100 once. How do you handle staying awake all night? Do you slow down due to drowsiness?

Jane:  Adventure racing has cured that for me. Also, I don’t normally have a lot of caffeine so when I use it during the race it works better.

TA:  There is a secret to success. If you can stay awake all night and remain coherent, not stumbling, leaning against trees, laying face down on trail…

Jim:  I know when I come into an aid station when I’m really tired I can’t make any decisions; I look around; I’m overwhelmed by choices. This is where a crew really helps. I’ve paced Jane at San Diego and it has been a great help to her.

TA:  Have you always been Jane’s pacer?

Jane:  Jim has paced me at all four of my 100’s. He paced me for 50 miles at Wasatch. He was the only reason I finished Wasatch because I was really screwed up big time.

TA:  What happened?

Jane:  From mile 17 on, I had stomach problems. I couldn’t eat for 5 hours. When I got to Jim, he took over; he made me eat.

Jim:  I put her on a schedule. Every half hour she got a gel and every forty-five minutes she got electrolytes. We continued to walk for awhile. Before the night was over she was stronger than I was.

Jane:  I think that was the longest Jim had run at the time; at least the longest time-wise. He was following the check-in times at aid stations while he was waiting for me and when he realized I had taken five minutes at the previous station, he knew I must have sat down. He got prepared to pick me up earlier than planned. By the time I got to Jim I was 45 minutes overdue.

     I was in third place at mile 39 and dropped eight places after that. I went way back but I picked them all off later.

TA:  What do you think you did wrong? I mean, 17 miles is kind of early but knowing that course with Chin-Scraper around mile 10, I guess it could happen?

Jane:  I am very sensitive to mold. The water jugs were not completely cleaned so I had an allergic reaction to mold.

TA:  That’s probably very true. Nobody really scrubs those jugs after every use. That’s a difficult thing to do when your stomach has gone sour; to continue to put stuff in it. My experience is that if you do then you will probably throw it up.

Jane:  Yes. The turnaround started when a woman passed me and gave me some ginger. I’m a great believer in the ginger chews to ease the stomach.

TA:  Yes, I have used that as well. It seems to me that you like being competitive?

Jane:  I’m very competitive…yes. But that’s not my main motivation for running. I like being out in the backcountry. As I proved to myself when I was pregnant, I’d rather be out hiking trails than running roads. I want to be out there; it’s my main motivation.

TA:  But once you are out there, you like the competition?

Jane:  Sure, I’m always curious what the limit is and competition brings out the best in you.

TA:  Let’s talk about last year. Every race you ran you placed first. From a woman’s perspective with men in front of you but all of the women behind you, what goes through your mind during the race?

Jane:  Yeah, it was kind of a peculiar year. At San Diego last year I was in first from the start. If I knew I didn’t have anyone close behind and I was really hurting like last year at Zane Grey, I could walk a bit. The previous year at ZG when I was at the last aid station the girl in third place came in while I was leaving so I pushed hard after that. I had something to prove; I was not going to be beaten at that stage.

Jim:  I paced her for the last seven miles or so and she dropped me on the climb out of the 44 mile aid station. I actually parked at the finish and ran back to her so when I reached her I had seven miles in already.

TA:  How do you deal with not being in the lead earlier in a race while you are feeling good? Do you have the feeling that you have to run harder to try and catch people?

Jane:  Generally I’m running my own race. I really try to run by how I feel rather than what’s going on around me. A couple years ago at Zane, Nikki Kimball passed me early on and I know she’s a way better runner, so be it. Then a little later another woman passed me and I said, “Well if she can run that pace for 50 miles, she’s better than me and there is no point in chasing her.” Why worry about it? You just have to have the mentality – if they can go that fast and I can’t, then let it be.

    Last year at ZG when I was running with Diana Finkel the first seven miles we ran on each other’s heels; I wanted to know what she could do. And then when I felt like I was stronger I overtook her and kept her out of sight. Being she is from Colorado with snow all winter she wasn’t at her strongest in April. If it was September there is no way I would have kept up with her.

TA:  Excellent insight! At the age of 36 you are in the prime age for ultra-running. What is your future outlook for your running career?

