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NYC HALF MARATHONMarch 15, 2013Kim SmithNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK KIM SMITH: The plan is to see if I can maybe qualify for Moscow, but we'll see how that goes. Yes, just to do some shorter races, get my legs feeling springier again, I guess, and just do something different for a while. You get kind of burnt out during the marathon, so I don't want to do that. I don't want to get in any injury cycles from too many marathons or anything. So keeping away for a while. Q. Is that difficult? So much is the money in the sport of the marathon. People feel forced, I've got to do another one because, if I do really well, there's a bunch of money at the end of it. KIM SMITH: Yeah, I talked about it with my coach. He said, no, if you want to keep running for a long time, you've just got to put the financial side‑‑ put it to the side and try to focus on just running well. Q. Ray's coaching? KIM SMITH: Yeah. Q. And Molly is with you now, is that right? KIM SMITH: Yeah. Molly's been here for ages, and Amy Hastings moved to Providence as well. So it's a good group. Q. Is having Amy‑‑ did you not run that much with Molly because it's a shorter distance and Amy is at your range or all of you together? KIM SMITH: We do little bits and pieces with each other, but right now I haven't worked out with anyone for a long time other than Pat. But we're going to all be going to Providence now. So we'll all be on the same schedule. Q. Going into Sunday, do you consider yourself a favorite? KIM SMITH: Yeah, I guess. I run the fastest in the field. I feel pretty confident in the half marathon more than any other distance, so, yeah, I think I probably am. Q. So what are your expectations? What's the goal besides winning, I guess? Do you have a time goal? KIM SMITH: Not really. I never really know. You never really know with the weather. Last year we had a little bit of a headwind. The year before, I wasn't running, but it was a tail wind, so everyone ran really fast. I think that has a big factor on the time as well. Q. How would you say the training has been? KIM SMITH: It's been good, yeah. I went to New Zealand and trained for six weeks and came back here for the last month, which hasn't been that easy with the snow. Yeah, I feel really good. Starting to feel I'm getting more speed in my legs at the moment. So yeah, doing a lot more shorter stuff. Q. Have you been doing any track racing? KIM SMITH: I'm doing the BAA Distance Medley Series. Those aren't track races, but the road races, in between them. Q. You won that last year, right? KIM SMITH: Yeah. Q. And that was like a $100,000 bonus? Yeah. Q. That's got to be kind of‑‑ KIM SMITH: That's really nice. Q. That's one reason you don't have to do a marathon? KIM SMITH: That's probably one reason. Q. Is that the same prize money this year? KIM SMITH: I think so, yeah. Yes. Q. The benefit of that is, if you do well early on, other people aren't going to‑‑ KIM SMITH: Definitely everyone has a shot at the 5 and 10. After the 10 last year, I was pretty confident that I was going to win with the half marathon. It's kind of a specialty for me. So it was awesome. Q. Accumulated time does it? KIM SMITH: Yes. Q. So you were pretty much the best. You've got to consider yourself top five, top ten in the world in half marathons. KIM SMITH: Yeah, and I'm not bad at the 5 and the 10 either, so it's pretty good. Q. So when does that series start? KIM SMITH: The day before the Boston marathon. Q. The idea that the $100,000, for winning the BAA, that really does buy an athlete a cushion, sort of freedom. KIM SMITH: Yes, for sure. It was great for me to have that. That's why I'm not going to pass up the opportunity to do that again. Yeah, I mean, it was good that my contract came up. It was up last year. So having just won that was pretty good to have in the back of my mind knowing that. It just helps a lot. Q. And as a newlywed, it helps. KIM SMITH: Yeah. Q. How long do you think you'll take a break from marathoning? KIM SMITH: I'll probably do the fall. Q. So a short break? KIM SMITH: Yeah. I mean, just not doing‑‑ just getting back to some shorter training. Some track stuff, see how that goes. Q. Little bit of a mental break for you? KIM SMITH: Yes. I mean, it's hard‑‑ the marathon has been a little disappointing. So compared to the times I've run on the track and shorter distances. I mean, the fastest time I ran was my first marathon. And that was not a whole lot of marathon training. So maybe this will be a good thing to have a break from it for a while. Q. It seems like you'd be the best fit if the half marathon was in the Olympics. KIM SMITH: Yes, unfortunately. There's a few people‑‑ there's quite a few people out there like that. That's definitely me, I think. I'd like to one day get a marathon right, though. Q. But a race like this, like last year, you were the runner‑up. What did you think of the race? KIM SMITH: It was a great race last year. It's good to know the course this time. I went out a little bit hard last year, I think. I went out in the first 5K, which is the hardest, in like 15:35, which is way too fast. Yeah, I need to be just a little more patient this time, I think. Q. Is there anything you're going to do differently in particular from last year's race? Is there a difference in fitness? KIM SMITH: I think I'm probably in the same kind of fitness. Maybe just go out a little bit easier the first 5K. I'm not very good at doing that. I kind of tend to get excited a little bit, but I'm going to try. Q. You hit the indoor track to pace a few weeks ago. KIM SMITH: That was just a favor for my coach. Q. Bring back memories? You haven't run indoors in a while? KIM SMITH: I actually was second that week for that. I would have loved to probably done an indoor 5K to get an early time qualifier for Worlds, but that's all right. There's lots of time. It's just so easy, I find indoors, to run faster. Q. What's your focus going to kind of be for Worlds? KIM SMITH: The 10K. I don't have any plans on running a 5K, but just in case. Q. Where was the indoor place? KIM SMITH: It was a 5 for my coach. One of the girls at Providence College ran it, but it didn't go very well for her. Not a very good pacemaker either, tends to go out a little bit hard. Q. What's the latest on Amy Hastings? She's not on your couch