Get to know Katie Hoffecker!

 Each month we highlight different members of the Spewak Training Family. Our team is made up of amazing individuals who train year round while juggling families, jobs, life commitments, and other stresses. I am constantly impressed with the self discipline of our runners and their genuine appreciation for simply working hard. This month we sat down with Katie Hoffecker! Katie joined the Spewak Training family in the fall of 2019! She's extremely dedicated in all areas of her life. Despite juggling a busy work life, she still makes time to train and chase her goals in the sport of running. She's extremely positive and has been a great addition to our team. Enjoy her story below! CS: What got you into the sport of running?  KH: My dad brought me along for a 5k when I was a kid. I had never really run before and loved the energy from everyone racing. I have pretty much kept running off and on since then. It was a healthy outlet for my angsty, teenage self when I needed to get out of the house and can sometimes still be that for me even as an adult! CS: Where are some of your favorite spots to train in St. Louis?  KH: I love Tower Grove and Forest Park. CS: Why?  KH: Tower Grove has a lot of tree coverage during the hotter months which I like. Plus, there are always cute dogs or people playing kickball outside. It is fun people watching. I also find Art Hill in Forest Park to be so beautiful. I ran through there during winter a few years ago and the fountains had frozen. It was a different type of beautiful that helped me to appreciate winter in a new way I had never before. CS: What's the best lesson distance running has taught you?  KH: Distance running has taught me so much about myself. I love running because it has so many parallels with life. It can be hard and there are times you want to give up. Sometimes your surroundings won’t be the most beautiful, or you’ll have to run a lot in the dark during the winter, or you come up on a monstrous hill you dread climbing. But if you want to get to the end and reach your goals, you have to find ways to cope and keep going anyway. I follow an ultramarathoner named Courtney Dauwalter (if you haven’t heard of her, look her up!) and she calls this “the pain cave.” While I don’t necessarily want to be in pain when running, I do relate to this feeling of isolation with running and in life when things get tough. But when you get over those mental and physical humps, you hit a new phase where you appreciate all the little things you hadn’t noticed before. While it may be hard when I’m in it, I always feel more alive at the end of a long run than I did at the start. It’s always worth the strife for the end, to feel completely exhausted but so flipping proud of myself for doing it. So, I guess in a word, running has taught me grit.   CS: Do you have any long term goals with running?  KH: I do eventually want to tackle the marathon distance or possibly do ultras down the line. Right now, I’m just enjoying runner faster, feeling myself get stronger, and avoiding getting that dang runner’s knee again! CS: Do you prefer to run alone or with friends?  KH: I usually run alone because it’s a way for me to release stress and tune out the world. I work at the Public Defenders, so work can be demanding sometimes, not just in work-load but its emotionally draining and depressing work. I like to take some time for myself, turn my mind off, and just go. CS: What's your go to playlist to listen to when you are running? KH: I really try to keep my running playlist fresh because a good playlist keeps me motivated to keep running. My playlist is usually very diverse in genre, so I don’t really have a go to song. Lately, I’ve been listening to Ariana Grande (the queen of pop), or Dinosaur Jr. (some grungy, 90s punk). I am a walking contradiction. CS: You recently ran a half marathon PR. Can you tell us more about that experience.  KH: Well, PRing was honestly a huge shock for me. I had no intentions of doing so when I went into the race, but just told myself to go for negative splits and see how I was feeling half way through. I got to mile 6 or so, and thought, “Well, I feel great and my heart rate is low, so let’s just go.” The faster I ran, the happier I became and the more I just wanted to keep going with it. I completely shocked myself with that outcome and feel like my consistency with my training leading up to that point is why I was able to really go for it. It was an amazing experience—I felt like I could fly. CS: If you could train anywhere in the world, where would that be? KH: I recently learned how a lot of Olympic runners go run at high altitude to get better at running—something to do with red blood cells and oxygen levels. I would like to do this in hopes of returning to altitude as Superwoman or the Incredible Hulk, or something cool.   *Spewak Training coaches are accepting new clients. Please feel free to reach out to us contact@spewaktraining.com to learn more about our training services.*