Keeping Track of... Julia Stamps

By Alison Wade

Above and Below: Julia Stamps competes in her final race for Stanford at the 2000 NCAA Cross Country Championships in Ames, IA. All Photos: New York Road Runners

She started making national headlines as a junior high schooler in Santa Rosa, California. By her senior year at Santa Rosa High School, Julia Stamps was one of the most heralded U.S. high school runners ever. She chose to stay close to home and attend Stanford University, where she quickly became the Cardinal's number one runner. Stamps finished fourth at the 1997 NCAA Cross Country Championships as a freshman, sixth as a sophomore and 14th as a junior. She ran track times of 4:21.41 (1,500m) and 9:16.47 (3,000m), but by her junior year, injuries began to get the best of her. The ultimate blow came in 2001 when Stamps fractured her leg in two places in a skateboarding accident. She did not finish out her two remaining seasons of track eligibility (one indoor, one outdoor) at Stanford. Stamps, now 23, is living in New York, New York where she is works as a sales trader at Morgan Stanley and runs recreationally. We caught up with her one Saturday morning in July as she spoke to us via cell phone while doing her grocery shopping. ("I'm Multi-tasking," she said.)

Fast-Women.com: How did you end up in New York?
Julia Stamps: I moved to New York because I accepted a job here. I decided I'd try something a little bit different than California. I pretty much just decided to up and move and get out of California because I've lived there my whole life. This job came up and as hard as it is to get jobs right now, I figured I should grab it... it seemed interesting.

FW: What exactly is your job?
JS: I'm going to be doing sales trading for Morgan Stanley in institutional equity.

FW: Does it involve long hours?
JS: You know, the hours are going to be long but you work according to when the stock market opens and closes, so your hours are more set than, say, if you're an investment banker... I'm just going through the training right now but it'll probably be about 12 hours a day. I still wake up early though and workout, and then I come home and do another little run. I'm still kind of running here and there, but I was in a really, really bad accident about a year and a half ago...

FW: Yes, can you tell us exactly what happened? There were a variety of stories circulating.
JS: I was on my skateboard and I passed out and shattered my left leg.

FW: You passed out?
JS: Yes. I blacked out.

FW: Do you know why?
JS: It's kind of hard to say. The doctors can't tell if I blacked out when I hit the ground - I had a bump on my head - because I can't really remember any of it. But the torque of caused two compound fractures and then a spiral fracture that shoots down into my ankle, so it was really bad.

FW: Were you an experienced skateboarder?
JS: Yeah, I was just going to class. I had skateboarded a lot.

FW: At the time of the accident, were you running a lot?
JS: No, I was just recovering from a fracture in my sacrum (the large triangular bone at the base of the spine). But I was planning on getting back into running. But [the accident] was the reason I stopped.

FW: At this point do you think there's any chance you would become a competitive runner again?
JS: I don't know, it's hard to say. It's definitely crossed my mind, several times. I absolutely love running. I'm thinking of joining a club, once work kind of slows down a bit. It's just that (job) training takes up so much time. I was a sociology major, so I have a lot to learn, I'm spending a lot of time trying to learn all the information I need to know. Running, yeah, I want to run again. But competing... if it works out. It's hard to say. There are so many things that I want to do. If running falls into place, great. If it doesn't, that's okay also. If it's gonna work out, it's gonna work out. If it's not, it's not. So that's kind of how I'm looking at it right now.

Right now I'm just enjoying running with friends... I'm running a lot. A couple of weeks ago I added up my mileage and said, "Oh my goodness, I just ran 70 miles, without even realizing it." I was in Costa Rica, so I ended up running a lot there.

FW: What were you doing in Costa Rica?
JS: I was surfing. That's what I love [to do].

FW: Looking back on your college career, do you have regrets?
JS: No, I don't. I was blessed, extremely blessed to have coach Vin (Lananna) as my coach. Dena (Evans) was our coach also. I, unfortunately, had gone through several different coaches at Stanford... it was a transitional phase. Dena was my coach, Beth Sullivan was my coach - Beth was amazing, I loved her dearly as a coach. For me personally, I had three different coaches. Coach Lananna was always consistent, he was always there when I was running. He understood everything that I was going through, [he would do] anything he could do to help. I don't know how I would have been treated at a different school, but at Stanford, I was treated really well. I was extremely fortunate to have that.

