Interview with Kim Smith
by Stuart Calderwood

Kim Smith at the 2007 NYRR New York Mini.
Photo by: Ed Haas
New York Road Runners

Kim Smith, 25, who is from New Zealand and was a four-time NCAA champion while running for Providence College in Rhode Island, raced twice in New York City on consecutive weekends in June, over different surfaces and distances: 5000 meters on the track in the Reebok Grand Prix at Icahn Stadium, and then the NYRR New York Mini 10K on the road in Central Park. She finished second both times, to two African-born world record-holders, with two very determined and gutty performances in oppressive heat and humidity that slowed many other world-class runners to sub-par races. FastWomen.com talked with the unfailingly good-natured and self-deprecating Smith two days before her Central Park debut.

Fast-Women.com: This is your first time here, and there’s a great field of world-class women. Do you treat a big road race as seriously as a big track meet, or is there less pressure on this?
Kim Smith: I don’t get as nervous before road races as I do before track or cross country. Those still seem more serious. I wish I did feel as nervous before road races. I probably should—the only other 10K I’ve done on the road was at the World’s Greatest 10K in Puerto Rico, and I collapsed about 10 meters from the finish line. [Laughs].

FW: You did?!
KS: Yeah. I’d just gotten there from the Northeast, and I went from freezing cold to, like, 85 degrees and really humid. I got to about 20 meters from the end and I fell down, then I tried to get up—fell down again, tried to get up…. I can’t remember some of it—I must have been delirious. Finally they just carried me off. It must have looked pretty funny.

FW: Funny?! That’s serious heat exhaustion! What place were you in when this happened?
KS: I was doing okay—it was a strong field; maybe top five? I remember toward the end I saw Isabella Ochichi, and I thought maybe I could get past her, and I pushed a little harder and I caught up—and I guess that put me over the edge. It was just so hot.

FW: You’re one of a select few now—people who’ve collapsed just before the line.
KS: Ray Treacy’s my coach, and his brother John Treacy [the 1984 Olympic marathon silver medalist] has collapsed a few times; it took him a long time to recover. It took me a long time, too, after that race.

FW: Well, for the 10K it’s supposed to be in the 70s, with high humidity and maybe light rain.
KS: I should be fine now; I’ve been training in Providence, and the weather’s pretty much the same there—and I raced here last weekend [at the Reebok Games] and that was really hot.

FW: You actually seemed to hold up better than most people in the heat that day. I think three or four distance runners were carted off after those races, but you certainly weren’t.
KS: My coach told me that I’m in the best shape I’ve been in, and we were going to go for a fast time—something under 15 minutes. But then we saw the weather, and he said, “Just go for second [to Olympic gold medalist Tirunesh Dibaba].” Afterward, he said, “You can take 30 seconds off your time for the weather.”

FW: So, you ran 15:15, that’s…14:45?
KS: [Laughing]: Yeah, I’ll take that.

FW: You have the New Zealand indoor and outdoor records for 5000 meters, but I noticed that your indoor time [14:50] is six seconds faster. Why are you the Eamonn Coghlan of women’s running?
KS: I’m kind of a bouncy runner [laughs], and I seem to sort of bounce off the indoor tracks. When I run indoors, I just feel really good. I ran my 14:50 at Boston University—the banked turns are steep there; it’s a really fast indoor track—and it just felt easy. My 3000-meter PB [personal best] is much better indoors, too—it’s 8:37, and I’ve only run 8:46 outdoors.

FW: You may be the only person on earth who wishes there was an indoor 10K.
KS: I do say that! People think I’m crazy, though.

FW: People don’t like laps—they think running laps makes a race harder.
KS: I like getting the splits. And the banked turns. And there’s no wind to worry about. I ran a mile indoors in college once, in the middle of a training week, in 4:30—I don’t think I could’ve done that outdoors then. It just felt easier indoors.

