Interview with Carly Graytock
by Kim Jaick

Carly Graytock on her way to an 11th-place finish at the 2005 USA 20K Championships. (Photo by Alison Wade/New York Road Runners)

Carly Graytock has come a long way from her mornings of running the Boston streets to get to work. One of the original members of the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project women’s team, based in Rochester Hills, Michigan, Graytock had a marathon PR of 2:47:17 when she joined the team in October 2003. But in April she dropped it to 2:44:02, en route to finishing as the third American woman at the Boston Marathon. The finish came on the heels of a near career-ending illness that halted Graytock’s run in last year’s U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials and put her in the hospital and on bed rest for six weeks. Shortly after the Trials, Graytock, who turns 27 on October 6, was diagnosed with ulcers in her stomach and a blood clot in her calf that had broken apart and had moved to her lungs. So while her teammates were out training, Graytock found herself fighting her way back from the possibility of having to give up running professionally and move back to Boston to pursue her other love, working in a science laboratory.

After cross training and building up her mileage slowly, the Bucknell University alumna ended 2004 with a half-marathon PR and a win at the Dallas White Rock Half-Marathon (1:16:42) before rolling her comeback into her biggest marathon training session to date. Running isn’t everything to Graytock, however, as she’s also pursuing her love of science by working part-time at a lab where her employers allow her to schedule her hours around her training. On October 2, Graytock took fifth in the Twins Cities Marathon 10-miler and will now begin preparing for the upcoming USATF Club Cross Country Championships with her teammates.

Fast-Women: How were you chosen to be one of the first female members of the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project and what made you decide to quit your job and join them?
Carly Graytock: I had contacted Kevin and Keith by e-mail earlier in 2003. Right after they signed the deal with Brooks, I got an e-mail back from Kevin. He invited me to come out for a visit in July 2003. Before they even started the women’s team, I had seen the progress they had with the men over the years. As I was running more mileage, I knew the marathon was going to be my best event, so it made sense to look at the program when they started a women’s team, because I had been talking with Kevin and Keith about a high-mileage group. At the time I was visiting, the only person here for the women was Monica Hostetler [no longer a team member] and we ran together a few times and got along well. I knew I had nothing to lose by moving out here and giving it a shot.

FW: What was it like moving back into a college-like setting where you live with other women on the team?
CG: It was nice to have roommates who were runners. It wasn’t a big adjustment. I had been living with non-runners in Boston. Now I live with Jackie Rzepecki in an apartment that’s two miles from the [women's] house.

FW: There have been several women who have come and gone since you’ve been on the team. Have you had to change training partners a lot and what has that been like?
CG: Monica left late last fall and Leigh [Daniel] in the spring, but the other two original women, Jackie and Melissa [White] are still here. We’ve had a full year with recruiting and four to five new people, so there have been new training partners, which has worked out well. Since coming back from Boston, I’ve been training with Dot McMahan. We have the same training schedule and we’re pretty much in the same shape.

FW: Right now there’s just eight of you listed on the team web site, and twice as many men. Will there be more women coming in?
CG: We’re always looking to bring more women in.

FW: What’s your typical day like with the Hansons?
CG: We meet at 7:30 a.m. to do our longer run, but on workout days we meet at 8:00 a.m. at one of three places. I do the bulk of my running in the morning. After my morning run, I usually do my core and strengthening exercises, then I go to work around 11:00 a.m. and put in five hours at a lab. After that, I do my second run, if I have one that day. I try to get to bed really early, so I’m kind of boring, but it’s a lifestyle I’m comfortable with right now.

FW: When did you first become ill and what were your health issues?
CG: There were a few things. In the winter of 2003, when I started getting ready for the Trials, I had stomach problems and they were becoming progressively worse. I had a hard time recovering from workouts and getting accustomed to the fatigue from marathon training. I was just tired all the time. The Gate River Run [in Jacksonville, Florida] leading up to the Trials didn’t go well, but I thought it was a dietary thing and I needed to be mindful of what I needed to eat the night before the race.

At the Trials I felt good the first several miles, but by mile 8, my stomach started to hurt. I took a pit stop and then tried to stick it out as long as I could, but at 18 I decided I didn’t want to do anything that would be [dangerous] to my health and decided to stop, which was really hard to do because I’ve never dropped out of a race before.

