An Interview with Writer and Runner Amy Güth
July 07, 2008 | in Fitness | 0 Comments Share
In a relatively short period of time she's run four marathons, three halfs, and twenty 5ks and 10ks. Oh, and she wrote an amazing novel, too. All that and more in our interview with Amy Güth.
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Writer, marathoner and Pilcrow Lit Fest founder Amy Güth has a lot going on. The Debutante Ball agrees, putting Amy in their Top 10 Hottest Authors. After meeting Amy on Twitter, I bought—and promptly devoured—Amy's first novel, Three Fallen Women.
Amy was one of the first folks to sign up on Hella Sound shortly after launch, and after reading her book I thought it would be great to talk with her.
Interview
Hella Sound: What races have you run?
Amy Güth: I’m funny about this sort of thing. I tend, just by nature, to be only competitive with myself. So, while I keep track of my race times and miles and altitudes run and all of that, I rarely talk about them much. When I first started running, I sometimes ran with a super-competitive runner and talked stats so much that it almost made those of us around her compare our times to hers, in a sense. I tend to just run and do my best and enjoy the process and the finish. The numbers I try to keep my trap shut about—not that they are really fast or really slow race times, per se, I just don’t want anyone to compare themselves to me any more than I want to compare myself to anyone. I'm super-competitive with myself, just not so much with anyone else. I think that’s an often-overlooked aspect of solitary sports that had the potential to be very positive.
That said, I’ve run a lot of races and always do my best and try to top my PR. I’ve run races in let’s see... five states, no six, and loved them all. I trained for a marathon I ran in California by training in New Mexico at altitude. Jeeze, altitude running will kick your butt if you’re not used to it. Once you’re used to it, though, it’s a nice feather to have in your cap, I think. For me anyway.
Lately, I’ve noticed more and more trail marathons popping up, and I love hiking and trail running, so I’ve been focusing in that direction. I’d like to run one street marathon or half this year and maybe a nice trail race and I’ll be pretty content. Or maybe make a stab at adventure racing. So far this year has been about 5k’s and hiking.
HS: When did you start running? What got you started?
AG: Well, I always was a bit of a runner, but like a lot of beginners, I lacked the patience to slow down so I burned out easily. I was certainly more of a sprinter in those days, never really doing more than a 10k, and that kicked my butt because I hauled through it so quickly and burned out in the middle, and finished, but a little injured because I didn’t know what I was doing at all.
Then, almost five years ago, I was in a pretty serious car accident. The orthopedist who repaired my knee made a crack something like, "Well, sport, you’re not going to be running any marathons, but I think you’ll be okay." And, that’s all it took. That one comment gave me the determination to learn how to focus and how to run properly. The accident was in October of that year, the orthopedist was finished with me by the end of November, I became involved with Team In Training in January and I ran my first marathon the following June. It was only when the physician implied I no longer had running as an option that I had the fire in the belly enough to do it.
HS: Team In Training does fundraising for leukemia and lymphoma, right?
AG: Right. In exchange for fundraising, Team In Training really take care of their runners. They provide you with a full coaching staff and mentors, and fly you to whatever race you pick, put you up—they really take excellent care of you. I picked Team In Training because at the time a friend of mine was undergoing treatment for lymphoma and another good friend had her one year clean bill of health from battling leukemia. I thought, what a great organization—I'd be honored to run for them.
I've had such positive experience with them. The coaches they provide are so knowledgeable and helpful. They didn't downplay how much of it is a mental game. Once we got into our long runs, there was a lot of language like "Your body knows how to do this now—the rest of this is teaching your mind to keep going."
HS: After you've been in the program for a while, do you become a mentor for newer runners?
AG: Absolutely. After you've done one event, you're classified as alumni, and you mentor people with the fundraising things. And it's very emotional. There was a woman that ran with our team who had never done anything athletic in her life. Her little boy had leukemia, and she decided to do a marathon. She trained and trained, and ended up walking the marathon in 5 hours. I finished and looped back and cheered people on, and I saw her 8 year old son—who had just finished treatment—run out and finish it with her. There were so many things like that. If you wanted to stop for a minute or you were struggling up a hill, you would see someone who was in treatment themselves, or were running for a husband or wife, you'd see that and think "I can't complain about a hill, I have to keep going." It makes you feel very humble, and you get to see that what you're doing matters.
I had wonderful mentors and coaches through Team In Training who really taught me a lot and I’ve run ever since. I love to geek out on biomechanics and gear and tweaks now. That’s the best! And, that’s why I was excited to learn about Hella Sound—it’s a nice place to geek out with other runners and feels more communal than most of the other running sites I know.
HS: Have you always been an athlete?
AG: Not really. I have always been a writer, and never really saw much crossover between the creative crowd and the athletic crowd, so I think I kept the two very distinct for many years. I don’t do that at all anymore, mind you, but I did for a long while. As soon as I started allowing for crossover between the communities, I met a lot of people who did something similar and kept the two parts of their lives separated for a long time. I did study dance for quite a while growing up, so I think, if anything, that was the only crossover I really knew.