anymore, is she? KIM SMITH: No, she actually has an apartment now. She's just all moved in and done her furniture shopping, got a lot of furniture shopping done this week. Q. So find a chance to run with her from time to time? KIM SMITH: Oh, yeah, I've been running with her every day since she's been back. Molly and her got back from Arizona recently. We'll all be training for the track, so it will be good to all be doing the same thing and doing some workouts together. I haven't really been on the same time Molly has been doing track stuff. So it will be good to do some workouts with her as well. Q. Where do you guys do the track stuff in Providence? I know PC doesn't have a track, do they? KIM SMITH: No. We're getting a track in March as well, around now. We're starting to build a track, but we use Brown's track. Q. So the other ladies go to Arizona, and you go to New Zealand? KIM SMITH: Yeah, I've gone to Arizona before. I always go to New Zealand every year anyway. Q. Go to stay with your family? KIM SMITH: Yes. It's a great chance to go to New Zealand, and it's perfect weather. Q. Swinging to this race, I know you say your fitness is good. What do you think it will take to take that top spot? KIM SMITH: What kind of time? Q. Yeah, time, or what do you think the tactics will play out? KIM SMITH: Yeah, I'm not sure. I mean, I think a few people in that race like to run hard from kind of front‑runner type people. So it will be interesting. I obviously like that. The Portuguese girl tends to run in front a lot and the Italian woman. It will be interesting. I'm not sure how it will play out, but we'll see. Q. If you go out a little slower than last year, do you think you'll have that final kick coming around Battery Park? KIM SMITH: Yeah, hopefully with the‑‑ I think this might be a tail wind as well. I think that‑‑ it should be a fast day if it's like that, yeah. Q. Is there a tail wind forecast right now? KIM SMITH: Someone was saying there was. Obviously, that can change. It's definitely going to be colder. Pretty cold at the start, I think. Q. The last time you were in New York or racing on the roads in New York was supposed to be the marathon. Coming back, does it give you any fuel‑‑ does it fuel the fire at all, having that been‑‑ KIM SMITH: Yeah, it was a disappointing time for sure. But there's always another race around the corner, and this has come up. This has come at a good time. Yeah, hopefully, it's a distance I feel comfortable with. So, yeah, I'm excited to get out there and race. Q. Have to ask you about New Balance being your sponsor now. What do you think of that? KIM SMITH: Yeah, I mean, it's really great. I'm glad they decided to sponsor me. It obviously gets harder as you get older to get it. You start worrying a little more about sponsorships and stuff. Reebok decided to go in a different direction, but very grateful for what they did for me for eight years also. Very happy to be running for New Balance now. Q. New Balance's corporate headquarters are in Providence, right? KIM SMITH: Allston. Q. Allston, right, part of Boston. KIM SMITH: It feels good having another company sponsor me. Q. And Providence is one of those schools that's switching conferences next year. Is there any memory that you have from the Big East from, let's say, the Big East Championship indoors or outdoors, maybe in cross country that really sticks to you? KIM SMITH: A memory? I don't know. I just have so many good college memories. I really loved running cross country in college and having that whole team atmosphere. Yeah, winning‑‑ we won the Big East team one year, I think, in cross country. It was probably‑‑ that was a really fond memory. I definitely enjoyed my college, running for Providence College for sure. Q. You look at this and see that your fastest marathon was your first one, and you're right. Do you look at this race as setting the reset button on the whole thing, kind of back where you were at the beginning? KIM SMITH: Yes. That's kind of what my coach is saying. It's weird because my training was just going so much‑‑ so well for the last one, and then having the disappointment, running badly in Yokohama, and then canceling this. It was quite difficult in the two weeks, on your honeymoon, trying to train for Yokohama, and flying here. It just ended up being not a great situation. I think I just needed like a break from doing a marathon. Just a break from the pressure of it. Q. So the timing of your honeymoon seemed to be so brilliant? KIM SMITH: Yeah, it seemed to be. Q. And then things changed. KIM SMITH: Yeah. Q. How did you still manage to do all that in that two‑week period stretch? KIM SMITH: It wasn't easy. It wasn't a great idea in the end. Like I think most of us that went to Yokohama were disappointed. Jelena probably did the best of us. She ran pretty well. But everyone else had terrible runs. Amy got sick on the way over on the plane. Adriana dropped out. Serena ran awful. I didn't run great. Yeah, it ended up being not a great idea for any of us, I think, to go there. It was just‑‑ I think the two weeks was a bad amount‑‑ was not a great amount of time. I think you needed a little longer. Probably, if we'd had to race six weeks later, it probably would have been better than two weeks. I think that would have been more ideal. Q. Especially when in between was a honeymoon. KIM SMITH: Yeah. Luckily, we decided to have a honeymoon in Hawaii, which is on the way. I know that like I was talking to Sabrina Mockenhaupt, the German girl. She was going on vacation with her boyfriend to the Bahamas. We decided, if we'd done something like that, that would be even worse. So Hawaii ended up being a better idea than at least other places, but it was too hard. Q. And you still had to cut your honeymoon short? KIM SMITH: A couple of days, yeah. Q. Did you guys have at least any fun relaxing on a beach or anything? KIM SMITH: Yeah, we went to the beach and stuff. We just couldn't do as much as we wanted to. Wasn't quite as much drinking as I would have wanted to. Not as many my ties as I would have liked. No. We still had a good time. Q. Any plans of like a second honeymoon to make up for it? KIM SMITH: We travel a lot anyway. There will be some other time, yeah. Q. Hint to Pat. KIM SMITH: Right. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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