I went home to Pennsylvania the next week and had some tests done and found out that I had ulcers, and that was what was causing the stomach problems. A week later, I went back to Michigan and started running again, but I was having calf pain and trouble breathing. At the end of April 2004, I found out I had a blood clot in my right calf. I had a CT scan done to make sure there weren’t any in my lungs and the CT showed there were several clots lining the outside of my lungs. I had had two massages done on my calf before I knew it was a clot, and I think the massages were what broke some of it off. I was in the hospital for five days and then had a week of bed rest.

FW: How long was the recovery, what did you do to get healthy, and how did you get yourself back into running?
CG: I didn’t run for six weeks, but I was told several different things when I was leaving the hospital. I heard it would be anywhere from a month to six months. At five weeks, they sent me to get a stress test, and if my lungs were clear, I would be okay to exercise. I was given the go-ahead, and for the first week, I just swam and biked. Then I gradually built up my mileage from the middle of June until the end of July, before I could do any real training. While I was building up my mileage, I continued to cross train — usually swimming, aqua jogging, or doing the elliptical.

FW: After the illness, did you think you would be able to run again? What kept you motivated?
CG: I was told there was a possibility that I might not be able to run or not be competitive anymore. When I got out of the hospital, I looked at the worst case scenario of not being able to run and thought I would make plans for moving back to Boston if I had to. But on the flip side, I decided I had to at least try running again and if it didn’t work out, then it wasn’t meant to be. Living with competitive athletes kept me motivated. I’d see everyone training and racing well. I also had a gut feeling that I was going to be able to race again, that this wasn’t going to be the end of it.

FW: What were the first few races back like and when did you realize that your running was going to be okay?
CG: They were challenging. The very first one was a marathon relay. I ran a five mile leg that went better than I expected. The next one was the Crim 10-Miler and that was hard. I felt that at that point the best I could get out of it was a tempo, but I was appreciative of the fact that I could be racing. [She finished 15th in 1:01:53.] Whenever things got tough, I kept reminding myself to be appreciative that I was running. That got me over the hump of the first few races. At the end of September, 2004 I ran the Toronto Half with three of the girls. It didn’t go great [she finished second in 1:19:36], but after that I realized that I was starting to get stronger in workouts and I was starting to feel like myself again. The next few races I was actually running better than I had before I got sick, and by the end I ran a PR in the half-marathon. So I went from not being sure if I would be able to run, to a PR, so it was not as bad as we had initially thought, and I realized I could get more out of running.

FW: When did you and the Hansons decide you would be doing Boston?
CG: Sometime in early October [2004] we sat down and mapped out what I was going to do the rest of the fall. They didn’t want a marathon in the fall, so we thought about doing Boston in the spring. Because I knew the course from having trained on it and I was getting antsy to do a marathon, Boston became an obvious choice. I came back from Christmas break and started training for the spring.

FW: Your online log at hansons-running.com says that you got up over 110 miles per week. Had you ever run that much before and what was the experience like?
CG: Before moving out here, I was training for Grandma’s Marathon [where she ran 2:47:17 in 2003 to qualify for the US Olympic Trials] and two to three weeks were over 100. But I had never done as many consecutive weeks as I had before Boston. That, on top of the intensity, surprised me at how well I could handle it. I never felt broken down or overly flat.

FW: What types of workouts did you do that you think were key?
CG: I think both the mileage and workouts are going to help you as long as you’re smart with your training. I was doing workouts slightly faster than marathon pace and once you get used to it, marathon pace feels easy. Because I don’t have much leg speed, I tend to get my strength out of tempos.

FW: What were your goals going into Boston?
CG: I was hoping to run between 2:40 and 2:42. Since I had run on the Boston course and had watched it in the past, I knew that there were a number of factors that could affect you such as a headwind and the fact that it starts at noon and it could be warm. I was going to be happy with a PR of any kind, but I just knew that if the factors were right and I was on pace, that I was capable of running a significant PR. A week or two before, I started thinking place-wise I wanted to be in the top 15.

FW: After living and training in Boston, what was the experience like racing the marathon?
CG: I had a good time running that race. They started the elite women 25 minutes before the men. It got strung out back where I was running, but at two miles I caught Caroline Annis and ran with her for the next 17 miles. I was prepared to run by myself, so meeting up with her was a bonus. Because I had done so many runs on the course, I knew what to expect, so there were no surprises around any corner. It was cool to see familiar faces along the course.

