From 2024 Olympic Trials to BMW Dallas Half Three Peat Champion: A Conversation with Mimi Smith

DFW Running Talk - Mimi Smith
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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 Mimi Smith. Mimi, how are you?

Mimi Smith: I'm good. Thank you so much for having me on. I'm excited to chat with you for the next 45 60 minutes.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, me too. I was looking at your profile on Instagram, Dreamy Mimi. Love it.

How'd you get that?

Mimi Smith: Oh man, gosh, that goes back to when I first got Instagram when 2012 and the name stuck and people knew it. And once you got something going, it's hard to change.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. Look, once you get followers and things like that, you don't want to change it up, right?

Mimi Smith: Exactly. Got to give the people what they want.

And they know me as dreamy Mimi, so that I have to stay.

Chris Detzel: I love it. It rhymes, it's very catchy. So

Mimi Smith: it's what every sophomore in high school. School would name themselves. Exactly.

Chris Detzel: Is that what you're a sophomore in high school?

Mimi Smith: Probably something like that has

Chris Detzel: been a [00:01:00] while. It's funny as I've had Instagram for a long time, but I've never really started just hardcore using it until I started this podcast.

And I, I was like there's a lot of people on it. It's a little bit different than Facebook and I don't think 26 year olds or less, if you're younger, really use Facebook, is that true? Or,

Mimi Smith: No to be honest, I don't really, I have it and I'll check like occasionally, but I more use Instagram and I don't have a TikTok, which I think,

A lot of people my age do have a TikTok, but I think the heavier posters on TikTok are a couple of years younger than me.

So I'm in that sweet spot. Instagram was definitely my generation's social media versus I think. A couple of years older than me, it was probably more Facebook and a couple of years below me, it was definitely more Instagram or TikTok and like Snapchat and stuff.

Chris Detzel: You've probably never heard of MySpace, but that was way before it all started.

Yeah, that's where it started, right? Yes. Facebook just did a way better job. Exactly. You've done [00:02:00] a lot of running in your career. And we'll talk a little bit about that. And I know as of recent, you ran the U S Olympic team trials. back in in the springtime, is that right?

Mimi Smith: I did, yep. In February. .

Chris Detzel: Yeah. How did that first of February,

Mimi Smith: how did that It was good. I say that with a little bit more hesitation in terms of, it was a really hot day. Had him in Orlando, Florida in February, and even though it. Was the winter time still a lot warmer temperatures than most of the people who are racing and they were running,

Chris Detzel: Florida,

Mimi Smith: exactly.

No matter what. And originally they were going to have us go off at 12 o'clock and they post or because of people saying that's way too late to run a race, especially in Florida, especially for a marathon. Please bump it up. They bumped it up till I think we ended up going off at a 10, 20 start time. It was, ~ ~I learned a lot about myself during that race.

It was one of my, cause every single race up until that point, I had PR

Chris Detzel: and

Mimi Smith: that race I didn't, and so I felt like it was a really [00:03:00] good learning opportunity for me. And I finished technically in the top half, so I got 65th overall. But I think it was the first time I really had to run and continue running, knowing I wasn't going to get a PR knowing that my time was steadily decreasing.

And basically focus on finishing and gritting it out versus really not getting discouraged from the time I was seeing on my watch. It taught me how to race in heat and ~ ~the importance of literally hitting every single water stop, every single sponge, like cold sponge you could get. What is your routine?

How are you feeling? You cannot, especially the paces that we're trying to run in that weather. You cannot mess around with that stuff because it'll put you in a bad spot. If you don't put your nutrients and your hydration first. It was an incredible experience. I'm, like Dakota Ludwurm, if you don't know Keith, Emily Sisson, all the people who qualified are in your same starting tent you're riding up an elevator with Conor Mance.

Is that you've had a chance

Chris Detzel: to be with some of those type of elite runners or?

Mimi Smith: Yes and no, I [00:04:00] would say in a fashion where I'm competing, absolutely. But in a, in the sense of. ~ ~I've been running for so long. I started running competitively, I guess as competitive as it can be in seventh grade.