Jane:  I want to do Hardrock 100. Getting in isn’t too easy. I have a bit of an altitude problem so that will be a challenge as well. I am doing Bear 100 in September as a qualifier for Hardrock. I’m not expecting a spectacular race only being five months postpartum.

    I’d also love to do Western 100. I would like to go back to Wasatch and run sub-24 hours but I don’t know if I can do it. It’s in my mind and is something I would like to do.

TA:  What running accomplishment are you most proud of?

Jane:  Having the guts to start and run my first 50-mile race at Old Pueblo in 2007. I had no idea what I was doing. I had run two miserable road marathons prior to that. When I was told at the Helvetia aid station that I was the second place woman I knew I had gone out too fast. I watched other people around me and how they managed walking up hills. I really didn’t have a clue as to what I was doing. I ended up winning the race in one of the slowest winning times.

TA:  Naivety is bliss! After that you start to overthink everything.

Jane:  Yeah, that’s right. I then went to San Diego and thought…wow, I can win these things; that was a big mistake. I went out way too fast. The last 30 miles was a death march.

TA:  Been there, done that. Are there any major injuries that you have incurred?

Jane:  Nothing to speak of, nothing major. I had Plantar Fasciitis when I was pregnant; all of the extra weight pushing down on my feet. It was just the first four months. I was wearing very minimalist shoes and then switched to more supportive shoes and I was fine after that.

TA:  Do you have a routine that you must follow the morning of a race?

Jane:  I always do a PB&J sandwich and lots of coffee. I like having caffeine to start running. I try and study the race course map. I like to know where I’m going. I do a little mental visualization sometimes.

TA:   How about music? Do you get pumped up to any favorite songs?

Jane:  Before the race I create a new playlist on my IPod. I’ll use it about halfway through the race. I have a very eclectic mix. I like the variation between slow chill music and then something that picks me up.

TA:  What is the best advice you could give to a newer ultra-runner?

Jane:  Don’t waste time at aid stations. Generally, just don’t waste time anywhere you can help it.

TA:  What is the best advice that you have received from veteran ultra-runners?

Jane:  I’ve picked up a lot from a lot of people but probably the number one thing is not overtraining with distance quantity over quality. I used Karl Meltzer’s online training and he had me running a lot of hills and not huge distances. I made more improvement over the first six months than I ever had before; quality not quantity.

     One other thing we found is using Leukotape and pre-taping your feet to prevent blisters and wearing good socks. I use wool.  

TA:  I had not heard of Leukotape. I have used moleskin.

Jim:  Leukotape is a breathable, stretchable, highly adhesive tape. Much better than moleskin or anything else I’ve ever used.

TA:  Great tips, I just learned a couple of new things. One thing I would like to ask you non-running related if you don’t mind sharing a Search and Rescue experience? Can you talk about an SAR mission that was the closest to saving somebody’s life?

Jane:  Most certainly. There were a group of Sabino High School wrestlers that decided to do a bit of rock climbing in Soldier Canyon without ropes. They climbed up the side and knocked a refrigerator-size boulder off its spot and it rolled down into another one of the kids. The oldest kid was leading the group and it had hit him and broken his femur  mid-shaft and hit another younger boy and broken his ankle very badly. A couple of the kids from the group of five were able to get out and make a distress call. Jim and our friend Scotty had come in from the bottom and helped the kid with the broken ankle. Another guy and I came in from the top and semi-rappelled down to the kid with the mid-shaft femur fracture. There were two helicopters involved: a Blackhawk called in from the Air Force and a DPS air rescue helicopter. It was a very intense situation. Debris was blown around in all directions. Our gear was being blown down on us. Communication was difficult, seriously injured people, rocks falling in all directions. Very intense! They were lucky no one was dead on that one.

TA:  Thank you for sharing that experience. That leads to my last question. What is the meaning of life?

Jane:  To explore. I have a constant curiosity of what’s out there. I love nature and want to be a part of it. I really enjoy exploring and discovering my limitations.

TA:  I like that. Well, Jane and Jim, thank you for taking the time to talk about your personal lives and interests. I really appreciate it.

Jane and Jim:  You’re welcome, anytime.