Wanting to interview people from all over Kentucky and the surrounding area as well as from all positions in the pack the following are some questions I asked Lexington's Zack Beavin. I hope this will let you know more about Zack as well as help you better to know the great running community we have here in Kentucky.Tell us a little about yourself not necessarily related to running: age, where born, education, area you live in, etc…..
I am 23 years old and was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky. After graduating from St. Xavier High School, I initially attended Belmont University in Nashville, but for a variety of reasons I transferred after my freshman year to the University of Kentucky here in Lexington. After finishing my Mechanical Engineering degree in December of 2016, I started graduate school and began working at John’s Run/Walk Shop. My second (and final) graduation is this May, and then I guess I have to finally join the “real world.”
What is your profession?
Like I mentioned, I am finishing up graduate school and working at John’s Run/Walk Shop part-time. I currently do race directing and some of the buying there, which has been an absolute blast and great way to keep myself in shoes. Where life will take me as my “profession” in the long term is yet to be determined.
How did you start running and what prompted you to do so?
My mom ran a couple of marathons with Team in Training when I was pretty young, which was my first exposure to the sport. I think this is what initially got me interested in running and encouraged me to begin running cross country in 3rd grade.
How long have you been running?
Technically I have been running since I began cross country in the 3rd grade 15+ years ago. I don’t really consider myself to have started “training” until 6th grade, though. So I suppose I have been “running” for 15 years and “training” for 12 years.
Did you participate in any other sports over the years?
In grade school I also played basketball (I was bad) and tennis (I was ok). Running really began to take off in 6th grade when I ran a 1:31 half marathon at the KDF mini marathon at age 12. By freshman year in high school, I was a one-trick running pony who had accepted that my future in other sports was non-existent.
Did you run in grade school, High School or College? If so where?
I ran for Holy Trinity in grade school, St. X in high school, one year for Belmont University, and 3 years for the University of Kentucky. I was part of a couple state championship cross country teams in high school and part of a state record setting 4x800 team my senior year. However, I never won any individual state titles (highest finish was 3rd) in high school. My college career was a little rocky, but I found some success in cross country, finishing in the top 20 at the SEC championships twice.
So we get an idea of where you have been with running can you share your PR’s for: 5K, 10K marathon and any other distance you may have run in the past.
- 5k- 14:33
- 10k- 30:31
- Half Marathon- 1:09:29 (I split faster than this in my most recent marathon- go figure)
- Marathon- 2:21:18
What is your most memorable race or races and share a little about at least one of them?
Three races come to mind- when I ran 9:13 for the 3200 at Eastern Relays my senior year of high school, when I ran 30:34 for the track 10k at the Mt. Sac Relays my freshman year of college, and more recently when I ran 2:21:18 for the marathon in Indianapolis this past fall. The common theme with all of these is that they were races where I finally turned what I knew I was capable of into reality. They’re the races where afterwards I couldn’t stop smiling and just repeated the time to myself over and over in disbelief. Being able to step back from a race afterwards and really feel 100% satisfied is an extremely rare feeling, and I think we’re lucky to get 10-15 of them our entire careers. As I get older and become a more mature runner, I try to reflect on these rare performances and really soak them in when they happen.
What is your favorite distance to run and race?
I have raced everything from the 800 to a trail 50k. I have run cross country, track, road races, and trail races. My heart is set on running the longer ultras on the trails later in my career, but I don’t think any race compares to the marathon. It’s almost as if the marathon was specifically designed to test the limits of a human body. To truly race a marathon takes a special combination of strength, grit and speed. You can’t take solace in the fact that the race will be over in a lap or two (like in track), and you can’t take a few easy miles and hope to regroup (like in an ultra). The marathon is unforgiving and beautiful.
Do you have any long-range plans?
I plan to continue to train under the guidance of Dave Long (out of Louisville) and competitively race the marathon until I get an Olympic Trials Qualifying performance (2:18:59). Sometime after that, I want to move up to the ultra-marathon scene and see how I stack up against the nation’s best trail runners. I think trail runners out of the eastern half of the country are usually written off on the competitive trail scene, and I’d love to try to challenge that.
What do you like best about living and running in KY?
Living in Lexington, I absolutely love how close I am to the Daniel Boone National Forest. I can be to any number of absolutely stunning trails in less than an hour. I get out to the woods to run as often as I can, and over the past year I have fallen in love with Red River Gorge and the Daniel Boone National Forest in general.
What do you struggle with most with regards to running?
Waking up early in the morning is a challenge for me this time of year. Getting up at 5:30-6 AM to go run in 15 degrees is not fun, especially when I’m running high mileage. Once my mileage goes over 100-110 per week, my bed starts to feel blissfully good and my body unrealistically tired when I first wake up. It would be very easy to just skip some these cold early morning runs. To get myself out of bed I convince myself that I will start to feel better once I get moving and put the coffee and music on. It usually works (because coffee is magic).
What do you see as a trend in running?
It seems that more and more competitive runners are beginning to head to the ultra marathon scene, which I think is great. It used to be that ultra marathons were races on the fringe of the running community that only loonies did, but they have really come into their own recently and have begun to attract some really great talent. That’s part of why I’m chomping at the bit to get into the ultra world- I want to know how I stack up against these great runners!
If you had one, well maybe two or three, things to say those that are running to encourage them what would it be?
I think the biggest thing is to be patient with yourself. Running is a lifelong sport, and it takes years of development and patience to fully mature as a runner. I’m still not quite there yet after over 31,000 lifetime miles.
Another important thing is to come to learn and respect the limits of your body. It took me a couple of times of blowing past my limits (and getting injured) to know how to safely toe the line between being really fit and really hurt.
Lastly, running should be fun. I look forward to my weekly Sunday trail run days in advance because I have so much fun doing it. Do what you need to do to make your running fun and engaging, and never lose sight of how lucky you are that you can even run at all.
Do you have a website or other social media site you would like to share?
- Instagram- @zbeavin
- Strava- https://www.strava.com/athletes/17080027
- Twitter- @beavinz
Any closing comments?
May the miles come easy.
Update: 10/2/18 - I did an update interview with Zack here after he ran Boston
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