And then up in high school and college, but there were some opportunities where I was able to go to some national races in high school and you get to see pro runners there. I went to Wake Forest University and we used to have this really big professional invitational at an indoor track we had in the same town as my college.

So we would go to and watch. And we got to meet I remember one time Matt Sentschewitz was there racing and he came with us on the long run. So definitely. It was cool to transition into, I've known all these people, I've seen them, I follow them, you know the names, to, okay, we're on the starting line together I've made it, at least I'm, here competing, so that's pretty cool.

And in general, I would say what I really liked about this Olympic cycle, And fun to be a part of it in the sense of getting the trials, but really fun to watch because all the big names were people I was like running at the same [00:05:00] time in college. Eleanor Puryear Elise Cranny Yardna Goose, Cole Hawker, all those guys were all running and we are watching them at nationals.

So gosh, it was just such a blast this year to be able to actually watch them compete on the Olympic stage and be like, yeah, they were the real deal back then. And they just keep showing that they're the real deal. Now.

Chris Detzel: That's pretty awesome. So you ran before that to qualify was a 234 in Chicago. Is that right?

Mimi Smith: It is. Yep.

Chris Detzel: Was that's not a PR for you though, right?

Mimi Smith: That was my PR. Yeah. 234 was my PR to get to the big trials. Yeah, I was I was just trying to get under that 37 cause that's the cutoff. And I was really happy with that time, I think. So it was four minute PR for me too. Earlier that spring I had ran in Boston and I was, I think, 238, 33.

A minute, 33 seconds off. And my, I remember my watch not being great splitting. So I honestly had no idea where I was at. And when you cross that finish line, it's like a feeling of, Oh my God, [00:06:00] that's, that's a great PR for me. That's so great. But Oh my God, it's so close, but it still doesn't count.

Yeah. I have some connections through, I run for a heartbreak running company and with some connections with them down in Chicago, I was able to get into the American development program. Even though I signed up late for Chicago, so shout out to them because I wouldn't have been able to get to the Olympic trials without them.

And as a result, I I got to run in Florida in February.

Chris Detzel: I think, thank you for all that background that was pretty impressive. And we'll get probably a little bit into what's next for you but the reason really, I found you was because you won the half marathon, a recent half marathon in Dallas.

So it was run Dallas and From my understanding, you've won it the last three years in a row. Is that right?

Mimi Smith: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Since I moved down to Dallas and been able to run it.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, no, and it's great that we have somebody local that's running and that's an elite athlete, within within Dallas.

So tell me about the, these half marathons. What'd you think this year of run Dallas half?

Mimi Smith: It is honestly my favorite weekend in [00:07:00] Dallas. Don't get me wrong. There's an element of it that it's really fun winning. And getting to run really fast time, of course. I'm not gonna sit here and say it's not fun winning, but

Chris Detzel: We should all know that it's fun winning!

Mimi Smith: Exactly! There's no

Chris Detzel: reason to say, oh, I won, that's not the main thing. It helps. Yes, it helps

Mimi Smith: a little bit. It helps make the experience special for sure. But, the last three years I was also just, through my connections of Train Pegasus, which is A great running community and Alfonso Gonzalez, which is one of the leaders along with Joe Wolf, who put that group together, they're super involved in the Dallas run community as well.

And Fonz was able he's really a big. Part of the kids run, he helps out with it. He volunteers every year. And then 1 of our friends, Jody Jordan is actually she helps put on the kids event as her part of her job with event Southwest. So we have a lot of connections with the kid race. So the past 3 years.

I volunteered and that is always what I do the Saturday beforehand, sometimes you can watch the Friday night runs On Friday [00:08:00] the mile and the I don't know if it's an 800 or just a mile race But so the kids

Chris Detzel: is that morning Saturday kids is the Saturday morning. Yeah,

Mimi Smith: so The it's just my favorite weekend because it's so much fun to get to be a part of it and volunteer and watch all the kids run and then actually get to participate in the event yourself and run the next day.