FW: I wonder if some scientific study could pinpoint why you run better indoors.
KS: Yeah, I wish indoors was a more important season.

FW: We need the Indoor Olympic Games.
KS: That’s what I say. It’s my favorite season by far. And you know, there are no indoor tracks in New Zealand; I’d never even seen one until I came here [to run for Providence College]. The first time I ran on the BU indoor track, I kept falling off into the infield. I’d never run on banked turns before.

FW: You’ve said that you prefer the 10,000 to the 5000, so of course people think about you moving up to the marathon. Do you have a plan to do that yet?
KS: Maybe just after Beijing. I’ll concentrate on track until then.

FW: Well, you’re young, and you’re still improving at the short races; you should take your time.
KS: The guys do seem to be starting to run marathons younger now, though.

FW: Ryan Hall being an obvious example.
KS: I can see myself competing better against the Africans in the marathon. I look at what Deena [Kastor] has done, Paula [Radcliffe]…Benita Johnson had that great race [third in 2:22:36] in the [LaSalle Bank] Chicago Marathon…and then you watch Paula in the 10,000 in Helsinki [at the 2005 World Track & Field Championships]—she was with the leaders with a lap to go, and then nine people passed her.

FW: And she ran a 72, which isn’t a bad last lap for a 10,000, 4:48 mile pace…
KS: …and Dibaba ran a 58! I feel like if I improve, maybe I could be there for 24 laps, but then that 25th lap…I can’t even run a 58 for a 400 by itself, so that’s not going to happen. I remember sitting in the stands in Helsinki with Meb Keflezighi during the women’s 5000, and they finished in 58 again, and he said, ‘I don’t think I could do that!’

FW: He was glad he’d moved up to the marathon.
KS: I mean, he’s an amazing runner, and for him to say that…I just think I’d have a better chance of competing in the marathon.

FW: You mentioned Benita Johnson; she’ll be racing here tomorrow. How real is the Australia–New Zealand rivalry?
KS: It’s a big sporting rivalry in things like rugby; we love to beat them in those games…

FW: …but for the runners, just friendly, not a “bitter” rivalry?
KS: Yes, it’s friendly. When I see Benita running well, it helps my confidence; she’s someone who trains close to what I do. She’s an amazing runner, and it’s definitely good to see her doing so well—it’s inspiring. When she had that great race in Chicago, it made me want to run a marathon.

FW: There’s a strong tradition in New Zealand women’s distance running: Lorraine Moller, Allison Roe, Ann Audain, Kim Smith…it’s a small country, and I might be corrected on this, but I can’t think of a world-class New Zealand woman in any track events except the distances. Do you have any theory on why that is?
KS: I don’t really know! [Laughs].

FW: Maybe the countryside? It’s a nice place to run?
KS: [still laughing in mock chagrin at knowing so little about New Zealand]: Yeah, maybe…our sprinters are pretty terrible.

FW: Australia had Cathy Freeman [2000 Sydney Olympic 400-meter gold medalist]…
KS: Yeah, that was unusual.

FW: I don’t think I’ve ever been as nervous for anyone before a race as I was for her in Sydney.
KS: Yeah, what if she’d lost? I think it’s going to be like that for Liu Xiang [of China, the defending Olympic 110-meter hurdles champion].

FW: But he won at Athens already!
KS: It’s in his home country this time.

FW: Come on…he already has a gold medal and the world record.
KS: [Very convincing]: His home country. Imagine all those billions of people watching. He’s got to get it done.

FW: Yeah, you’re probably right. Doesn’t seem fair, though.
KS: Poor guy.

Postscript: Kim Smith outkicked a close group of top women, including Benita Johnson and two-time defending ING New York Marathon winner Jelena Prokopcuka, near the end of the NYRR New York Mini 10K to take second behind Lornah Kiplagat of the Netherlands in 32:18. She never looked nervous.

Interview conducted on June 8, 2007, and posted on June 19, 2007.

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