Rachel, tell us a thing or two about a thing or two about yourself...
My name is Rachel and I’m originally from Gainesville, Virginia. I went from living in VA to Pennsylvania, to Colorado, to Oregon and finally ended up back in Virginia last November. I always thought I’d end up living out west and I guess for a time I did, but it turns out my heart just belongs on the east coast!!
I’ve been running since I was a kid, but I wouldn’t consider myself a “competitive runner” until my high school years. I never took running very seriously-I just liked running fast, not training to run fast. Today, I am on a professional team located in Blacksburg, called SOVA. Our team is coached by Ben Thomas and was established only a few months ago, when my teammates and I relocated to Southern VA from Oregon. It was quite the move, especially since we drove, but I was beyond ecstatic to return to the homeland.
What’s your relationship with running these days?
I can confidently say I have a much healthier relationship with running now, than I have had the last few years. I ended college in 2022 with a pretty detrimental injury that essentially derailed my running career from 2020 until last summer. I competed in college on an injured heel and was pretty much in denial about the severity of it, (despite the fact that I could not walk without pain let alone run, for years.) To simplify how long of a story this actually is, I opted to get surgery last August and basically started my “professional running journey” completely from scratch. By the time I decided to do that, I absolutely despised running and everything that had to do with the sport, mostly just because I associated it with so much pain. Accepting the fact that I needed to take a step back from running was really tough but in the end, I’m glad I realized the relationship was super toxic and a restart was necessary.
Dream post-race meal
Texas De Brazil. Literally just anything and everything there. And a Chick-fil-a lemon frosty :P
Dream running partner (dead or alive)
It’s going to sound cheesy, but literally any of my closest friends, my family members or my boyfriend. I was so injured for so long, for years I missed out on the simple joy of just running with the people I love to be with. So if I could force all of those people to go for an easy hour run with me and just chat the entire time, I would.
Go to Greece! My mom lived there for some time before I was born and I would just absolutely love to share some of her experiences. I’ve heard amazing things about the food, the people and obviously the views/places to explore. Sounds ideal.
Dream running achievement
I think any athlete would say their dream goal is to make the Olympics. That’s like the epitome of athletic achievement. But, baby steps. My more-within-reach-goal for the moment would be to make the Olympic trials and then the final at the trials. I feel I owe it to myself to at least dream that big!
Dream running location
There’s a single track/dirt run location outside of Boulder, called Doudy Draw. I wanna say it’s nearly 3 miles into the run, where there’s this long climb and a plateau at the top of it. The plateau is my absolute favorite place to run. It’s maybe only 400 meters long but it’s just covered in wispy grass and sits perfectly between all of the mountains around. When you’re reaching the top, all you see is the tall grass and blue skies above. It’s so peaceful and in the best way, I feel so alone when I’m up there. Truly unreal.
Dream collab for Bandit
Coach. Hear me out. I’m nothing if not a huge purse girly, and Coach is just my brand for that. I’ve got a number of Coach hand-me-down bags/clothes and pieces I’ve collected and I just find everything to be so timeless. Give me one cheugy, matching athleisure Coach x Bandit running set… it would be absolutely awful but also way too good at the same time.
Favorite running playlist
Can’t lie. I have my own playlist titled, “it’s ab me.” I mean when I’m running…it is. (Don’t even look it up, it’ll be on private mode forever.)
