16 Consecutive Boston Marathons: Amanda Hicks on Sub-3:01 Training & Racing

DFW Running Talk: Amanda Hicks
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Chris Detzel: [00:00:00] Welcome to DFW Running Talk. I'm Chris Detzel, so let's get started.

All right. Welcome to another DFW Running Talk. I'm Chris Detzel, and today we have special guest Amanda Hicks. Amanda, how are you?

Amanda Hicks: Hey. Doing all right. How are you

Chris Detzel: Doing well, it's funny because I know you live in Phoenix or Flagstaff, right?

Amanda Hicks: I do,

Chris Detzel: yeah. But you used to live here in Dallas area, I think, and you and I met through A-W-R-R-C run, so that was cool.

But I didn't really talk to you. I just saw you and there's this woman from Flagstaff. I didn't know who you were or whatever. But funny enough, so my wife runs. Boston every year. You showed up for Boston, as you do every year? I do as well. Now during kind of the, I guess the run before Boston marathon, you and I just had a good chat for five or six miles, whatever it was, four or five.

Yep. I forget. Yeah. And I was like, Hey, you should come on this podcast 'cause you have a great story. You do. Oh, here you are.

Amanda Hicks: Yeah. Yeah, it's, I lived in Dallas. I grew up in Grand Prairie. I went to South Prairie High School, [00:01:00] graduated in 2002, which shows my age, and then came back to after grad school to work for the Dallas Morning News.

I actually trained for my first marathon. I was working the night shift. At the Dallas Morning News and I would run in the afternoons of, around a white rock lake. So that was miserable. Wow. Yeah, if I can run in the heat in the middle of the summer around white rock lake and train there I feel like I can run anywhere.

Chris Detzel: Sounds terrible. I. Yeah. So you worked for Dallas Morning News. That's pretty cool.

Amanda Hicks: Yeah. Yeah. I worked there for about a year, and then I went to Washington dc I lived there for 13, 14 years, and then ended up moving to Flagstaff mostly for the running because my husband and I can work anywhere remotely.

So we chose Flagstaff. We both love the trails here. But it was definitely a culture shock moving from DC to to Flagstaff, a little mountain town.

Chris Detzel: I'm sure a lot less people. Yeah. Dallas to DC

Amanda Hicks: yeah.

Chris Detzel: Hustling and bustling, [00:02:00] especially in DC and then.

Amanda Hicks: Yeah,

Chris Detzel: I wouldn't say dead, a different atmosphere.

I'm sure

Amanda Hicks: a lot slower. And there are a lot of runners here, but I'm not a slow runner, but here I'm one of the slower runners. There are a lot of Olympians up here and you really find people on both ends of the spectrum. There's somebody you know, who like Sharon, Ty, runs a trail right by my house that's pretty, and Sarah, I see Sarah Hall running around a lot.

She lives close by, does Jim

Chris Detzel: Longley live close?

Amanda Hicks: Honestly lives about three or four miles away, but like I saw him last week up on top of a mountain you. Been to, I like beers with them before but everybody knows everybody here. Yeah. And then, on the other end of the spectrum, you have very recreational runners in Flagstaff.

And then you have the, middle to, competitive age group. People like me who I can find people to run with, but it's, I'm not an elite. But I do see them around a lot.

Chris Detzel: What got you into running? Like when did you start was it at Dallas News or? Dallas? Yeah.

Amanda Hicks: So yeah, I, I think I can trace my running journey [00:03:00] back to playing soccer.

I was a, I played soccer from the time I was able to walk basically to the time I guess I played through high school and I. Was looking for something else to do that would still keep me fit. I played midfield in soccer and I was the person who could stay out there on the field for a long time and never get tired.

And so they said let's let's make a run. Yeah I ran a couple of half marathons and really was doing it just to stay in shape, but then. Realized after my first marathon in 2008 that, hey, I could run a little bit faster. My first marathon, I ran a 3 55 and then my second marathon I ran a 3 32, which I had to look it up and I realized that was Boston Qualifying at the time.

Yeah, I after that, so let's

Chris Detzel: back up. Yeah. You mentioned you ran a couple of half marathons. Was this like after high school, college?

Amanda Hicks: Yeah. I ran, I guess my first half marathon was, I was in grad school. I went to grad school at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri, which is a [00:04:00] great place to run.

And I, I ran right under two hours and, I was competitive. But I realized, if I just put in a little bit more work, I could go faster. And I just, I liked the process. I liked, the idea I'm a. A journalism major, I have two journalism degrees, and I feel like, it's the idea that you put into it.

You can report a story you can put into running a lot of effort and you get out of it what you can, what you put into it. So that's, sure. If I worked a little bit harder, I felt like I, I could qualify for Boston, I could get faster, I could be stronger. And I just liked that progression.

So that is what drew me to running initially. Then I got on this kick where I was running like five or six marathons a year and I was getting faster and faster. I was putting in a hundred mile weeks. I was running, like three oh something or a lot. And so my marathon PR is a 3 0 1.

Okay. And I've run that a couple of times and I've run a 3 0 2 [00:05:00] and a 3 0 3. I never broke three. There's still time break down the cusp, but I think there's still time. Yeah. Sure. But I really liked just seeing that progression and seeing those big chunks of time come off. I was a solo runner.

I always said I hated training with people. I hated group runs. But then I found a group in DC that I really loved. They were all, dc everyone's super type A,

Chris Detzel: yeah.

Amanda Hicks: And I I joined in with those, with this group, it's called The Dojo of Pain, which sounds really intimidating, but it's a great group of people.

Chris Detzel: That's awesome.

Amanda Hicks: Yeah. And so they pushed me to get faster and I kept running with them and they're some of my best friends.

Chris Detzel: You were there 14 years or something? Yeah. 12, 14, whatever.

