Huyck healthy, ready to try to defend title

Linda Huyck was struggling during an interval workout last month.

Even the women’s defending Capital City Marathon champion admits she has weak thoughts from time to time.

“I don’t want to have those, I don’t want to train those,” she said.

In that moment of frustration, the 44-year-old Huyck — an English teacher and assistant track coach at River Ridge High School — recalled a similar situation one of her athletes experienced the day before.

“There was one girl in the middle of one of her runs, one of her 800s, who was like, ‘I can’t do this,’ and I was right beside her,” Huyck said. “I was like, ‘What do you mean you can’t do this? What are you talking about? You do this all the time.’ ”

Huyck relayed to the student-athlete some of the encouraging thoughts she tries to remember while training.

“All the sudden, she shifted gears,” Huyck said. “You could just feel it, see it. She dropped her time, she finished her workout.”

That encounter was enough to power Huyck through her training the following morning.

“I thought of them, and I ran better,” she said. “All of the sudden my times dropped down, I got less tired, it was exciting, I nailed it. My kids inspire me.”

Some of them from the three Lacey high schools — Huyck previously coached at Timberline — will be there to cheer her on in the 35th rendition of the race on Sunday morning. River Ridge will manage a water station at Mile 2, Timberline at Mile 18 and North Thurston at Mile 22.

Huyck will be on the course, attempting to repeat as the first woman to cross the finish line. Last year was her first Capital City Marathon win, and she did it in 3 hours, 14 minutes, 35 seconds.

She also ran the race from 1997-1999, but took a substantial break to pursue other goals, and also spent significant time injured.

“My body wouldn’t hold up to the training it needed, so I didn’t do it,” Huyck said.

Even last year, three months before the marathon, Huyck wrenched an ankle after stepping in a pothole during a training run.

“I don’t know exactly what was torn, stretched, twisted, but I ended up on crutches and then I did a month of pool workouts,” she said. “The longest I ran was probably 13 miles. I only got to train for seven-and-a-half weeks before the race.”

And still won it.

This year, she’s significantly healthier. She started training on Dec. 19, and has taken three days off since.

“She’s super fit,” said marathoner Phil Jasperson, who has trained with Huyck. “I’ve been training quite a bit with her. When she can hurt me in workouts, I know she’s ready. I’m only five year’s older than her but she’s in scary-good shape.”

Though, Huyck said repeating as a champion isn’t her main focus.

“The primary goal is not to win, the primary goal is to break three hours because I’d like to put up a better time than I did last year,” she said. “ … If I can get under three hours, I’ll feel like I’ve made significant progress this year racing.”

But, Huyck will likely tack on some time beyond three hours. In recent years, she and North Thurston teacher and cross country coach, Heidi Perry, have jumped into the race late to run with Jim Thatcher, who will run his 32nd consecutive Capital City Marathon this year.

“Having put some all-out effort — my best time was a 3:02, and I know how I felt after that — that Linda still came back on the course to run with me at the tail end (last year), I was going, ‘She’s tougher than I am by far,’” Thatcher said.

Huyck said she just enjoys soaking up the atmosphere.

“I want to be around it all the time, I love it,” she said.

This story was originally published May 9, 2016 at 9:18 PM with the headline "Huyck healthy, ready to try to defend title."