By JULIE JAG
Sentinel Staff Writer
SANTA CRUZ — It happens at least once a race. A runner passes
Katherine Beiers on her way to the finish line. As she does, she
takes a quick sideways glance at Beiers, you know, just for
curiosity's sake. But the sideways glance turns into a stare,
and a head turn. The runner's pace slows just a bit.
Beiers knows what's coming next.
"I hope you don't mind me asking ...."
That's how they always start it, said Beiers, who gets the
question almost exclusively from women.
"... but, how old are you?"
Beiers doesn't mind the prying. Not too many 73-year-old
grandmothers run marathons. And even fewer run them at her quick
pace.
Last year, at age 72, Beiers won the women's 70-plus age
group at the Boston Marathon when she ran the 26.2 miles in 4
hours, 54 minutes, 52 seconds. She'll return to defend her title
this year, joining 20 other runners from Santa Cruz County,
including her son, in Monday's 110th annual race from Hopkinton,
Mass., to Boston
Beiers has made a career of running for things and winning
them. In 1989 she ran for the Santa Cruz City Council and was
elected. She also came out on top when she ran for mayor of
Santa Cruz in 1994 and 1999. Oh, and outside the political realm
she's collected numerous other age-group awards with her fleet
feet.
In fact, two weeks ago she won her age group in a foot race
arguably more arduous than any marathon — the American River
50-mile Endurance Run from Sacramento to Auburn. That trail race
took her more than 12 hours to complete, and Beiers expects it
may have a negative effect on her ability to defend her Boston
title. Still, she had to give it a shot.
"It's always fun," Beiers said of winning her age group in a
race. Then, she grinned slyly and said, "It's more fun to beat
the younger ones."
But Beiers wasn't always able to leap large sections of
pavement in a single bound. In her younger days — her 40s — she
struggled with completing a single mile.
Beiers was 48 and working as a librarian at UC Santa Cruz
when she took up running to lose weight. Jogging the UCSC track
during her lunch breaks, it took her three months to work up to
running an entire mile. Getting to two miles took nearly twice
as long.
Then someone suggested she try trail running, and suddenly
Beiers started eating up the miles. She ran the Napa Valley
Marathon, her first of approximately 25 marathons and 10 ultra
marathons, at age 50.
She enjoyed the sport then, but she didn't expect to still be
chugging along 23 years later. In fact, she remembers thinking
that specifically after being passed at the finish of the Aptos
Women's 5-miler later that year. When the woman ran by, she told
Beiers not to worry because she was going to win the 60-69 age
group, leaving Beiers as the champ in the 50-59 division.
"I thought, 'She's running in her 60s? You mean I'm going to
have to run for another 10 years? I couldn't imagine it," Beiers
said.
She almost didn't make it out of her 50s. Beiers' entree into
the political realm when she was 57 nearly knocked her off her
feet. With her election to the city council in 1989 came a
myriad of late meetings, cocktail parties and projects that kept
her reeling for nine years.
"I hardly ran at all," Beiers recalled. "The best thing that
happened was my kids gave me a running clinic for Christmas.
That put me back on track."
Or rather, on trail. Beiers does the majority of her running
in local parks like The Forest of Nisene Marks and Fall Creek
and Wilder Ranch state parks. She knows them pretty well since
some of her "training" runs take her 70-plus-year-old legs on
jaunts of more than 30 miles. In training for the American River
run earlier this year, she recalled a seven-hour, 32-mile run in
which she trudged through rain, mud and ankle-deep snow.
Sue Dunn, a Santa Cruz runner who will be racing in her first
Boston Marathon this year, has tagged along with Beiers on a few
training runs. Dunn said she is impressed that a 73-year-old
woman can run hills with Beiers' vigor.
"She just keeps on going," said Dunn, noting they've had to
cross creeks and scramble over fences. "My mother-in-law is the
same age, and I can't imagine her doing that."
But Beiers isn't the bionic woman. She has a few scars to
show for her 25 years of running. She has been bitten by a dog,
has fallen more times than she can count and has torn the
meniscus in both knees — most recently her right in 2004. She
has recovered quickly, though. In 2005, a year after undergoing
knee surgery, she notched her win at the Boston Marathon, a
victory she puts on par with winning the mayoral race.
As a whole, Beiers believes more good than bad has come to
her through running. For proof, she need only point to her age
and her agility. Plus, she said, since those first short track
runs 25 years ago, the sport has brought her happiness.
Longtime friend and fellow runner Holly Tyler said the
fountain-of-youth effect running has had on Beiers is
unmistakable. She has the energy and the adventurous attitude of
someone half her age, Tyler said. And, she added, it's been good
for Beiers' figure.
"Running up behind her in an event or seeing her from the
back while she's running," Smith said, "you would never think
she was 73 years old."
That explains why Beiers keeps hearing, "I hope you don't
mind me asking...."
She hopes to keep hearing it for years to come.
"If I'm well," she said, "I'm there."
Contact Julie Jag at
jjag@santacruzsentinel.com.
The Boston Marathon
Monday, April 17, noon
Route: Hopkinton to Boston, 26.2 miles
No. of entries: 20,000
No. of Santa Cruz County entries: 20
Records: Men's: Cosmas Ndeti Kenya, 2:07:15, 1994; Women's:
Margaret Okayo Kenya, 2:20:43, 2002; Men's wheelchair: Ernst Van
Dyk South Africa, 1:18:27, 2004; Women's wheelchair: Jean
Driscoll United States, 1:34:22, 1994.
On the Web:
www.bostonmarathon.org
Local runners: Katherine Beiers, 73, Santa Cruz; John Beiers,
San Carlos S.C. High grad, 46; Mark Berlin, 50, Aptos; Andrew
Campbell, 27, Aptos; Tim Campion, 38, Davenport; Elizabeth
Devitt, 45, Santa Cruz; Debra Dill, 54, Santa Cruz; Sue Dunn,
50, Watsonville; Donna Florio, 57, Scotts Valley; Tom Gill, 50,
Aptos; Greg Hales, 40, Aptos; Vicki Hawkinson, 50, Boulder
Creek; Chris Hosmer, 47, Santa Cruz; Peter Huemer, 38,
Santa Cruz; Ron Kobrine, 69, Aptos; Lynn Olavarri-Schmidt, 49,
Scotts Valley; Alexander Reed-Krase, 23, Santa Cruz; Brian
Schaeffer, 50, Aptos; Kevin Shannon, 47, Santa Cruz; Ron Smith,
57, Aptos; Mark Urlocker, 43, Scotts Valley.
You can find this story online at:
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2006/April/13/sport/stories/01sport.htm