And, we all come together as a group after I stayed, I think, by the starting line or at the start and finish line for like almost an hour to two hours after the race, just meeting people, talking with people and stuff. So I do really love the actual. Run but I think it's really fun to also be a part of the event in different ways to and celebrating everyone because we have so many people we know who run it.

It's really fun to support the people who are out there getting after it, no matter what their paces or what their goals are.

Chris Detzel: Something that I've heard you say, and I, on this podcast, we talk a lot about community and building, running in the community and having people that can run with you.

Can you talk a little bit about, [00:09:00] you mentioned Pegasus, so I don't know if, if that's the group you run with or, do you find it helpful running in a group and a community and building that kind of stuff? Cause I'm going to ask you to.

Mimi Smith: Yes. Oh, absolutely. I think that. Running with a group helps keep you accountable and especially doing the workouts.

Even if you guys aren't exactly all in the same place, I think just having a group that meets so early before work really helps. So I I guess I run with three groups in Dallas train Pegasus and completely slots, which I know you were in her. the other day. And that's how we got connected and I know him.

The groups are intertwined with each other. And we've got a lot of individuals who are of similar paces. There's a wide range, but especially some of the guys that I run with. And then a couple of the gals, there's a couple of gals, Jennifer Pope is an individual who also qualified for the, yeah, Olympic trials.

She's in Plano sometimes comes down to run with us, but we've got a good group of people [00:10:00] who are around similar paces, who we do workouts together. We come together as a group, decide kind of our training plan and we have a big Excel sheet. We try to do similar races like a lot of us are going to be doing Boston in the spring.

So we'll probably come together and say, Hey, this is my training plan so that we can at least coordinate and have similar workouts on Tuesdays and Saturdays. And then we meet together to run on Thursdays. So those are the main groups that I do my runs with. And honestly it would be really hard to wake up at like 4 30 in the morning to do workouts.

If you didn't have people to me for example, today I didn't have anyone to meet and I press snooze and I ran after work instead. So I think just for me, the social aspect accountability, it's something I look forward to. And they're some of my best friends in Dallas. That helps so much.

And then also, if I'm having a bad day, my teammate might not be having a bad day. And at least if I can say on to them, we'll be okay or vice versa. Having run on teams basically my whole [00:11:00] life. It, I think, and I remember Travis talking about this on the podcast because I was listening. The camaraderie of just having that group together.

And even though. It's competitive because you want to be faster than the next person. At the end of the day, your speed has nothing to do with their speed in terms of like placement on a team. If it's a soccer team, we're not competing for the same spot. We're just competing to run. So if I have a great day in IPR and you had a great day and you PR a little bit better we both did our personal best.

That's, I think one of the main reasons I just think running is a great way to celebrate your. Strengths and your accomplishments versus don't get me wrong. It's a super comparable sport. That's just competition. But I think, when you get into your adult life and it's not like high school or, college, and it's just our hobby and our sense of, entertainment and enjoyment, it's a little bit more easy to stomach and it's just more fun to celebrate other people.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, that's great. And thank you for that. So it's funny because Travis did [00:12:00] mention he ran with you for the first four miles or so of the half marathon for you in full marathon. And he was just so thankful that you were there and that he had a chance to run with you, oh he's way

Mimi Smith: faster than me.

So it was fun to run with him for four miles until he took off.

Chris Detzel: He might be faster, but I wouldn't say way. Your PR is 234. He just got a 226, right? It's a difference, but. Yeah, I think you both probably have opportunities to probably even get better. So that'll be fun to watch.

Mimi Smith: Definitely. And he's so young and I'm twenty seven. So all relative of your aerobic capacity peaking at thirty to thirty two. There's a lot of room for both of us to develop

Chris Detzel: exactly. And I think it was his, what was it? His second or first marathon is his

Mimi Smith: first. Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. So he's definitely got room to grow if he cares to do that, and him being a medical student is going to be really hard, I think, but he has some lofty goals One of the things that I was reading about you, and I mentioned this earlier [00:13:00] before kind of the pre show was around in 2018, you're, hanging out with the, some friends and things like that at a track or something, and you took some signs.