Amanda Hicks: Yeah, I really only met them in the last five or six years. And that group helped me, really define myself as a runner.

And I found my group and so that, that was the toughest thing to leave, I would say. I. But the pandemic just made it [00:06:00] clear that I needed a life change. So some mood Flagstaff, but I did meet a lot. I come back to Dallas a lot every year, at least for Christmas. And then a couple of times also throughout the year, I feel

Chris Detzel: like I just saw you the other day.

Amanda Hicks: I know. Yeah, it was just there last week. I come to see my family. They all live in East Dallas and right next to the lake. My mom's house is half a mile from the lake, so I run around the lake a lot. I met Kieran and Fawns. And gosh it was before they even started the Pegasus group. So it's been years and years ago.

And

Chris Detzel: 2012 or something like that. Before that,

Amanda Hicks: yeah, like when Strava was just starting, I met those guys and so I, I ran with them and it's been cool to see that group grow. I, and I love meeting new people. When I come back to Dallas, I sign up for all the runs on Strava, all the Facebook groups.

I, I just. I love to meet people and hear their stories and learn new routes because I can run around the lake a million times. Yeah. But I like to explore new [00:07:00] places,

Chris Detzel: I love that because you come out like on the Hill runs on Wednesday. Wednesdays sometimes it's so early.

Amanda Hicks: You guys run at 5:00 AM Oh my gosh.

Chris Detzel: I get there at six, so I don't run the 5:00 am one because they'll do three loops. They'll do it three times, and so they start at five something. Then they come back around and then start at six, and then I think they do a third loop.

I just do that middle loop and that's it,

Amanda Hicks: yeah.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. But I love that about you. Like you, you know people here, and you're still taking a risk of, Hey, when I come to Dallas, I'm gonna go run with some people.

Amanda Hicks: Yeah. And I'm gonna wake up at 5:00 AM

Chris Detzel: Yeah. But

Amanda Hicks: But I. That's early for me because I'm two hours behind you, so Sure. True. Time shifted anyway. And it's always a temperature shift. I live at 7,000, 7,200 feet up here, big time shift. So when I come down to sea level, it feels good, but then you have to contend with the humidity, it feels bad. Yeah. But yeah, I would say if I go through [00:08:00] my reasons for running,

Chris Detzel: yeah.

Amanda Hicks: When you start off, you wanna see how fast you can get, and at some point that kind of levels off you peak at some point. And hopefully it's later in life than early sooner. You don't wanna peak too soon.

And for women, it's, it can be later, I'm told, but now I really do it to, it's a bright spot in my day. I can, I know that I can still win some age group awards. I know that I probably still have a couple of good races in me. I love to meet people and connect you. It's a reason to get out of the house.

So all of those reasons

Chris Detzel: all right. Let's put it in perspective here. How many Boston marathons have you qualified and run

Amanda Hicks: qualified? Oh, gosh. This sounds terrible. I qualify almost every time I run a marathon. It would be odd for me not to qualify because. Like my paces are pretty quick.

So I, sometimes I'll have a bad race and not requalify. A couple of Bostons ago I ran, I had only tested negative for COVID like a couple of days before, so I was [00:09:00] struggled and I think I missed qualifying requalifying by a couple of minutes, and that was a death march. That was terrible.

But yeah, I would, that was just one of those let's just keep the streak. I've run it every year since 2010. Wow. This past year was my 10th and I count the virtual as one of those, because I think Boston counts the virtual As, yeah, as one of the Times 16

Chris Detzel: Boston variables.

Amanda Hicks: 16 consecutive.

Yeah. So that's pretty awesome. Yeah, so the goal is to get to 25. There's a famous writer named George Shehan and he's Long Dead. He wrote he wrote a lot of really interesting running books back in the seventies and eighties, and he made it to 25. I love, how he talks about and writes about running, so I would love to get to 25.

They give you the quarter Century Club bib. You'll see these old guys running with it's a lot of men right now because women have to really like age up into it. But they give you a bib that says you're in the [00:10:00] quarter century clubs. That would be cool. I've read about them and they have a lot of organized meetups, so I'm really into that and I think that's, that started so young.

I feel like I can make it, it's only nine more, eight more years I feel like I can make it.

Chris Detzel: I think that's extremely doable. Yeah.

Amanda Hicks: Yeah. Just don't get injured. Just don't get to in April. Just be healthy enough. Do you do 25

Chris Detzel: in a row to get it? Yeah. Or is it, yeah. Okay. Yeah. It's a quarter section, not just 25.

Amanda Hicks: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Okay. That's, it's very doable for you. I think

Amanda Hicks: I

Chris Detzel: yeah. Then I'll ran Boston. Go ahead.

Amanda Hicks: Yeah. Then maybe I'll stop and do something else in the spring. It's hard to really, to run the same goal marathon every spring.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. Do you run a marathon before Boston or throughout, or is it you just do that one now?

Amanda Hicks: It's I've done different things. I am, so this past year I ran the Napa Valley Marathon in early March, and so that gave me six or seven weeks between marathons to. [00:11:00] To get ready for Boston again. I ran a three 19 there, which was pretty good for me on that day. Yep. And then I ran 3 24 at Boston which was fine.

Not my best, not my worst. And then

Chris Detzel: you did run one six weeks before, so I did,

Amanda Hicks: yeah. And I had a half marathon in between, I think something. Anyway, yeah I ran a lot. And back in 2015 I did Boston, a big sir. Yeah. And that was six days between, so that year I ran a 3 0 1 at Boston at a three 15 at Big Sur.

I was super fit. And then in 2017 I ran. Boston in London, and that was six days apart. Yeah. And I ran London faster, so I think it was like a three 17 Boston. Three 11 London.

Chris Detzel: Okay. My wife did that this year. She ran, yeah.