FW: Since Boston you’ve gone on to race the Utica Boilermaker and the New Haven 20K. Where you happy with your performances in each?
CG: My first race back was the Standard Federal Reed’s Lake 10K, [during which I] was a little rusty, but Utica went better [she was 14th in 54:50] and things were starting to come around. At New Haven [where the USA 20K Championships were held], I was disappointed because I was hoping to finish in the top-10 and had wanted to run a minute to a minute and a half faster. I was one spot off making the world half marathon team, so that was a bit frustrating, but I left nothing out there. [Graytock finished 11th in 1:13:41.]

FW: Why have you decided not to run another marathon this year?
CG: Coming off Boston, I wanted to run a fall marathon and thought about Twin Cities because it’s the [USA] Championship. I was hoping I could come back in the fall on a faster course and run faster. But when I sat down with Kevin and Keith we looked at the big picture and they wanted me to do more of a speed segment, which I ultimately agreed with after giving it some thought. As a long-term thing, I want to do Boston next year because there’s a big group of us doing it. Now that I have raced on the course I’ll know how to attack it better this time around.

FW: What will be your racing schedule for the rest of the year?
CG: I am the alternate for the World Half, so for the next two weeks I have to be ready to go. I’ll be doing the [USATF] Club Cross Country Nationals and I'll finish off the segment with the Dallas White Rock Half-Marathon. Then I’ll take some down time before getting ready for Boston next spring. [Note: Graytock added the Twin Cities 10-miler to her schedule after this interview was conducted.]

FW: At this point, do you see yourself being with the team through the next Olympics or are you just taking things one year at a time?
CG: Right now I’m taking it one year at a time, but the big picture is to look at getting back to the Trials. I have to think big, but take things one step at a time as well. I’m becoming good at listening to my body, and if I have a setback, I know how to deal with it. But I definitely want to make it to the 2008 Trials. But it also has to work out for Kevin and Keith and fitting in well with the team. There’s a lot of factors that come with going and staying, but hopefully I’ll continue to improve each year.

FW: Outside of running you have a very good science background and your bio on hansons-running.com says you can splice an atom with your bare hands. Have you been able to pursue that career while being on the team?
CG: I had to put something down [on the bio]. When I was moving out here, I was told that they preferred us not to work more than part-time because of the training, but I wanted to try as hard as I could to find a job in my field. I like the laboratory, hands-on work and wanted to keep building my resume because I think I’ll eventually go back to full-time lab work. I was fortunate to find a part-time lab position at a company that’s only about a 10 minute drive from my apartment. I’m not doing exactly the same thing I was doing with my job in Boston, but I’m learning new techniques and moving around in the field. The people I work for have been great about being supportive with my schedule. I try to work 11:00-4:00 [at Oxford Biomedical], but it’s flexible. And I don’t feel like I’m forgetting anything I’ve learned in the lab.

FW: Before Hansons you were doing what many post-collegiate runners do, which was trying to work full-time and train. What advice would you give to other female runners who are doing what you used to do?
CG: I think it’s important to be good with time management, but it can definitely be done. What I did was I used my run as my commute, and if I didn’t run in the evening, I could use the T [public transportation] to get home. Running as my commute saved me a good chunk of time each day. Of course you’re going to have to sacrifice some things, but it is manageable.

FW: Do you think you could go back to that if you were to leave Hansons or would running become more something you would just do for fitness and enjoyment?
CG: If I were to leave I think that the continuation of my competitive running would depend on where I’m at in my life. If I’m still enjoying being competitive I think I will go back to the schedule I kept before I moved.

But it’s going to be a long time before I’m ready to give up competitive running and do it more as recreation, so regardless of where I’m living, I’ll probably still be training at this level for several years.

FW: What type of advice would you give to someone who’s been sidelined for a long time like you were?
CG: I think if you’re experiencing an injury, you need to keep a positive outlook on things and try not to give up if running is something you really want to do. I also think it’s very important to be patient and not rush your body back before it’s ready. It’s hard to be patient when you’ve been out for a long period of time, but it pays off if you’re listening to your body and taking things one step at a time.

FW: So far, what would you say has been the best part of being with the Hansons?
CG: Aside from how I’ve improved in running, it’s the people I’ve met. There are so many people here on the team with the same goals and focus. I’ve made many good friends from training with them day in and day out and sharing similar experiences. In addition to the people on the team, I’ve also met some great people through the local running community here, and through our sponsorship with Brooks. I’ve been fortunate to be a part of such a great support network.

(Interview conducted September 17, 2005, and posted October 5, 2005.)