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November 8, 2009

Larry Fleming: NYC race was Kimsey's giant step

By Larry Fleming

Apparently, Holly Kimsey got tired of running in place. A full-time personal banker at Wells Fargo-Wachovia Bank, Kimsey spends a few hours per week teaching aerobics at Bradley Wellness Center — and that’s nice indoor work when you can get it.

But the 43-year-old Kimsey decided several years ago to take up an outdoor activity and chose running, which is certainly a wellness exercise that provides beautiful mountain views and serene country scenery while training and competing in this area.

“I actually started running seriously a couple of years ago,” Kimsey said. “I had been in the fitness industry through the wellness center for a while. Running was just a different avenue toward cross-training, and I got hooked.

“I got with the Carpet Capital Running Club and that’s a great way to meet fellow runners and I was inspired by people who have run marathons.”

But you just don’t start with marathons. You work yourself up to them.

Kimsey began with short competitive races, graduated to half-marathons and last weekend competed in one of the most prestigious marathons in the country — the New York City Marathon, along with more than 43,000 other runners.

It was a long way from her first half-marathon in Atlanta on Thanksgiving Day in 2006.

“That was a tough race,” Kimsey said. “I told my husband (Jeff) I didn’t think I would ever run a marathon. But after four or five half-marathons, I needed a new challenge. The marathon was the next step.”

A big step.

The NYC Marathon has been called the “mother of all races,” an event that covers 26.2 miles in all five of the city’s boroughs — from Staten Island through Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx to Manhattan.

On Nov. 1, 37-year-old Derartu Tulu became the first Ethiopian woman to win the NYC Marathon and pocket the $130,000 prize. Tulu finished the grueling course in 2 hours, 28 minutes, 52 seconds, and beat second-place Lyudmila Petrova, a 41-year- old Russian, by a mere eight seconds.

Somewhere back in the monstrous field was Kimsey. She crossed the finish line in 4 hours, 17 minutes, 13 seconds. In 2008, the median finish time for female marathoners was 4:43.32.

“I’ve talked to friends and relatives who ran marathons and some of them talked about how they could barely finish the race,” Kimsey said. “I had a strong finish and that’s because I trained hard. I felt great that I wasn’t hobbling across the finish line, and I saw many runners doing just that.”

So, the question is: Will Kimsey do another marathon?

“Well, maybe not New York, but I would like to get my time under 4 hours,” she said. “I think I could whittle that much time off what I did in New York. A marathon is like running three 20-mile training runs and then some.

“It was tougher than I thought it would be and miles 21 to 24 were the toughest for me. After that I got my second wind and actually picked up my speed over the final 2 miles.”

In the meantime, Kimsey will continue a training regimen that includes morning runs with a group of about 10 people, males and females ranging from ages 22 to 60. The group is becoming as enthusiastic about running as Kimsey.

“Half the group has never done a half-marathon, but they’re going to run their first one this week up at the Chickamauga Battlefield,” she said.

Kimsey can relate to her first half-marathon rookies. She’s been there, done that.

“I didn’t really know what to expect in my first one in Atlanta,” she said. “It was a tough race, of course, for me. My goal was to run it in 2 hours, and I think I did it in 2 hours, 20 seconds. I remember the Atlanta course as moderately hilly, and one was called ‘Cardiac Hill.’ One of the reasons I ran in other half-marathons was to see if I could beat that two-hour time. That kept me going.”

And she’s still going strong.



Larry Fleming is sports editor of The Daily Citizen.

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