Amanda Hicks: Yeah. Boston. Yeah. What did she think?

Chris Detzel: I think that she loved the experience.

So Boston, she ran, I think it was 3 35 or something, and then London was four 11. One is, she didn't, I didn't go with her to London. I did go with [00:12:00] her deposit, but she said that. It was a great experience. Amazing. But it was so crowded. They had like record number of crowds. Yeah. 56 or 7,000 people and you could tell she said literally it was just, she goes, it was a great experience and it was well done.

But, it was just, for now, I think for her London, she spent so much time trying to get in and, she's okay, that was a great experience, but I'm not sure I'm gonna. Do that again, yeah. Is she trying to do all the majors? She was and she was, now she only has Tokyo left.

She's not sure if, she's I don't know. We'll see. So I think for now she's gonna be more focused in on Boston and that being her only race for now, and wants to do other things. Some short stuffs, some weight lifting and other things like that,

Amanda Hicks: yeah. Yeah.

Chris Detzel: So she's been doing it for 20 years, running, yeah. Hardcore for her, and she's okay, what's it gonna be like to not train for a marathon for until January? Yeah.

Amanda Hicks: Yeah, no, that off season is helpful. Last [00:13:00] year I started to train up for indie and then I didn't feel great in the fall, so I didn't run a fall marathon, and I think it helped me in the spring.

I think that was how I was able to do a couple this spring.

Chris Detzel: But yeah, maybe she get the mojo or whatever back, yeah, we'll see. But she'll get it, I think. Look, I was just glad she made it so I can go back to positive.

Amanda Hicks: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: I was so excited. I knew that she wasn't gonna make it this time, qualify, which I figured she would.

But then I was like, all right, you've gotta make it so we can go back.

Amanda Hicks: Yeah. Yeah. It's helpful after 10 that they give you, that you don't have to get, under the qualifying standard Yeah. That you only have to meet the qualifying standard. I know that's probably a little controversial because so many people try so hard to get so far under the standard, but I feel if after you've done it 10 times, they need to give you some kind of concession.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. Yeah. And they did. And they do after 10 bosses. Yeah. I don't think it's in a row. It's just a matter of. Yeah. Did you do 10? Yeah. It is in row. I don't know. So [00:14:00] how many as you kinda look now, after Boston Marathon and things like that, what is your training look like today?

What are you trying to, is it? Yeah, hardcore. Is it just laid back a little bit?

Amanda Hicks: I've had three different coaches and I feel like I'm in this cycle where every couple of years I go back to a coach just to add something new. So I'm probably due for another coach right now.

'Cause I haven't had one in a couple of years. But I use the the Pete Inger plan as a rough outline. I don't know if you're familiar with him but. Yeah, I am a pretty high mileage runner. When I was at sea level, I would regularly run like a hundred mile weeks. Now I'm up in the seventies. Up to 80.

Yeah. I've done a hundred a couple of times up here at Altitude, but it takes a lot of time. It takes a lot out of you. And as I get older, I just can't do that as often. Right now I took a little bit of downtime after Boston, but then I got back into a half marathon cycle, have a half marathon coming up in three weeks in near [00:15:00] Seattle.

It's called the Super Fast. Half marathon. If they're gonna call it a super fast half marathon, I feel like it has to be fast know. So it's a have to hear

Chris Detzel: about it.

Amanda Hicks: Alright. It's a the point to point. It's not one of those like revel, like super downhill ones because those just tear up my quads.

I can't do those.

Chris Detzel: Can't even do a half. Like on the downhill. Yeah, like for the rebels.

Amanda Hicks: Yeah. It's downhill, but it's like gradual downhill. And it's, the surface from what I can tell is chat. It's not a road marathon, so it'll be fun. My husband's running it too. That's a short distance for him.

He's a, he is an ultra runner so yeah, we're both running that. And then I actually got into this. Sydney Marathon in Australia. Yeah. Nice. A couple of three weeks ago. So yeah.

Chris Detzel: Congratulations. That's exciting. Yeah.

Amanda Hicks: Thanks. Yeah, so I had to book that very quickly. I just finished booking our travel plans for late August, and so I refocused to.

To add a little bit more volume to that half marathon plan. And I'll run Sydney and then [00:16:00] I'll run, if I can recover. I'll run in Indie this fall, which is early November. So

Chris Detzel: pretty intense. It's a lot.

Amanda Hicks: It's a lot of running this year, but I felt a lot better after. As I turned 40, I just had some like hormonal issues.

I'm in perimenopause, like squarely in perimenopause right now. Once I got those hormones sorted out, like I feel. A million times better now. And I've been running a lot stronger since then, so I'm excited to see what I can do with all that sorted out. And I think Sydney will just be fun. It won't be a goal race.

It'll be a check the box, like it's the one of the seventh marathon major, so I'll Have you done

Chris Detzel: all the other six or,

Amanda Hicks: I haven't done Tokyo and I haven't done Berlin, but if I can run a sub three 10, I think I. Qualify for Berlin as an old lady. Yeah. So

Chris Detzel: three 10, that's still pretty fast.

Yes. Pretty fast. That's for you

Amanda Hicks: pretty fast. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like I could probably do it on a fast course, flat course. Cold day Indie, right? Maybe. So that's the goal. And then Tokyo I don't know how to get [00:17:00] into that. I'm gonna have to pay a lot of money. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. So I, I wanna do

Chris Detzel: $10,000 basically, get into, it's crazy.

Amanda Hicks: Yeah,

Chris Detzel: it might not be 10,000, but it's gonna be 7,000, or yeah, something like that. But I do know Andy Wheatcroft, he yeah, you might talk to him to see how he did it, because yeah, he gave to some charity, but, even if they asked for. A thousand bucks, you probably have to give $3,000.

