She’s Working Out With a Vengeance

Twenty-mile runs, 100-mile weeks, the blast-past-everyone pace . . . . Kathleen Smith stopped in mid-description of her recent marathon training program and nearly laughed out loud.

“Twenty-milers, three (Sundays) in a row,” Smith said. “Can you believe that? Isn’t that stupid?”

To those who tend to run on the conservative side, it might well be. But to Smith, a 24-year-old Balboa Island resident, pressing her luck by pressing the pace is the ideal way to prepare for her latest venture, Sunday’s Long Beach Marathon.

Smith is one of several elite runners expected to challenge for Long Beach’s $100,000 in prize money. The first-place award, for both men and women, is $25,000.

“The money’s not the important thing,” said Smith, who works at a Newport Beach athletic apparel store. “I like to race. I’d race if it were for nothing.”

Three years ago, in her third year at Stanford, Smith was not so enthusiastic. She was a prized recruit, having placed fourth in the Kinney National Cross-Country Championships as a high school senior in San Antonio. But she became increasingly frustrated with injuries and illnesses and quit the Cardinal.

After a six-month break from running, Smith restarted gradually. She entered her first 26.2-mile race, the hilly Napa Valley Marathon, and placed third in 2 hours 54 minutes.

Months later, she moved to Orange County and started training under the guidance of UC Irvine Coach Vince O’Boyle.

Last December, in her second marathon race, Smith placed fourth in the San Diego Marathon in 2:45. At mile 13, she took the lead on the women’s field, holding it until the 22-mile mark.

“Then I crashed and burned big time,” she said.

In Smith’s view, her late-race slump was due to a lack of strength. The remedy, she believes, is an increase in her weekly mileage. About mid-March, she set off on her first of five 90- to 100-mile weeks.

“But don’t write that!” she said. “Or all these people will try it, go out and get injured.”

Which is exactly what some people expected to happen to Smith.

Bill Sumner, a competitive masters runner who began training with Smith a few months ago, said he finally had to quit running with her because she always ran too hard, no matter what the distance.

“Yeah,” said Smith, who admitted to pushing the pace. “I kind of felt sorry for him.”

O’Boyle, an adviser to Smith’s club team, Nike Coast, said he certainly hopes Smith does well at Long Beach, but that he can’t exactly condone the intensity of her training program. Smith said he would rather have her doing a few training sessions on the track, along with more moderate mileage on the roads.

But Smith said she has managed to fend off injury and burnout. And she feels great.

“I know I did a lot, but I’m pretty confident that it worked,” Smith said. “I had to test it and see if it would work for me.”

After the marathon, Smith plans to take a rest, cut back on her mileage and train for the summer track season.

“At this point, sure I could look back and say I could have done this better or that better, but I feel I’ve done what I planned on doing. At this point, no matter how I do (Sunday), it’s more like a celebration now. The hardest part is over.”