But, I would say that I’ve always been athletic and active. I’ve done yoga for years, I’ve probably always hiked, and although I’m a lousy swimmer, I’ve always enjoyed swimming. But, no, never anything competitive until later.
HS: Did you do cross country in high school?
AG: No, I went to an arts magnet high school, so there were no sports at all. It was like a tiny version of Fame (laughs)—we never took to the streets, but there was a bell, and if the bell rang that meant "take your places" and you had to perform a show.
HS: Do you prefer to run solo, with a partner or in a group?
AG: Solo. I’m all solo. Some of the best runs I’ve ever had were just me and an iPod in a beautiful setting. But, I do like to train runners, particularly runners who tend to go out too fast (been there, so I understand that inclination and try to find the right language to make them feel ok about slowing down to go for the long-haul) and though I feel like a big jerk for pacing new runners so slowly, that’s really the only time I like to run with anyone else is when I’m pacing them.
HS: The excitement and adrenaline dump at the beginning of a race can get people to go faster than they should.
AG: Absolutely. I make a point to myself at the start of a race: "run slow enough to feel goofy" (laughs).
HS: Who inspires you as a runner (an athlete, a mentor, a colleague, a client, a concept)?
AG: That’s a great question. A lot of things do. Good music inspires me to run for sure. In fact, when I’m working on a particular task as a runner, I tend to "soundtrack" it, meaning, I put on song on a loop and run to it. Some people think about that in obsessive terms, but I think about it like a movie soundtrack—if the music changes, so does the scene. So, I keep the same music on for the same feel and the same motivation and pace. I write in a similar way, incidentally.
Nature inspires me a lot, too. I trained in northern New Mexico for a marathon in California and it’s absolutely beautiful up there in the high desert. I’ve hiked in several canyons and national parks in the southwest and just love how beautiful the scenery is there. I have an aunt and uncle in western North Carolina, around Mount Pisgah national forest and love it there, too. Any distinct natural backdrop is the way to go for me. I live in Chicago, so I usually run here of course, but there is something wonderful about getting away from honking horns, catcalls and sidewalks and just going for it.
And, really, just being around and knowing other runners keeps me pretty inspired, too. Running is a crazy thing to a lot of people—most people have no idea why we find so much joy in making our bodies and minds run 26.2 (or more) miles, so being around other runners who do understand is fortifying in a sense, against some of the inevitable nay-saying and doubt people put on us.
HS: What do you do to cross-train?
AG: Certainly yoga, and this series of ab workouts I created to keep my core strong. Hiking, a little, though I try to trade off hiking and running periods to avoid knocking the wind out of ether set of sails. I go to the gym sometimes and do all of that weight training business, but I’ll admit that I get so bored with that, so I try to find other things to do. I’ve been on the lookout for something new to try lately. Any suggestions?
HS: Something I'd recommend—and it's a little repetitious—but circuit training can be great. Your heart rate stays up while you get your strength training in.
AG: I've run with Liz Sponagle a few times and she's become a good friend. She's about 5'2" and she's really tiny—she's made of muscle and badass is what she is (laughs), and she's a big fan of circuit training. She's great. She's someone you just want to watch run, she's just so solid.
HS: Are there any dream races you'd like to run?
AG: I know a lady that ran the Great Wall of China Marathon. That would be amazing. The whole thing is on the great wall—it's 26.2 miles of stairs! I think that would be incredible. I think anything anyone ever said to you to try to one-up you for the rest of your life, you could just reply "well I ran the Great Wall of China" (laughs). I think the Midnight Sun Marathon in Norway would be cool. I don't know if I could pull it off, but I think it would be cool to train with your circadian cycle so you're used to running at night.
HS: So about Three Fallen Women
AG: I actually sat down and wrote it pretty quickly—it went pretty fast. You know, people are always asking me "gosh, was this autobiographical?" (laughs). None of this was autobiographical. I had a friend who had everything in the world going for her—a top-notch education and an excellent job, was so intelligent—and because of things in her life she couldn't get out of and see past, she continually engaged in a lot of self-destructive behaviors. She just made a lot of really bad choices in relationships and made a lot of unnecessary drama. I think if things were to go smoothly, she'd probably have too much to think about. She couldn't just be. I got to know her pretty well and it was like watching a train wreck. I saw the trajectory she was on. I started thinking about boundaries—people that just can't assert themselves—and that's what I set out to explore. I set out to answer questions more than to say something.
That's a lot of it, and I put it in stark context. The character Carmen who's an addict in the book is based on someone I knew who was a very nice person—very funny and outgoing—but she just couldn't stay sober. She was very uncomfortable with sobriety. One night I ran into her in a bar, and she was telling me all this stuff: she was going to be married and the guy was murdered... Her fiancé's death was so painful that she just couldn't cope with it sober.
HS: Like a self-medicating thing.
