Interview with Veena Reddy
by Ian Chillag

Veena Reddy competes at the ING New York City Marathon 2004. (Photo by Alison Wade/New York Road Runners)

One of the new faces at the USA Women's 8K Championships in New York March 26 will be 26-year-old Veena Reddy of Philadelphia. She's shown consistent promise at the marathon, but some recent changes in her training have her running the shorter stuff this spring.

Reddy's personal bests include a 2:49:12 for sixth place at the 2004 Ottawa Marathon and a recent 1:18:40 at the Miami Tropical Half-Marathon, good enough for second place. She took second in the 2004 Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach with a 2:53:28. Reddy really began getting noticed when, starting behind the elite pack in the ING New York City Marathon 2004, she was the sixth American woman to cross the line, in 2:49:42.

Reddy ran pretty much every event she could on the track team at the Moses Brown School in Providence, Rhode Island. She took time away from running at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, but joined the track and cross country teams her senior year, and made it to the NCAA Division III Track & Field Championships in the 10,000m. She has a graduate degree in architecture from the University of Pennsylvania, and works as an architect at MGA Partners in Philadelphia. She is a member of the competitive Philadelphia Track Club.

[Full disclosure: Reddy is a friend of mine, and a regular training partner. I joined her for her key workout, a hilly Sunday 18 miler, and then we talked about her running career over coffee in Philadelphia.]

Fast-Women.com: You've run nine marathons, now. And until recently, your training was essentially the same, right?
Veena Reddy: It's always been a little bit different, because I've been going through a variety of different experiences. I've gone from being in college, to graduate school, to being in the professional world, so it's always been a different balancing act. Lately, I've had the opportunity to really change my running, and I'm taking advantage of it. For the marathon, I'd been preparing for it with just a ton of mileage, just miles, day and night.

FW: Tell me about your first marathon.
VR: I'd stopped running after high school, just due to change of environment, college, you know. I wanted to get back into it, because I felt just generally unhealthy. I thought a marathon would be a good goal to set. So I started training with a friend, and he was on the cross country team, so I joined the cross country team, and just quickly escalated [my mileage]. And so I quickly got an overuse injury and had a pretty painful first marathon, in the Ocean State Marathon in Rhode Island. A lot of chafing, a lot of IT band pain. But it was just one of those things when you commit to doing something, and hype it up in your head, and just do it, no matter how stupid it might be. [Laughs.]

FW: What was your time?
VR: 3:40.

FW: You've come down considerably since then, and your time was a lot better in your next marathon, which I think you took a little more seriously?
VR: I continued running through college, then when I started architecture school I didn't do any running; there just wasn't any time. Then in the spring, I met a friend, Elizabeth Seeley, and we started running together. We got along well, and liked spending time together running, running every day in the evenings. We set a goal together, to run the Philadelphia Marathon. And it was just a shock, when the marathon rolled around and I [ran] 2:57. It was a shock. All I wanted to do was improve, and that was a vast improvement.

FW: Did you think, when you started training for Philly, that running would become the important part of your life that it is now?
VR: No. My first passion was academics, and running was something to supplement it…to feel good, and to feel like there was another part of my life. In school, everyone was so focused on the one thing, and it was really beneficial to have some way of letting go. It was just a great balancing thing, and people seemed supportive, and I started feeling better about myself. I think it's the way most runners feel about running.

FW: Speaking of support, I know your family didn't really 'get it' at first, and now they're sort of coming around. Can you talk about the process of helping your family understand what this means to you?
VR: I mean, I'm so appreciative of the way my family is coming around. I think it's difficult for people who haven't been exposed to athletics as an important part of life — I think it was difficult for them to understand why I might want to expend energy at this. It was, 'This is dangerous, this is stupid.' I think for people that don't run, a marathon seems like an extremely arduous, painful, difficult task, and your mother of all people, doesn't think you should do anything like that. My mother was always concerned with my health, and secondly, it was a problem that this was taking away from the energy I was expending professionally.

I think the first time I saw some bit of excitement, they came to see me at the Chicago Marathon in 2002, and they saw that I was comfortable, and happy. And I finished pretty well [2:50:31, 38th place], and they started to see that I wasn't just any ordinary runner out there. They saw I could do something a little bit better. Still, they wanted me to quit. But, unfortunately I'm not getting over it. [Laughs.]

FW: Let's walk through various stages of your career. You were on the track team in high school.
VR: I was on the track team, and the tennis team. I was much more a tennis player than a runner.