To even get in. Yeah. Yeah. It's a weird kind of thing.

Amanda Hicks: I know. Yeah. So already get

Chris Detzel: into this through charity or the tour thing, so

Amanda Hicks: Yeah. Yeah. I'll figure it out. I don't know, maybe wait a couple of years until I can save more money after the Sydney trip.

Chris Detzel: Exactly.

Amanda Hicks: But the yeah, so the training right now is probably I'm up to about 70 miles a week.

I just ran a. Three hour event. It was called an ultra marathon, but who can run an ultra marathon in three hours at Al Altitude? I don't know. But I got second place. I got second place in that that was on Sunday? No. Wow. Yeah. Second

Chris Detzel: place woman or overall

Amanda Hicks: second place woman.

Chris Detzel: Okay. [00:18:00]

Amanda Hicks: I think third overall.

Yeah. So that's cool. That's crazy. Awesome. So that, I do things like that. I'd say a standard week is probably 70 to 75 miles one day. Super easy, four miles maybe, or rest. I have a Peloton, I do some Peloton writing. I try to get, you don't feel

Chris Detzel: like that's a so I talked to.

Two other people, two women just in this last week or so, that love their pelotons and it gives you strength training. So that's becoming more and more of a I, and it's probably been there, I'm hearing it about it more and more.

Amanda Hicks: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: But only from women right now. I haven't heard many men doing it yet, so I don't know.

Amanda Hicks: There are a lot of there are a lot of cute instructors on there. Maybe that's it. I don't know. Yeah. I also, I'll also do a couple of classes with with friends of mine. You can sync up your schedules and so you can see each other riding. That's pretty cool. Yeah. So that's fun. A

Chris Detzel: competition,

Amanda Hicks: yeah. And then I'll I do two or three days of mobility and strength [00:19:00] every week, so smart. And. I, you have to do strength work at our age. I say our age once you're like over 30 our age, I mean our age, look, I'm

Chris Detzel: 50, so

Amanda Hicks: Yeah. Yeah. I'm a bit

Chris Detzel: older than you, but still.

Amanda Hicks: So I do a lot of like band work and activation and, strength stuff. I think the

Chris Detzel: sooner that you can get that focused, the sooner you can start doing that, the better off you're gonna be. Just overall as a runner And longevity. Will help I think.

Amanda Hicks: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: It's not just stretching, but I think it's the strength work, the core work, weights, all those things, putting that into your workout, I think is extremely important.

I don't do it enough for sure but I think it's word to the wives. Obviously, look how long you've been doing it. I've had one

Amanda Hicks: injury, like one major injury the whole time I've been running, and it was a wow, an overuse injury. It was a foot stress reaction, and I was out for six weeks and that's it.

I'll have little things pop up, but I've been very lucky, knock on wood that that I don't let things [00:20:00] go for very long. And I get, I see a PT every two or three weeks, sometimes less if I'm not training that hard. But yeah I keep

Chris Detzel: it. I was talking to somebody yesterday and probably high school and in college, she was injured all the time.

And one of the reasons was when she hit college, she was over like doing too many miles. 'cause there's just some people, in my opinion, like me, like if that hitting 40 or 50, 40 is probably my sweet spot. I don't wanna go too much over that on a consistent basis. Sometimes I can maybe hit 50, but anything after that for me is just.

Too much. Yeah. And then, then when she started her kind of marathon journey, she started doing more core work, strength work, little bit less mileage. She's hitting the fifties and things like that, but, and she's really fast. She's hitting you under three hours or three or four.

So it's not like she hasn't really been injured at all, and she, that's probably the last five or seven years, she's young. But I do think there's something with that. And especially. I'm not saying you can't do 70 miles a hundred miles. You [00:21:00] can, but you gotta think about your body, and then what can your body do?

And then, when you start doing the other exercises, I think it's gonna be important. I love that you brought that up. Yeah, I, that's what people are. Yeah.

Amanda Hicks: I also sleep a lot. I don't have kids. I have a dog that it keeps me up, but Perfect. I don't, I have a job that is, it's a good job, but I have really good work life balance.

I'm lucky. I've had jobs that do not offer that, and this one does, I work east. Are you still a journalist? No, I, so right now I work for Comcast, like the cable company doing advertising technology and, Oh yeah. You told me that. Yeah, and I'm lucky because they really don't schedule meetings before about 8:00 AM my time.

They would be the rare meeting that's before seven things have to be really crazy to have a meeting before seven so I can get all my running done before eight and then my afternoons are pretty free. I can I'm super lucky there. I get, yeah. I get a lot of sleep. I am, you just take

Chris Detzel: a nap in the afternoon, like you have to, right?[00:22:00]

Amanda Hicks: Yeah, I am. I am so lucky so that I know that whenever I don't get that sleep and whenever I don't have that balance that I can't put in like that kind of mileage. Yeah. If I have other obligations that take me away from the running and the running goes. But luckily I've been able to train pretty consistently for the last.

So ton, tons of years. 15, 16 years obviously. Yeah. Yeah. It's been great. No, I

Chris Detzel: love that. And I think that. You have you built the life that you wanted. And I think you have to be, to me, if you can be intentional about doing some of that stuff, it's great.

Whether it's the job or no kids or whatever, sure. And now you live in a place that you can just,

Amanda Hicks: I can walk out my life. Amazing.

Chris Detzel: Running experience.

Amanda Hicks: I'm, I am a quarter mile from from a beautiful trail and I can see a mountain out my window and I'm, I am so lucky and I do not take it for granted that I'm healthy and able to run.

Yeah. Do you run

Chris Detzel: the trails a lot?

Amanda Hicks: Everything is a trail here. Everything is dirt or a fire road. It's hard [00:23:00] to find. Flat road runs unless you run on Lake Mary, which is great, but can get old. So yes, I run a lot of trails. Which is just kind of dirt. I don't run the technical trails that often because I'm pretty risk averse but I will get on those.

