In 2012, Kerrie Bruxvoort finished second at the Speedgoat 50k. This year, she’s back as the top returning women’s runner and looking to improve. In the following interview, Kerrie talks about how she got into running, what’s urged her on, and how her fitness compares to 2012.
[Click here if you can’t see the video above.]
Kerrie Bruxvoort Pre-2013 Speedgoat 50k Interview Transcript
iRunFar: Bryon Powell of iRunFar here with Kerrie Bruxvoort before the Speedgoat 50k. How are you doing, Kerrie?
Kerrie Bruxvoort: I’m doing good. Thanks, Bryon.
iRF: This is your first video interview here with iRunFar.
Bruxvoort: It is. It is.
iRF: We’d love to take this chance to get to know your background a little bit more. You’ve got two wonderful kids here.
Bruxvoort: Yes, we’ve got the whole family here this time.
iRF: You’re staying busy with them?
Bruxvoort: I do. I do, absolutely, yes.
iRF: What’s your running background or your athletic background?
Bruxvoort: I actually grew up playing soccer. I played soccer my whole life. Then I ran cross country in high school. I mostly ran recreationally through college and played intramural soccer. I just always ran to keep in shape. I kind of got interested in marathons and longer distances as I got a little bit older. Then, after having kids, I decided to hit the trails. That’s where I kind of decided I had a little bit of a niche and I was better at the trails and the steep stuff. I obviously have a love for the outdoors and that kind of played into it too as far as success goes.
iRF: When and where did that happen? When did you start hitting the trails?
Bruxvoort: After having kids, they started preschool and we actually lived in Phoenix for five years, so I would hit Squaw Peak with kids on the back—one child was on my back while the other was in school. So I would climb Squaw Peak with a little extra weight. Then, once they both started preschool, I did it without the kids and I thought, WOW, this is a little bit easier and a lot more fun, and I could go further.
iRF: Then you started running?
Bruxvoort: Then I started running, and I would run laps on Squaw Peak over and over again. I just got really strong on that. Then that played into road or flatter trails as far as speed goes. I just fell in love with it.
iRF: When did you start sort of looking to race competitively at the shorter distances on the trails?
Bruxvoort: Last year, when I entered one of my first races. It was Mesquite Canyon in Phoenix. It was my first ultra. I broke the course record by an hour held by some local women that had lived in Phoenix. We moved back to the Boulder area (Broomfield), and I do a lot of my training there. I just kind of ramped up my training and just had some success early. I just went with it. I love it
iRF: You’ve had some awesome success. I don’t remember the exact stats, but pretty much first or secondplace in every sub-100 mile race you’ve run.
Bruxvoort: Yes, pretty much, yeah… ultras, yeah, I think so. I can’t think exactly, but first or second, yeah. It’s been awesome.
iRF: Last year you ran 5:27 at Golden Gate Dirty Thirty. This year you ran almost the same time but a couple seconds faster.
Bruxvoort: I did. I had a really terrible day. I actually went a little crazy with caffeine that day. I decided… I think, actually, that I read something that you wrote that you took Excedrin in an ultra for the caffeine.
iRF: I did.
Bruxvoort: I had coffee in the morning, and then I had a couple of Excedrin before. I thought that might give me a little something. Then the gels were caffeinated. So by the time I was on the first climb, I was shaking, and I had no power in my legs. I was a mess.
iRF: Save those Excedrin for the 100 miles at mile 50. Two will do you some good.
Bruxvoort: After that, I kind of cut back on caffeine almost completely.
iRF: So you feel like you are in much better fitness?
Bruxvoort: Exactly. Having such a rough day and still having the same time, yeah, that was a good measure of my fitness because I really struggled.
iRF: You just had Western States a couple weeks ago. You had a rough day out there.
Bruxvoort: Yeah, it was rough.
iRF: Were you concentrating on that, I assume, with your training this spring?
Bruxvoort: Yeah, I did two back-to-back 50-milers pretty close together as training for that—Quadrock and Zane Grey. Those are pretty long 50’s to get me in shape for that. Yeah, I’d never run a 100 before, so I was just hoping to get some good 50-mile training in and then just get out there and see what happened. I actually physically felt great; I just had a few little niggles and some injury type things that happened and then my quads, too. Yeah, the quads—people tell you, but you don’t really know until you experience that.
iRF: The second time you’re more prepared for that.
Bruxvoort: I’m going to actually run some downhills if I do it again, for sure.
iRF: What have you done specifically to prepare for Speedgoat?
Bruxvoort: In between? It’s hard when your races are close together because you don’t have a lot of time to taper and then build back up. I actually was really tired after Western—drowsy and sleepy for a couple weeks. But I’ve put in a couple 20-milers and a few repeats on hills on Sanitas. I’m just hoping my fitness from beforehand and from Western can carry me through tomorrow.
iRF: You were secondhere last year. Do you think you can improve on your time and place?
Bruxvoort: Yeah, I can for sure. Last year I was brand new to Salomon and I had just gotten a new pair of shoes—my very first. I struggled a little as they were brand new on the steeper stuff. I didn’t wear a really grippy shoe. I learned my lesson with that. I just think hopefully my fitness level and my experience level is a little bit more now than last year.
iRF: What shoe are you going to go with tomorrow?
Bruxvoort: I have the Fellcross (Salomon). I love them. It’s a little more of a hard-core shoe. They don’t have a rock plate, but they have a nice heavy bottom that has good grip. They’re real flexible and they have a real low drop. That’s what I like to wear.
iRF: Best of luck out there tomorrow.
Bruxvoort: Thank you very much. Thanks, Bryon.