What's going on?

Mimi Smith: Yeah. So I'm sure everyone who ran in college or honestly anyone who has ever, You know, I'm just going to anyone who's ever been in college loves to steal some signs. We have a a Duke track. Do not enter during track time. Sign out front on our little stoop that I stole when I was either at Duke or at wake.

But, it was our regional me and the way is work for individuals who don't know is basically outside of your conferences to get to nationals. You have to go to a regional meet 1st and then qualify for nationals.

Chris Detzel: At the

Mimi Smith: regional meet, there's a West or an East and a West. And top 48 of your time or throw or jump get to qualify for regionals and then top 12 from there qualify for nationals.

So that at the end of the day at [00:14:00] nationals, you have 24 individuals. So it's a pretty intense competition to even just get to the regionals. And I had a decent amount of people from my running team who got there from our distance squad. I did the 10 K. My 10 K was done on Thursday.

The meet didn't end until Saturday. So I was just moseying around cause I unfortunately didn't qualify for nationals, but it was great cause I was on my season and I could just watch everyone else and have fun. And so we there was a lot of signs around the track and when they were finishing up the track, we're able to steal one sign and stuff it in someone's bag and go back, but then we got super greedy and we had a friend who lived locally, who had our car.

So even though curfew, I don't know, it was probably at 11. We drove back to the track to see what was going on. And there were some people taking down some of the other signs, but in general it was pretty dead. And we could walk around the track without really anyone questioning us. And then I went up to someone I said, Hey, or, these signs, are you guys just going to throw them away?

Or what are you doing? He was like, I just work for the local university. If you want the [00:15:00] sign, go ahead and take it. And he was even like, here, take my scissors. I was like, great. So I was starting to cut down the signs and all of a sudden across the other side of the track, I hear someone yelling something.

And I can't hear what they're saying. So I just go back to cutting. And then all of a sudden I hear someone rev up a little gator. And then I see someone in their motor gator or golf car, whatever it is, running at us or motoring at us and still yelling. And very clearly they were yelling at me and my friend who were trying to cut down these signs.

And I figured out in that moment, I am a in the fight or flight, I am a flight.

Chris Detzel: There

Mimi Smith: was like a fence. I like flew over the top of that fence. And before I knew it, I was on the other side off of the actual track area. But my friend, unfortunately, she's a freezer. So she was just frozen solid.

And I was like, you I was yelling her name. I was like, you have to move and say, finally, I got her to run and she was able to run and get out of a little opening in the [00:16:00] fence and we were sprinting in the random campus. It was dark, no students are left on campus because this is in June or something, maybe even may.

I don't even know what time of year round what it was, but there's no 1 on campus. And so we think we're safe. But then the motor. Like the motor gator is coming at us and it turns off his light. And so all you can hear is the rev. Cause I think if you were ever trying to spook us or something, and so we're running around this campus, all we can hear is this motor.

I thought I was going to get kicked off my team. I was, I've never, I ran faster trying to escape that thing than I did in the race, but didn't get caught, ~ ~didn't get caught, didn't get the extra sign either. Cause I, I flew over that fence, but still have a couple of other signs. And I think I have a couple too, still with me now.

So it's always just good stories and always fun to steal gear.

Chris Detzel: I'm surprised you just didn't go back later, like an hour later, even later. Yeah, at

Mimi Smith: that point, I was coming too close. We were past curfew. I had so many. You're already scared

Chris Detzel: you're kicked

Mimi Smith: off. I know, and my one friend who made nationals, I was [00:17:00] terrified that they were going to see our gear because I was dumb.

I wore a Wake Forest gear. I was afraid they were going to see our gear and report to our coach. So we were like, we're going, we're not going back. ~ ~Wow.

Chris Detzel: That sounds like a fun time. You can talk about it later,

Mimi Smith: exactly. She ran at nationals and it was all good. So that's all she cared about.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. All right, let's go back. So you've won the half marathon. What are you thinking about next? What's the up and coming, is it Boston is the big deal?