As far as my college experience, yeah, there were a lot of disappointments. It's pretty obvious, with everything that happened. At the same time, too, my college experience wasn't just running, there were so many different experiences that I had... I would never trade it back for the world, I loved it.

FW: There was an article in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat that mentioned your sacrum fracture and early signs of osteoporosis. The author wrote that Stanford now screens runners for osteoporosis. Was that because of your injury?
JS: I'm not sure. Perhaps my injury brought awareness to the issue. It's not a very good issue at all. Ironically, my parents did an amazing job when I was young of continually [checking my bone density], making sure that I was doing everything I could in order to be healthy. It's just one of those things where I was having problems absorbing the calcium in my bones... I'm hoping they're looking at that as more of an issue now. It's a pretty big issue, a lot of people, if they actually got checked out, would realize that they too had early signs of osteoporosis.

FW: Did the doctors say what could have prevented it, or what you can do now to improve your bone density?
JS: Yeah. I'm taking bone-building drugs. I was put on more estrogen, because that was one of the huge problems that I was having. I didn't have enough estrogen to absorb the calcium... I decreased a lot of my activities. I think the reason I noticed it more than, perhaps, someone else was that I was really hard on my body. I would go run my 10 miles a day, or whatever it was, and then I'd go surfing... Not even thinking about it, I would run a really hard workout and then go surfing, mountain biking or hiking, just because I loved it. I never really thought of that as another workout, but it was, and I was putting a lot of stress on my body.

FW: Looking back now, would you have done anything differently in high school if you could have?
JS: Yeah, I would have. I would have been more on top of the fact that I had to be on estrogen... I would have realized that I didn't have to train as hard as I did. I started running really young. I loved it. I wouldn't change it for the world, at all. But, you know, I want to be healthy. You want to live a long, healthy life. There are so many different ways to look at it. The way that I [view it] now is that I had a fabulous high school career. I had an amazing time in college. Now I'm having a good time just experiencing life and working. Who knows what's going to be in my future. I was able to experience running, now I'm able to experience the work life... I've never really planned on being a runner for the rest of my life. I've just finished up 1/4 of my life, now I get to see what the other 3/4 [will hold].

FW: What kind of advice would you give to the young high school prodigies of today?
JS: That you have a lot of time. Life, in perspective, is short. If you enjoy what you're doing, do it. But if you have an injury, take care of it. Life is full of so many different surprises and just take each surprise and find what's good in it. I think the main thing is if you enjoy running, run. If you don't, don't feel like you have to. That's really the only advice I give. It's a sport. I think people need to realize that it's a sport. I know that sometimes you just [find yourself] in a bubble, and you think that bubble is all about running. But life is absolutely amazing and there are so many experiences out there, it's a matter of looking at the bigger picture. By all means, if you're able to run and do all of those other things, do it. Because that would make the perfect lifestyle.

FW: Do you think there's anything the media can do to take pressure off of young female runners? Was it too much for you to be on the cover of Running Times heading into your junior year of high school, or is that just something that young athletes have to deal with?
JS: I think it depends totally on the individual. For me personally, I was excited, it was a huge honor... I think it's just a matter of how the individual takes it. I think it's a great promotion for the sport, I think it really encourages other runners our age to run. And if you're running as well as you are, it's a responsibility, almost, to recognize the fact that that hopefully other people look up to you and they, too, want to have that kind of success. I think it's a great thing. I didn't really pay that much attention to it, I didn't really feel the pressure. I was just like, "Wow, they're recognizing what I've done." It's just a matter of how you look at it.

My best friend at Stanford is Misty Hyman -- she won a gold medal in the Olympics (for swimming). I look up to her as being such an inspiration, not because she won the gold medal, she could have finished last at the Olympics and she would still be my idol. She volunteers so much of her time, speaking to young kids about swimming and being a role model when she doesn't have to be. That, to me, in itself is amazing.