AG: Totally. As soon as she became sober this stuff would come up. And it's easy to say "so-and-so is a drunk" or "so-and-so is a jerk", but we don't consider the backstory. And I was thinking a lot about that. And I tried to write it in a sympathetic way, so it wasn't just "The Serial Killer", "The Addict", it was an exploration of their motivations.
HS: Has there been reaction from book clubs?
AG: There's been some. I have a PDF that I send out if the book club wants to order in bulk. And I always offer to be on speakerphone for a few minutes toward the end of the discussion if the book club wants to ask questions. I love feedback and I love hearing people's take on it. I was reading at a bookstore by Cornell and this whole book club showed up. It was a different kind of experience to read to a group that had already read it and talked about it and thought about it.
HS: On of the things that really struck me was the "strings" idea in the book.
AG: I was reading a lot of physics at the time—I love physics and philosophy. My friends and I had this joke about The Vortex Hallway... I was living in this apartment, and there was a particular room right by the entryway, that if someone was going to walk into my apartment and fall down, it was right there. If someone got a paper cut, it was right there. If anything negative happened in the apartment, it was there. If you were on the phone and pacing around when you were talking, and someone said something horrible to you on the phone, it would be in that hallway. We thought, "I don't know what happened in this hallway, but..." I made a joke about this to the landlord, and he said "decades ago, a man was shot in your apartment, in that hall." And I thought hmmm, maybe it's not outside of the realm of possibility. I started thinking if every room had layer upon layer of memory of anything that ever happened to it, like coats of paint, what would be in it? I decided I was going to take string theory and spell that out in a very literal way, and tag that to something visual instead of something theoretical and see how that plays out.
Some of that pops up again in my second book. The idea of scars left on a space. I'm very excited for the second book. It's been a different experience than the first book.
HS: When does the second book come out?
AG: It should come out around October. We don't have an exact date, but I should know pretty soon and I'll immediately start touring again.
HS: What do you do when you're on the road? How do you find running routes?
AG: This is what I do: When I go to a new city, I Google around to see if any local runners have published any favorite routes. Then, I compare these routes to ay landmarks or neighborhoods I want to see and go to Google Maps or USATF and map it out. (Lately, I’ve switched to the route planner at Active.com, and the one at Runtheplanet.com, their routing tools are pretty cool.) I’ll make little Sharpie notes on my wrist about where to turn, or I’ll tuck a tiny piece of paper into my pocket with directions. I have to admit that this is one of my very favorite things to do. I don’t go for the big touristy stuff much anyway, so I find that running is a good way to explore a city and really see it for what it is, not what the board of tourism wants to show. I’ve found great off-the-beaten path restaurants and neighborhoods this way. I just love it. I feel pretty fortunate to have this super-portable job that takes me all over the place, so I try to see as many things as possible and take it all in, the best way I know how. I also write in every new city, because some cities are so distinct and thus, easy to write about, or easy to write in while visiting.
HS: How about a favorite running route?
AG: I have a few favorites: The either fourteen or six mile loop along Lake Shore Drive in Chicago on a beautiful day. Some of the back trails around St. Johns College or off of Old Pecos Trail in Santa Fe, New Mexico are awesome and I ran the best twenty-mile training run of my life back there. The Roosevelt Island loop in New York City is just under four miles and I like that one pretty well, too. Let’s see, I love this one route I have through downtown New Orleans, through the French Quarter, onto Decatur, then out past where Decatur becomes Frenchman Street. That’s a great route, especially very, very early on a weekend morning before many people are up and out. Ohhh, and I did an impromptu loop in Napa once that I’ve never been able to quite duplicate or figure out, but it was a good one.
HS: What's your favorite running gadget?
AG: Well, iPod aside, I am super picky about my socks. Asics Kayano low-cut peds
HS: What's the single best piece of advice you can give to beginners?
AG: Two pieces of advice, really. One: Don’t cheap out on shoes; get your gait analyzed by someone at a running store, not a mega-sporting-mart, and buy the best shoes for your feet. Two: Slow down and let your body learn to do this motion for long periods of time. Speed comes as you progress, but starting out, slow it down, focus and let your body (and mind!) learn to do the same repetitive movement for long stretches.
HS: What have you been reading? What would be in your Desert Island library?
AG: I read a lot more non-fiction than fiction, I’ll admit. I pick books sort of like following breadcrumb trails. I’ll read something, and then find a related book, usually to further explore the topic at hand, and so on. I rarely re-read anything, but I did just re-read Why We Run by Bernd Heinrich
HS: Do you have any special projects you're working on?
AG: Always! I’m working on getting my second novel out into the world. A character in this book, no surprise, is a runner. Then, I’m working on a biography, a collection of essays I am writing, and then it’ll be about time to get to work on the annual literary festival I founded in Chicago, which primarily focuses on small press authors and publishers. After that, I suppose I’ll have a third novel ready to roll.
Contact Information
If you are interested in contacting Amy, peep the following:
- URL: Guth-a-Go-Go
- Twitter: twitter.com/amyguth
- Facebook: www.facebook.com
- Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
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