Mimi Smith: Yeah, Boston is I'm gonna, I'm waiting to hear back if I got an elite bib, but I think I'm gonna also do a half in Miami.

I've got a friend that lives down there, so I'll stay with her. And it's a pretty good a marathon. Just a weekend in February. And I like to do when I'm training a half marathon somewhere in the training cycle, just to get a good little pace run in, get the legs moving. I like to do it usually a little bit closer to the race, but It's okay to do a couple months out.

So I'll do that Boston. And then I have a couple of personal obligations [00:18:00] and weddings this fall. So unfortunately I made the decision to not do a fall race just because I wouldn't be able to race it the way I want to. But looking into. My four year racing plan, the Olympic trials again will be in 2028.

Yes, in the February to March range of 2028 for that summer. And they haven't announced where the Olympic trials for the marathon will be, but wherever it is, the window to qualify opens starting in 2026.

Chris Detzel: Okay.

Mimi Smith: So my, my plan kind of thinking of my three years out is take this year, do Boston and then maybe do a couple of fast halves, maybe a couple of 10 Ks, try to really work on my speed in the summer and fall of 2025 and then try to knock out an OTQ in the beginning of 2026.

So that I get that qualifier out of the way and then I, because I know the 2026 and 2027 kind of years are [00:19:00] going to be pretty heavy marathon years for me. I would love to do New York City. I've got Chicago and Boston. So maybe New York City, 2026, but again just got to see what life obligations come up.

Yeah. There's always a lot of stuff can happen.

Chris Detzel: Who knows? It's good. I love that you have this big plan and focus on what you pretty much know is going to come up. Like you said, life can come up. Is there a specific marathon that you're thinking in 20, early 2026, is that what you said?

Yeah.

Mimi Smith: Yeah. If I want to crank it out as early as possible, Houston would be a great one just cause it's so flat. It's local. It

Chris Detzel: would

Mimi Smith: be a good ability for me to train through the fall. ~ ~And let whatever obligations come, but then, have a little bit of extra time to extend and not feel so pressured to do 1 in October, November.

I could wait till January. And. ~ ~So I think that

Chris Detzel: I

Mimi Smith: haven't, no. So I also want to, cause I've heard such great things and so many people down in the DFW area [00:20:00] go do it every year. So yeah, my wife's done it

Chris Detzel: several times and I've done the half. I do more halves than fulls, but this next year we're just doing the one in Austin, international Austin used to

Mimi Smith: be,

Chris Detzel: so it's a half, but yeah,

Mimi Smith: I've heard good things about that too.

Is that, I've heard there's two halves. One, that's the three M that's. Hilly and one that's not so hilly

Chris Detzel: the three M used to be called three M is now international half. And so that's the one that's not hilly. That's here in January, a few weeks. And then the other one that you're thinking of, whatever it's called is is the one that's super hilly.

Yeah. Yeah, I think they have a marathon on that one. I don't think the international one, the ones coming up, it's only a half marathon and a 10k. Okay. Okay. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. And I think Houston last year, or this year, it's still December. I ran the half and ran a pretty fast time for me.

And it was fun. It's just, it's a lot of fun. So the last mile just you fly,

Mimi Smith: really,

Chris Detzel: because a slight downhill,

Mimi Smith: yeah, and

Chris Detzel: it's just, [00:21:00] it's, there's also the last couple of miles. There's a slight hill, but it's nothing.

Mimi Smith: Yeah. I think, especially in.

Marathon races long or have longer distances in general. I think we fear uphills a lot, but I think there is a little bit of a benefit to being able to change your gate when you go up and down slight inclines. Because if you are constantly doing the same motion on the same grade. For 26 miles, it's a little bit easier for your muscles to lock up and you get cramps or get stiff.

We've all felt that feeling when we're doing these marathons where we just feel like all of a sudden our legs are about to buckle or something isn't moving. And I think going up hills or downhills can just help you change your position just cause you have to, because of the forces of gravity and sometimes that'll actually help loosen up.

