July 24, 2021

UnRunning / brain before legs

1 hour 5 minutes

This Week Clint and I sat down with Mary Cates. She has been a runner most of her life. She will tell you that she has been a competitive runner since the 7th grade! In college she was a 400 and 800m runner. She has raced every distance from the 400m to the 100 mile and beyond. She has a B.S. degree in Journalism and a Masters degree in Media management and she spent over a decade as a television producer. She was diagnosed with cancer the first time in late 2006, early 2007, worked through it and went into remission. It came back in 2011 and she had to step away from her career and entered clinical trials and fought for her life.

Successfully winning her cancer battle she Founded UnRunning and made the transition into coaching. She loves to run and race but she also loves to help others fall in love with the sport as well. Running can be such a powerful tool for both physical and mental health. Mary states; "It's one of the most basic forms of movement but it's a skill that's largely overlooked and honestly it all starts inside the mind." Her motto is simple but it takes a long time to embrace: "brain before legs." "Training the body is great but to get to the next level, you've got to dig inside."

We have had many humble athletes but Mary's humility is so inspiring especially when you see her face light up talking about racing and suffering doing either a short course race or a hundred 100 race. She still is a very competitive runner and has raced 6 x 100 milers including the iconic Vermont 100 which is one of the originals, running with horses and Pine to Palm 100 in Ashland, Oregon through the Cascades and Siskiyou ranges. She will be 41 in August and she is training to race (and win) the Yeti 100 in September.

She has 4 rescue dogs who she says run her life.

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