FW: And you were pretty versatile on the track team. Tell us about that.
VR: We had a very small, bad team. But we had a great track, so we had lots of good competitors come in. I went to prep school, Moses Brown School, in Providence, Rhode Island. I ran the 3,000, the 1,500, the 800, and the 4 x 400. And I threw the shot. When they let me, I threw the discus. But they wouldn't let me run anything under 400, that would just be pure embarrassment. Oh, I think I ran the low hurdles once. I scored a lot of points for the team. [Laughs.]

FW: So in college, you ran your first marathon. Did you compete further in cross country and track?
VR: Yeah, for that last year, the coaches were kind of like, 'Where have you been?' And I was scoring points for the team, cross country, and running fairly well. I was placing second or third in most of the races, and we were running against colleges like Williams and Amherst. I was getting stronger, and then when track rolled around, I ran the 5K and 10K. I made DIII Nationals in the 10K, but I didn't go, because I had to go to a graduation party. [Laughs.]

FW: After college, you went to the School of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. You mentioned that you ran that 2:57 in the Philadelphia Marathon. What happened next?
VR: Elizabeth and I had been running about 60 miles a week, leading up to the 2:57. After Philly, we started doubling, which of course increased the mileage. Then we ran Boston, which is one of those days I'll always remember. I ran a 2:56 there, which I was really happy with, and I came in top 30. I was an unknown with a race number of 4,000, you know, running up through the swarms of Boston.

FW: Can you talk about a big breakthrough race or run between then and now?
VR: It was the National Capital Marathon in Ottawa in 2004. I finally felt ready, prepared. When I was in school, it was impossible to have consistent training and sleep. I always felt deprived, running on empty. School was the priority, and the runs were snuck in between studio sessions. Now I was out of school, and for Ottawa, I had the opportunity to do some consistent training.

I'd run the Shamrock Marathon in Virginia, and I came in second there, and it boosted my confidence, and I felt I could do more. Then in Ottawa, I ran the 2:49, and I really felt I could do more. Then I got motivated for the summer, and that's when I started with the Philly Track Club. I was a little too motivated — one week I ran about 30 miles too many, and I ended up with a metatarsal stress fracture. I was running around 120 miles a week. High mileage, and high speeds, and it was too much for my bones.

FW: That summer, you went back and forth. You'd heal, and then the fracture would show up again. This really put a kink in your training for New York.
VR: Yeah, I was devastated. I felt like I was making significant progress. I was starting to enjoy the runner lifestyle, and I was excited about the way I was spending my days. Then the stress fracture happened on my road to the ING New York City Marathon, where I'd wanted to make a vast improvement. I'd been steady, right around 2:50, and I was feeling like I was headed for a breakthrough. Instead, I ended up on the elliptical machine and in the pool and on the stationary bike for two months, which was not where I wanted to be. It was horrible.

FW: You decided to run New York anyway. Tell us about that race.
VR: Well, I was able to get in a month of training, and I got fit pretty quickly. I had a little atrophy in my calves, but that was okay. My doctor said I had the go-ahead, and then I got pretty bad bursitis around my knee about two weeks before the race. So everything was going wrong. I just wanted to finish the race, and not break anything [laughs], and have the New York experience. It was amazing. I looked to the right at the start, and saw all the elite men, and it was so beautiful, just stunning. Just like every race that I run, when I start, I forget my body and just go. I just did that, you know, lived off the crowd and picked people off. I came through the half around 1:22:30 and I was scared, I didn't understand how I could be in shape to do that. But I kept going and I felt great, and I finished the marathon pretty smoothly [2:49:42, 23rd place]. It was a little rough, but the last few miles are always a little rough. But especially after the trouble I'd had in the three months leading up to it, I felt like I could do this so much better. It helped me figure out what I wanted to do next.

FW: You won what was sort of 'the race within the race.' You were the first woman who didn't start with the separate elite women's start. Why didn't you start with the elites?
VR: I don't know. I did put in a request, but I didn't push it, because I had this injury, I didn't know if I could even run. So what was the point of getting an elite number, when I certainly didn't plan on running anything worthy of an elite time? So I just assumed the time standard for the elite start was higher, and I think that it was.

FW: After New York, I've been happy to see that you've made some big changes in your training. Rather than just running as many miles as you can, now you have a real plan, and you're taking better care of yourself. Talk about how things changed after the New York race.
VR: I got in contact with David Monti, the [professional athlete] coordinator for the ING New York City Marathon. He made some suggestions, said I should maybe run some shorter races, and hooked me up with a coach, Bob Gordon. Bob understood my larger goals, which were in the marathon, and understood I was willing to do a lot to get there. He saw my potential, but it was clear I needed to make a lot of changes.