Don't always fear the incline or. Sometimes just lean into it and say, Hey, this [00:22:00] is helping me adjust, fix your form.

Chris Detzel: I'm not sure if you've ever, and I know how intent you are and just your road races and, trying to accomplish all these things, but thinking of along the same lines, like trail running really helps, I like to balance it out.

I do a lot of road racing. But when you actually start running someone that. Your muscle, it's a lot of different muscles than just the same ones that you're just going on the road each time. And I find that, that's helped me actually to get a little bit faster. If I can focus a little bit on the trails as well.

If I did, if I were to do two or three times. ~ ~Let's say runs or races or whatever, a month, let's say not races, but at least runs, it can help you a ton. And I think that because it changes up the gate and, depending on the trail, it could be rocky or those kinds of things.

Have you ever done any trail races or I have

Mimi Smith: not? I've, I've done a couple of trail runs. But my boyfriend actually has done a lot more than me. He was out in Charlotte, North Carolina for a while. And there's a place called the URE national forest,

That they do a 50 [00:23:00] K. And he did that race.

And I know he would go out to Georgia on the Appalachian trail and do a lot of running out there. And it is interesting from what he's told me. I know, obviously. There's statistics about how much different energy usage running on a trail versus it's more than like 10 percent more energy to run on a trail versus a road.

And you have to be so much more cognizant of where you're stepping because you have to use your ankle stabilizers a lot more and obviously not twist an ankle trip. You have to watch where you're stepping. I think just the mental concentration of doing that alone is so much harder. No I've not personally raced I, by the way, it'll be harder than doing road races.

In some

Chris Detzel: ways it's harder, but it's also more laid back, it's because you're not going to be able to run your six minute miles. You know what I mean? The reality is. Let's say you couldn't run a six minute mile on but the route in most cases, you're probably depending on the trail.

It all depends, it could be, maybe [00:24:00] it's eight minute miles instead of six, or maybe it's nine minute. You just don't know if you're going up a mountain. Yeah, it's

Mimi Smith: just a completely different kind of,

Chris Detzel: yeah,

Mimi Smith: nature. And we've had some people down here who We're friends with who, like one of our friends just ran the Moab 420

Chris Detzel: or

Mimi Smith: sorry, 240, 240.

And the stories that he was saying, it's just a completely different type of beast and it's a completely different, animal in terms of, I wouldn't, obviously I think running two, four B is the Moab 240 is harder than a marathon, but I think the goals are, different, right? Like you said, even if you're comparing a marathon to a mile, the energy the energy and systems you use in your body are completely different.

The goal pace, the muscles that you use are completely different, right? Like you're tapping into your type twos more than your type ones of your muscle fibers. There's so much difference in nutrients that you have to focus on. Like It's just, it's a completely different sport, [00:25:00] even though it's the same motion, right?

Which is an interesting thing to think about. It

Chris Detzel: is. It's so interesting. And going back to your 5K, 10Ks. Do you, like when you're in college, do you still do some of those? You mentioned that, you might do some 10Ks and some speed stuff this year or this next year because of COVID.

Stuff going on weddings and things like that.

Mimi Smith: Yeah. I I raced a turkey trot this past and I signed up for a last minute. And I think to train for this half, I was doing a little bit more speed work after I ran Chicago and I just wanted to do a little bit more speed work rather than threshold work.

And I think it, I don't know if it necessarily helped me as much with my half, but it really helped me run a 5k. I was the fastest road 5k I've ever run. And I wasn't, I just signed up randomly. I really on the

Chris Detzel: turkey trial was your fastest 5k.

Mimi Smith: My fastest road, I've definitely run faster on the track, but I ran like 1636, I think was my time.

And I didn't, also, it was 30 degrees, I was back [00:26:00] home in Chicago, 30 degrees. So I think just having cold weather and getting to run like that, my body was just like, let's go. And It felt really good and it felt fun to go fast again.

Again it takes years to get your body to a point where it can do marathons and do them well, because it's changing up your system completely.