And you

Chris Detzel: haven't been injured much.

Amanda Hicks: True. I see a technical downhill and I freeze, so I'm not the best technical runner, but I have run trail ultra marathons and road ultra marathons too. What's the most

Chris Detzel: you've ever run, as it race?

Amanda Hicks: Yeah. So back in 2016, my husband and I ran comrades. Wow. Which is, yeah, it's the oldest ultra marathon in the world. It's in South Africa, and it was such an experience. Oh my gosh. It was just 56. It's 50

Chris Detzel: miles or something? 56 miles. 56.

Amanda Hicks: It depends on the year. They changed the roads.

Chris Detzel: Okay,

Amanda Hicks: so this was a.

Down gear, which means you go from Petersburg, which is the mountains, down to Durban, which is by the ocean and way better

Chris Detzel: to go down than [00:24:00] up to be. But I don't know, 56 miles is a lot.

Amanda Hicks: You think Yeah, it's great. I wanna run downhill. Not that many miles. I love running downhill.

But then your quads start to hate you about halfway through and yeah, by the end, like I was like running sideways. Because like your leg muscles don't wanna do that anymore. Yeah. Imagine running Boston twice. It's just miserable. Yeah. But the crowd support is amazing. You've just got people with food stands and all the food and drinks you could ever want.

It's just a giant party. That, that's,

Chris Detzel: Anything to do with ultras, you're gonna have these nice eight stations and food. Yeah. It's always a part of it.

Amanda Hicks: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. I love that too.

Amanda Hicks: Yeah, that, that's the longest I've run 1, 1 50 miler gosh, it's been years ago. And some 50 I actually ran the cowtown 50 K.

Yeah. Back in 20, Ooh 16, something like that. And ran a 3 53, which was pretty [00:25:00] quick.

Chris Detzel: It's very quick.

Amanda Hicks: Yeah. Yeah. And that was a one, one of the course records at the time, I think it was the course record.

Chris Detzel: No. What? You get the record?

Amanda Hicks: Yeah. Yeah. That was same. You won

Chris Detzel: it.

Amanda Hicks: I, no I got, I might have gotten second because the woman in front of me got the course record too, so I broke Anyway I think I got the second fast.

I know. And she was like legit, like a Do you remember who it was something. Anyway, sorry. You don't

Chris Detzel: remember who it was?

Amanda Hicks: I don't, I remember Camille Herron was her name, but she dropped out and so Really? Yeah, so I kicked her ass. Sweet. Yeah. But no, it was somebody else. Somebody else won.

Chris Detzel: Okay. No, I talked to Liz Northern and she lives in Fort Worth and she's run the 50 K before and yeah, whatever, and she's really fast, so

Amanda Hicks: yeah, it might have been her, but she does the

Chris Detzel: marathon half.

Who knows? She runs it every year. Different distances, so

Amanda Hicks: yeah. Yeah, that, that name sounds familiar. I don't remember, but I remember looking at this woman up being like, [00:26:00] oh she's like D three, somebody. I don't know. I don't know who.

Chris Detzel: You're pretty quick. You're still running low threes,

Amanda Hicks: yeah. No I'm still, putting in the miles and going pretty quick. I ran a look at us. I love it. Ran a 1 1 29 in the half in Austin. Wow. That's downhill, but still counts,

Chris Detzel: We shouldn't, I think that whatever you run on any given day. It counts like Sure. I ran my fastest downhill at 1 28 is my fastest.

Yeah. Two years ago, right? Yeah. And so I counted, it was one of the Revel races and I wanna go back and try to beat that,

Amanda Hicks: yeah, like those downhill races are hard. Like I've run some fast super downhill races and I have blown up completely in some of those. So you really have to train for 'em.

You have to, you have to have a lot of strength and you have to have a lot of fatigue resistance for the end.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, I remember running. So it was the one in Utah, the Revel. I think it's 2,900 feet of downhill. So it's a lot. Just in a half marathon. And so that first, I [00:27:00] don't know, 10 miles were just, I was flying like I've never run so fast for so long.

Ever First mile. I took it kinda slow, but then after that I didn't. I thought like mile six or seven, I was running, I don't know, six 15. Six thirteens, and then I was hitting another six 13. Another 6 15, 6 19. I was like, I don't think I've ever done this in my life. Yeah. And then the last three miles, because it just pay

Amanda Hicks: out

Chris Detzel: levels out.

But it seems like you're going uphill. 'cause there's probably a little bit of. I'd call 'em uphills, but it felt like it was an uphill Yeah. And it was getting hotter. And and my legs were just crushed. And so I still ran a one 20. I thought I was gonna hit a 1 25 or under because I thought, man, I'm flying.

I don't even know what the opportunity here is. Yeah. This is amazing. This is gonna be great. And although it still hit a PR by, pretty good amount, I still think I could have done better if I would've known about how fast I could go as I'm going down,

Amanda Hicks: yeah. Yeah. [00:28:00]

Chris Detzel: So I do think it helps, but I also think, you can blow up 'cause the last three miles because, it gets hot, it gets hurts, everything's hurting and you're just trying to get through that.

But yeah, the point is to me that's fun. Like I can't wait

Amanda Hicks: to, yeah. Yeah, I mean my, I count it as my five KP is really probably not, but it's my 5K PR is hood to Coast Leg one, which is just from the top of Mount Hood, like just bombing down a mountain. So hood to coast is a relay race, but the first leg is notoriously just like straight down.

It's 500 feet per miles. It's terrible. So I ran an 18, 12 5 K nice. Which for me is I'm I'm not that fast, but yeah, it's, it is five or six miles where you just. Bomb down. Yeah. And then after that you have to run two more legs within 24 hours for our team. 'cause we're really fast and your legs are just so shot.

