A huge shout out to Kate Niehaus, a great friend of Monta Vista Cross Country. Kate called in and talked to the team at our weekly meeting on July 17.
Kate has an intimidating running resume: 14 x South Carolina state champion in cross country and track, two NCCA D-1 team championships at Stanford, Stanford XC team captain, on two all-time Stanford top-10 lists. And her academics, if anything, exceed her athletics: BS and Masters degrees in bio-engineering, the Elite 88 award for the highest GPA of anyone qualifying for the NCAA cross-country national championships, Rhodes Scholarship winner and holder of a doctorate from Oxford University, now working for Apple. Kate is kind of scary–on paper. In person, she is down to earth and our friend.
Kate took an hour with us to talk not so much about her achievements, but what running has meant to her. Kate talked about the Stanford XC team being a family, supporting her through ups and downs at Stanford and helping her adjust to moving across the country. At Oxford, peaceful runs through the English countryside help soothe the transition of moving to another country, and then helped her find another family and a different running culture when she was recruited to run for the Oxford University team. And Kate still runs, and has not stopped wondering how fast she could become, even as she climbs the corporate ladder at Apple.
Running can be a life time sport for all of us, and Kate is certainly an example of the benefits.
Thank you, Kate, for sharing your personal running story
If anyone has follow up questions for Kate, or simply wants to drop a note to her to say ‘thank you’, please let coach know–Kate gave me permission to hand out her contact information to people that want it.