Before, I was running 10 miles in the morning. After work, a long day of work, I'd go out on my own or with the track club, and that was usually pretty quick. I was always pushing myself and never resting — working and not sleeping much. Now I've reduced my mileage, but the quality is better. I'm geared more towards races, and we've planned some shorter races. So I have some mini-goals, rather than this obsession with running marathons. You can only do so many marathons. It just feels different now, and my lifestyle has changed as well.

FW: You've also been hitting the track, which you weren't doing before at all.
VR: Yeah, I'm kind of just learning the process of turning my legs over. I'm good at pace, sticking with a pace, but it's difficult for me to get speed. So I'm running 10 x 1,000s, 8 x 1,600s, 2 x 5000s, that kind of thing, once a week.

FW: What's the workout or run that's most important to you right now?
VR: My Sunday long run. It's the culmination of the week. I've been doing it for the last month or so. It's a challenging, hilly course, and I run it with a group that runs a pace I can do, but just barely. I use it as a gauge of my strength. It's a run I rest for. I take Saturday and I rest. I don't go out anymore! [Laughs.] I stay home, and I eat a good dinner, and get excited to see what I can do on Sunday, the way some runners might prepare for a race. It's the highlight of my week's running.

FW: You mentioned you're taking your Saturday nights off, and resting. I know that you're someone who has enjoyed late nights out on the town in the past. Recently you've made a new commitment to running, and while you were running a lot of miles before, nowadays you've given yourself over to it. I think for a lot of runners like yourself, who have a great deal of talent, one of the big challenges is making the leap where you decide to let 'runner' be your identity.
VR: I'm frightened a lot by the change. Because, for me, so much revolves around trying to play five different roles at one time, and thriving off of that, but never feeling like I can fully perform at any of those roles. It's kind of a safety, a handicap, in some ways, not to be fully invested, because you don't have to be 100%. If you've been out late the night before, or working, you have an excuse not to run well or race well the next day. The way I'd race before, I'd just show up and say, 'It doesn't matter how I run.' I'd say, "Oh, I was out last night until 3:00 a.m., and showed up unprepared, my time's pretty good considering that.' It's a nice way of giving yourself an excuse. Now, for the first time, I'm taking advantage of what I have, to see how far I can go.

I've always been afraid of making a commitment, because it is an identity shift. But I realize now I only have to commit to it for as long as I enjoy it and love it. I am an architect, and a social person, and it's not like I can't get any of the things I'm putting aside at the moment back later. It's worth it, too, and I feel like it's my time right now. I feel like 'Why not?'

FW: You have your architect life and your running life… I wonder if the things you think about as an architect influence your running, or vice versa?
VR: Yes, definitely. I think there's a certain invisibility that you can attain as a runner, and a lightness and a velocity that allows you to experience space in a different way. I try to take athleticism and movement into the things I design. Another thing is I feel like there's no neighborhood unworthy of design. As runners we discover the most beautiful things in the strangest places. We're not afraid to go into neighborhoods with our running shoes on, which architects are sometimes afraid to go into. So I think I have a vantage point that will always influence my design, and my love of architecture will always have me seeking new routes and new paths. A building I'm interested in will change the path of my run.

FW: Talk about some of your spring goals.
VR: I don't really have spring goals. My goal is to run a great marathon in the fall, and take a whole chunk of time off. Intermediately, I'm going to run a whole bunch of shorter races, to see my progress in getting my speed. I'll be running the Gate River Run, the 8K in New York, the 25K in Michigan in May. I'm running the Broad Street Run 10 Miler here in Philly, which is my favorite race. I'm going to be racing quite a bit, which is different for me. It'll be interesting, I haven't done a lot of racing other than the marathon. It's my passion — the shorter races will be fun, but I can't imagine they'll replace the feeling of the marathon.

FW: What are you looking forward to about the USA Women's 8k Championships in New York?
VR: It's going to be my first opportunity to see what my recent shift in training has done for me, and I think I'll run fast. The field is great, and it's going to be really inspiring. If I can just keep my wits about me, and not go over my head, and come up with a good challenging pace with my coach and run it, I'll be happy.

FW: You're going to be lining up with some people you've been admiring, runners you've watched on TV, Deena Kastor and others. Now, you're sort of becoming their colleague, or at least part of their field. What's that like?
VR: I don't consider them my colleagues — I'm really looking up to them. They're in a different league. Running, anybody can show up and do it, and that's so fantastic. It's like a dream coming true, when you get the opportunity to run with Olympic athletes next to you, and meet them. To get closer and closer, just because you're willing to make a commitment, it's so exciting. Lining up behind Deena, and Jen Rhines, all these people that run twice as fast as me, it's amazing.

(Interview conducted March 6, 2005, and posted March 10, 2005.)