So you really, you just give it all on [00:29:00] the first one and then try to regroup the other ones.

Chris Detzel: Just do whatever you can. Yeah, I love that. Yeah. During that, funny enough, like during that half marathon, I ran two prs and a 5K. Yeah. Like I ran like 1920s. Yeah. Two of them.

And my previous was like in 1952 or something.

Amanda Hicks: Yeah. Yeah. And

Chris Detzel: then I ran, like everything was a PR that, from a half marathon to 10 K to, yeah. I ran like a 39 minute 10 k, yeah. Which that's incredible. Is like a 41,

Amanda Hicks: yeah. Yeah.

Chris Detzel: That's the beauty about some downhills.

Now, some friends were doing the marathon, and I was like, that's a different beast, because you can only go downhill for so long, so fast. And these guys were like, they're from Dallas. And they went and they thought, man, I'm gonna kill it. I'm just gonna, I was like for a while you will. Something's gonna happen. And it did. Like this one guy I'm gonna hit under three hours. He hit 3 35. Another guy was like, I'm gonna hit three 10. He hit three 50. You know what I mean? Yeah. It was just [00:30:00] that much of a difference. Yeah. Glow up because going that fast for that long, it just.

And especially because we can't really train for that in Dallas,

Amanda Hicks: right? Yeah. They just saw, that's what I was gonna say. Oh, it's down hill.

Chris Detzel: I can't wait. So yeah.

Amanda Hicks: Yeah. You guys, you do not have the hills. You've got like flagpole and you've got Yeah. Holy hills to do, but that does not prepare your quads for that amount of downhill.

You just, there is nothing like that you can train on in Dallas

Chris Detzel: exactly. So I have some more questions for you 'cause I'm really more interested now, like we got your journey a little bit. You started while and you seem to really love running because you're just two for years and years and still continue to run two or three marathons a year, some half marathons and things like that.

As you think about you and your husband, you mentioned that he's a runner as well. Talk to me about some of the trips that you do together or some of the, 'cause I'll just give an example so you can kinda. Think about it, like my wife and I have done, some epic trips.

So last year in September we did this really cool Alps trip and it was a [00:31:00] five or six day trip. It was a glamping like thing. We'd stay in hotels, but we had run. Seven to 12 miles every single day in the Alps with the guide, and then there was a race at the end of it.

I didn't do it because, I think I signed for 50 k. I was like, fuck, I'm not gonna do it. If I would've known, I would've done the like 20 K or something. The point is it like, and then one year we did this it was a 120 miles in six days in Colorado with 20,000 feet of gain. I forget what it's called.

It's the last year, this year. But it was just epic, right? Like she'll do marathons. I go out there, I don't really do marathons, I can do up to marathons if I were like in the mountain things, doing stuff like that. But to sometimes focus in on whether it's races or, a trip of running and things like that.

Do you guys do anything like that or,

Amanda Hicks: yeah we definitely do. So on our shared bucket list is shei. We went

Chris Detzel: there.

Amanda Hicks: Love love to do that.

Chris Detzel: Yep.

Amanda Hicks: So you're speaking my language on that.

Chris Detzel: You should. You should absolutely do it as soon as possible.

Amanda Hicks: Yeah, we go to Tahoe [00:32:00] every year. We have a place in Tahoe that we have a timeshare actually, that we have for a week in August.

Nice, nice. Yeah. And then my mom also has one we meet up with her and hang out there. And the trails in Tahoe are amazing in August. It's beautiful. Sometimes it's smoky. So that's problem. So we always do that, but, we we plan running trips, I would say weekends away.

It's been really great to live in Arizona because we can drive to Colorado to even bigger mountains than we have here in the summer. And then in the winter we can go down to Sedona. I'm 30 minutes from Sedona, so that's. That's amazing and we can do just, day trips down there. I will, he'll run my, if I ever, if I do a double in the afternoon, he'll run that with me.

He does a lot of long runs on the weekends, that's

Yeah. So we will s support each other. He'll drop bottles for me or Oh, nice. Pick 'em up here or there. But yeah, so we, we do that. But [00:33:00] I would say we've taken a lot of running trips. I can't name them all. I would say anything

Chris Detzel: coming up, that you're gonna be doing coming up.

Amanda Hicks: We've got, let's see, we've got we're going to Seattle together for this Seattle area. Is it the Cascades? I forget? Yeah,

Chris Detzel: I think so. Yeah. Yeah.

Amanda Hicks: Tim Will, will run a little bit while we're there and then we will go to Tahoe and Australia, but I'll be tapering, so I don't know what he's going to do.

He's running a hundred K in July in Oregon, actually. Oregon,

Chris Detzel: you go to that as well, or?

Amanda Hicks: Yeah, so I'll go to that. That's just a weekend trip. And then we actually stayed in Dallas for about a month this past year because we wanted to run somewhere that was not snowy. That makes, so over the Christmas break we stayed in Dallas, but it turned out this year Dallas got more snow than Flagstaff got over that time period.

So we chose poorly power. But still fun. Yeah,

Chris Detzel: please you could come and do if you do that again, just do the Dallas Marathon half or something like that, and just visit. Yeah.

Amanda Hicks: Yeah, we [00:34:00] could. But that can be hot though sometimes. Wasn't it hot? It was not

Chris Detzel: usually, yeah. Like it's just a half, you don't have to

Amanda Hicks: yeah. You can. Yeah. Half can be,

Chris Detzel: if you, if you decide to come, just sign up for it and just. It can be hot. It was warm last this last year. Yeah, it was really warm and nasty.

Amanda Hicks: See,

Chris Detzel: but

Amanda Hicks: that's true. You're my point.