You're really training your body to tolerate that load, but at the same time, you're also training it to focus on endurance and efficiency with running rather than all out speed. And I think if you run a 5k right, And especially when you're getting down to pretty fast times. It should feel like you're going the whole time.

Was really fun in college. I think I'm excited to maybe focus on that for a little bit. And I probably can do a little bit better in the 10k area than the 5k. But hopefully I can find some good races around here and do it. But I haven't made that a priority. Yeah, I know. I just gotta find one.

There's probably, yeah, like you said, there's tons of races. There's more 5Ks probably just around, you can sign up [00:27:00] for last minute anyways, too.

Chris Detzel: The one thing about, yeah, most of the time those aren't sold out. They let whoever wants to come and as many people as you want. And there's some good ones.

I don't know if you want to do the summer, but. ~ ~The beauty about 5ks is that it's always a party, you can go to a nice big 5k and it's Oh my God, like thousands of people are here, and they have mimosas and all these other things that, it's wow, I don't remember this ever happening for a half or a full, just, but, ~ ~And there's a lot of that here, in Dallas.

So that's pretty quick. It's 16 something, did you win that one or?

Mimi Smith: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Okay.

Mimi Smith: It was in my like local town. So just North of Chicago in a town called Evanston.

Chris Detzel: Got it. Did you win the all out or some guys?

Mimi Smith: No, there was some pretty fast guys. There was actually a guy and a gal who came down from Michigan.

I think they both ran for a very nice track club, which is the club that Hobbs Kessler. Runs for. Okay. Which is he got I think fifth in the 1500 at the Olympics. [00:28:00] He's a really young guy they were pretty fast runners and the guy, I think the guy in that group won it. He pretty fast time. Yeah, low teens.

Got it.

Chris Detzel: So what is the okay, so for the half marathon for example you won it and stuff like that, but what was that training cycle like for you? Was it just hardcore or what were you just taking it easy from a training standpoint, what does that look like?

Mimi Smith: So for this particular half marathon, I would say I was definitely training hard, I was hitting 60 miles a week, but relative to other training cycles.

It was a little bit more of a down period for me. Because I did an 18 week program for Chicago and Chicago was mid October. And when I was doing that training cycle, I was running, getting up to 80 miles a week with 2 swims to strengthening sessions. This is on top of, full time work and everything.

I was a little bit burnt out in terms of, and I know myself, if I want to be [00:29:00] like revved up and ready to go for my next marathon, I've got to take a little bit of downtime in between. So even though it was still a lot of mileage, I wouldn't say I was doing all the things I probably needed to in terms of swimming and strengthening like I did.

So that's why when I'm like hesitant to say I full out, I went all out for this training cycle. There just were a couple of things. I was. Probably not doing that. I should have been doing to optimize, but at the same time, I'm not going to be able to be a hundred percent with all my training all year round.

So you got to pick and choose your battles.

Chris Detzel: A half marathon is not your, it's, it is a great race for you, but at this point it just sounds like it wasn't the number goal race to go to.

Mimi Smith: And I think the main goal was I would have loved to PR. I felt like if it was maybe Maybe if I paced it a little bit better from the beginning, I could have been a little bit more consistent throughout it.

Cause it was a little bit, it was pretty warm and it was humid. So taking that into consideration, overall, I was happy with my time and I wanted to make sure I went out there and got [00:30:00] the the win. So that was the main thing that I was focusing on. What I did in this training cycle relative to other training cycles was I worked a lot more, like I said, on my speed.

So I followed the Jack Daniels training program and for their recommendations for half marathon, they say, add a threshold workout throughout the week and a interval or a repetition inner workout throughout the week. Where a threshold is your half marathon pace and then like marathon pace, Efforts are the two longer distance.

So you'll be doing like three plus miles at those efforts and paces, the repetition and the interval paces, you're going to be doing more like maybe you're, maybe your mile repeats more like your case and your eight hundreds and your four hundreds. So I did a lot of those types of workouts. And like I said, I think it really helped with my five K I think maybe it was.

