Episode 11 - Caitlyn Tateishi On Staying Curious

"That was the moment I was like...could I do it? I'm having a lot of success cutting my marathon time down? Could I cut it down more and qualify for the trials"

"I think now running for me is a lot of curiosity... I'm not necessarily putting in the high level of work but I'm putting in some work. And it's been really interesting to see what I can do at that level."

Caitlyn Tataishi is an accomplished ultra marathoner and marathoner - so accomplished in fact that she qualified for the 2020 Olympic Trials. One of her more recent accomplishments though has been off the run in becoming a mom. 

One of the refreshing things you will notice in speaking with Caitlyn about running and everything surrounding the sport is how driven by curiosity she is. During this conversation we covered Caitlyn's running beginnings as a "middle schooler" in Hawaii; how she gave up running while teaching in Japan to explore what her identity would be like without it; how she returned to running during Peace Corps in Zambia and ran an unofficial ultra marathon just to see if her body could go that far; her buying a one way plane ticket to DC and signing up for her first official ultra at the same time; her journey with the marathon and deciding to go for the Olympic Trials qualifying time at Grandma's Marathon (the same race at which Keira D'Amato qualified for the trials); and how here relationship with running changed and remained the same in different aspects throughout pregnancy and new motherhood. 

We both agree that DC is a wonderful running city when it comes to both places to run and people in the running community. Caitlyn shouts out Track Pack specifically.  We talk advice for setting big marathon goals - Caitlyn says even if it is a "bad day" (think rainy, windy weather) you might surprise yourself and have a good day!