Yeah. I

Chris Detzel: did the one 50 and I was like, god damn. Like I was trying to pace it and I did, but I. As a tank, like I can't, usually one 50 is probably not a problem, but it was.

Amanda Hicks: Yeah. So I think, we've got some travel coming up. I think next year we may try to do shamini if we can save enough money after this giant Sydney trip.

Chris Detzel: You're doing Sydney, so Yeah. Yeah. That's huge. That's a cool opportunity though.

Amanda Hicks: I know. Yeah, we're going to Fiji as well, so Nice. Yeah. Yeah. Have you ever been

Chris Detzel: to Australia or.

Amanda Hicks: No, and this opportunity just came up because I put in for one of those Abbott draws, yeah. Or they send you this.

They're like, you might win. I'm like, I'll [00:35:00] never win, and I won. The

Chris Detzel: winter, one of the, not so many. That's gonna be pretty packed.

Amanda Hicks: I know. Yeah. That's why I say it's definitely just a check the box. Complete the race. Is

Chris Detzel: it hot there too? So is it always hot in Australia? No,

Amanda Hicks: Fiji is about, is the same temperature year round.

But in Australia, I think last year it was warm, but it should be in the forties or fifties I think. '

Chris Detzel: cause

Amanda Hicks: it's August 1st, which is spring, winter ish for them. Okay. 'cause Southern Hemisphere.

Chris Detzel: So potentially, most likely it's gonna be cool, but potentially it could be winter.

Amanda Hicks: It's hilly no prs. No prs. It's fine.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. You're gonna, you're gonna PR in Indy,

Amanda Hicks: i'll get my Southern Hemisphere pr.

Chris Detzel: That's true. That's

Amanda Hicks: right. Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. I remember one time, I don't know if I told this, but I went to Belfast for a work trip one year.

This was probably like four years ago. Five, I don't know. Right before COVID, let's just say. So it's been a while. But anyways, I went to Belfast and I signed up for this half marathon bill, [00:36:00] half. And so it was on a Saturday. I get there Friday night. Yeah, I know. But I had to stay awake. It was like, what can I do?

And I signed up for this kind of trail run. And then, so I took a Uber, which I had Uber. It was really hard to get back, but, and it was about 45 minutes outside of Belfast. And so I was in the city, but then you know's all these windy roads. So I get there, I'm talking to the race director and he's where are you from?

I was like, Dallas, Texas. He goes, you, Dallas. So they were shocked that number one, I would sign up for that. I was like I have a work trip. And I thought, why not come here? And so I did. I won the half marathon. What? And yeah, I mean it was a trail, but it was, it was really.

It's kinda like what you're talking about. It was more of the just very, some hills, but it wasn't like crazy.

Amanda Hicks: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: And they're like, oh my gosh, you won it. You came here. There's only 30 people running it or something. And but then there were, they had a marathon. Luckily I didn't do that and I.

It's, they gave me two, they gave me a trophy and two medals. 'cause they're like, oh, just take this medal. It's really cool that you came and they were all excited. And and I'll tell you the last part of it, because it was [00:37:00] fun. I wasn't running, but I also, that Sunday, 'cause I wa like watching the NFL found this 'cause they don't have NFL games in Belfast.

And I found this Facebook group that has a group of people that meet at this bar in Belfast every Sunday. They meet kinda later. And I went there and they gave me, they started buying me beers and hanging out, 'cause I just walked over there and back and stuff like that, even though it was another mile or so.

And so it was the coolest experience. Yeah. Then I went to work the next day.

Amanda Hicks: Yeah. Did you wear your medal?

Chris Detzel: Yeah. No, but I told them, I told people at work, I told people at work that I won and they're like, they kinda made an announcement or whatever, but amazing. So good. Yeah, I digress. But it was a cool experience, yeah. So who knows? And I'll show you what kind of experience you're gonna have.

Amanda Hicks: I, you never know. One time I won a it was the first 50 K that I ever entered and it was like super low key. But the, the prize. It was in North Carolina in this like super backwoods [00:38:00] area, and the prize was a knife in this giant leather holster.

Nice. And I mean a good thing we drove because there's no way I could have checked that on a plane. Anyway, still we could put in

Chris Detzel: luggage maybe. I don't know.

Amanda Hicks: Maybe, I don't know. Could I? I should. I wouldn't want to, but I dunno.

Chris Detzel: Throw the shit out. Yeah.

Amanda Hicks: Still the weirdest.

Chris Detzel: That is weird.

Amanda Hicks: Weirdest prize. But you won.

Chris Detzel: You won. Yeah.

Amanda Hicks: Yeah. 50 K you said 50 K? Yeah. First 50 K. Wow. Yeah, so

Chris Detzel: that's pretty amazing. And you get a knife with a holster, you still have it.

Amanda Hicks: Threw it away pretty quick. I really don't, I keep all my race bibs. I keep all my Boston medals, but I pretty much throw everything else away I've got, you can see behind me, I've got a couple little trophies that are just cute, but I'll probably throw it. Me too.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, that was it's a knife, it's gotta be the most unique thing you've ever got.

Amanda Hicks: Yeah. Yeah. It was certainly,

Chris Detzel: I'm trying to think like I've, I got this little a [00:39:00] 5K, I got this holster not so long ago at the. Velvet Hammer. So it's like just this and it's made of like stonelike, and I was like, oh, this is pretty cool. Yeah. Now I put my coffee mug on it.

You? Yeah. That's nice. Yeah. Okay. I mean's something useful. I don't look, I'm not a big fan of I get the bibs and I throw it away. I get the metals and I just throw it on a. Where the washer is somewhere and there's a shipton of metals everywhere. I'm like, why don't I keep these? I don't know.

Maybe one day I'll go back and say, oh, 2019 I did this, or something like

Amanda Hicks: that. I know I, I keep a log of all my races, but that's pretty much the only, yeah.

Chris Detzel: Usually I would go through an entire journey, but I knew Amanda with you. I was like, that's just too many.

Amanda Hicks: Tell me all the marathon.

I think I've run. 60 something marathons. I don't, I can't, 60

Chris Detzel: marathons. Wow. Yeah. That's pretty amazing. Yeah. Do you know how many halves you brought?

Amanda Hicks: I could pull up my spreadsheet and tell you It's more than 60, I think. Okay.

Chris Detzel: Okay.

Amanda Hicks: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: But if you're doing, if you're doing a half marathon [00:40:00] before your marathon for kind of a training run, because a lot of people do that and obviously you do.

I do,

Amanda Hicks: yeah.

Chris Detzel: I do a couple, that's at least one per, race. Maybe you're doing a couple of.

Amanda Hicks: Yeah,

Chris Detzel: half marathon's a lot easier, from a. Recovery standpoint, you can just do it. You're doing half marathons almost every day anyways.

Amanda Hicks: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Maybe more so

Amanda Hicks: with the, with training. Sure.

Yeah.

Chris Detzel: You're just doing some speed work in the half, yeah.

Amanda Hicks: Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I was trying to do all 50 states at one point, but then I realized I don't really wanna go to. North Dakota, so you know, there, yeah, there are certain states that I'll never see and that's fine with me, but I think I have 20 some odd states on that list.

Yeah,

Chris Detzel: that's not bad. That's actually a good amount. Yeah. I know a lot of folks that are trying to do that, and to me it just doesn't, one, it's a lot of travel to just go to Podunk cities and try to find a marathon there or have Yeah, I got my, I don't do marathons anymore. Pretty much. Yeah. I just talk to people about 'em.

Yeah. I've done 'em, but don't get me wrong and Yeah. Yeah. I know what it's. But, and I've done, [00:41:00] 50 Ks and things like that. Several halves and 20 milers and things like that. But Amanda, is there anything that I should have asked you that you're like, Chris, you just completely missed this, or you know that you're just wanting to get out?

Amanda Hicks: No. I don't think so. You know what, I'll tell you what I miss about Dallas. What do I miss about

Chris Detzel: Dallas?

Amanda Hicks: I miss the food so much. I miss the Mexican food. Tex-Mex. Yeah. And I Miss Whataburger, not new Whataburger, but old Whataburger. How good it used to be. Really miss that.

Chris Detzel: I do love Whataburger, but I just can't eat it.

I, my stomach doesn't allow me

Amanda Hicks: if I lived there, I would be 15 pounds heavier. Sorry. I miss my family. I love the Dallas running community, and I think every time I come back I get a little bit faster even though it's usually miserably hot or, I love to have people pull me along.

So if I'm ever in town and I see you, I will run. I'll run slower or I'll try to keep up with anyone just to talk.

Chris Detzel: [00:42:00] Yeah, that's great. When you come back, certainly let me know and we'll. Make sure to maybe run the hills or would you be work on Tuesdays if you're interested in track or whatever.

Now I do have a couple more questions now that. A couple of folks have emailed me and just said, Hey, why don't you ask, what's kinda your favorite, nutrition during your long runs or marathons, and then what do you like to wear? What's your favorite kind of, whether it's shoes or sports bra or, whatever, brands.

Amanda Hicks: Yeah. I like the, right now, let me hold on because it's right behind me. Hold on. Yeah,

Chris Detzel: get it, go get it. This is all on video

Amanda Hicks: okay. Cool. Okay. The precision hydration caffeinated gel is, okay. I really like these. Yeah. And then I just started these this week. These, this is huge. See how big this is compared to this little deck that is

Chris Detzel: big.

Do you take that through your hole, right? Or what?

Amanda Hicks: Yeah, so I have a sports bra that from John G that has a pocket in the back.

Chris Detzel: To

Amanda Hicks: hold your cell phone or this, so this [00:43:00] is good 'cause it's got a lot of sodium in it and it's got a good glucose to fructose ratio of two to one. You can see that right there,

Chris Detzel: the say 450 calories or.

Amanda Hicks: Four 50 grams of sodium.

Chris Detzel: Got it. Okay. Got it.

Amanda Hicks: Yeah, so I'm a salty sweater, so this helps and then this one has caffeine. So like you can, you feel like you can punch through a wall if you take one of these with caffeine. It's really good. Got it. I also take post-exercise ketones. I've started doing that either with caffeine or without.

So on, on the long run days, I'll do ketones with caffeine, and then sometimes I'll do ketones without caffeine. But Okay. That kind of helps me keep mentally sharp. And then these shoes these are the Elliot racers from Tracksmith. Okay, awesome. Yeah, I ran Boston in these, I love these. They have a removable insole that I think the plate is actually in the insole.

Okay. Anyway. Yeah, it's, they're really good. They feel like I get a lot of ground contact [00:44:00] with these, like they've got good tread on bottom, so you're not, I think I could race in in wet conditions with, in those.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. And do you always use the plate, like in all your runs or do you

Amanda Hicks: No, I stay I only run one workout a week in carbon.

Okay. I feel like I'll get injured or I'll have low leg problems if I do too much in carbon, sometimes I'll go weeks without it. I just, I don't like carbon for normal runs the training. Yeah. Also if I'm on dirt, I, it's already unstable, so I don't wanna roll an ankle.

Chris Detzel: Okay. That's awesome.

Yeah, that's the year. Amanda, thank you so much for coming on. Really appreciate your time and your stories and this was a lot of fun. So thank you so much. Yeah, thanks Chris. And thank you to everyone tuning in to DFW Running Talk. I'm Chris Detzel. Make sure to sign up on our substack newsletter, so if you go to DFW running talk.substack.com you can get that.

Thanks everyone. Take care.