Like back in 2023, we had 40 degree weather when we started, maybe I could have busted out a little bit quicker of a time. But again, I went out to race it and I went out really hot wanting to [00:31:00] put up a gap and I was able to maintain that gap. So I did what I had to do on that day.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

So let's talk a little bit about just kind of strategy during a race like that, because I'm really interested because I don't win races like you do. Yeah. And so if you know that somebody's there, if you have a chance to win it, you're there. Okay, I think I'm gonna I could win it.

But again, it always depends on who's there. But as you size up your competition, is there a strategy say, Hey, if I go out super hot, for the first five miles, I think I can leave this person or get them really tired. Are you thinking those kinds of things? Or what's goes through your head?

Mimi Smith: No, absolutely. And funny enough, this race, actually, when I was talking to Paul box and Logan Sherman and some of the other people who put on the event or, and involved in like the elite racers, there was a couple of people who they told me were really fast to maybe, keep your eye out or look up.

And so going in, I knew there was someone who ran a really fast half marathon time, I think in the one 11s, like very good runner was [00:32:00] at the Olympic trials. And then obviously Jennifer Pope, you had three girls in there who asked the marathon Olympic trials this past year.

Chris Detzel: I can't wait or, do you get a little nervous?

What's the,

Mimi Smith: I was, yeah, no, I, that's what I was supposed to, I was nervous. I was like, okay, so this is going to be an actual race, going in, I'm thinking, all right, it's like last year, let's go out and do it. I was like, Ooh, okay. So found out on Friday, there's going to be some. Okay. People in the competition.

My thinking is, okay, there's a couple of things that can happen here because we're used to the heat and humidity, so I'll have that kind of in my, favor. But also in your toolbox, this individual in my toolbox, but also this individual has a faster time than me at their pr.

So they're a phenomenal runner. So there's gonna be a couple of things that might happen. You can either stick to your race plan, which I wanted to go out a little slower than I did I always go out faster than I say like I always say i'm going so I always like race day Yeah, exactly all that adrenaline But this individual is either going to go out [00:33:00] in the 520s because that's what their pace they've run their other excuse me, their other PRN or they're going to go out slow and you can either go out your race pace or you can go out with them, go way too hot and then die.

So I think my plan was either I was going to go out my race pace, she was going to be right there and then I would like tack on to her and go, ~ ~excuse me, sorry. Okay. It's okay. Or she was going to go out really hot and I was just going to have to stick to my rate pace and see if I could reel her in.

What ended up happening was I went out really hot, she wasn't there, and then I didn't really see her the rest of the race. ~ ~Excuse me, sorry.

Chris Detzel: It's okay.

Mimi Smith: So I ended up not really racing her at all or anyone, any other females, but the whole time I kept thinking, Again, this individual super fast.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Mimi Smith: Every time someone was coming up me and I could hear steps, I [00:34:00] mentally was preparing, okay, could it be them? And what are you going to do? Are you going to lock in and try to hang with them? Are you going to go as fast as you can? And maybe you can't hang with them, but you need to stay mentally engaged.

So I felt like what it did for me actually was the whole time I felt like I was running from someone. ~Um, ~it helps me stay mentally engaged the whole time. And there was one or two miles after the ~ ~eight mile mark, cause most of that's uphill.

Chris Detzel: I felt

Mimi Smith: like my legs were really starting to get tired. That what I talked about earlier where you're getting that buckling feeling cause you are, your glucose is now low.

I was like at that point trying to slam gels down. And I was able to, I had a slower mile, but then I was able to pick it back up and get back down to the 540 pace range. And I think it's because I was running in a way, almost like scared that this person would be coming up at any moment on me, it helped me stay engaged the whole time.

Um, sometimes it's okay to run scared and not scared because You're [00:35:00] afraid you're going to blow up but scared because you are being chased by something. And I don't know, that helped me and think about my strategy. It didn't end up playing out the way I thought it would, but I went in with a bunch of different game plans about how I wanted to react based off the individuals around me.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, that's pretty cool that you actually have multiple different game plans going in and, you just adjust and, in this particular one, you, your game plan was to act scared in a way, right? To push through it, knowing that you could be caught at any time because both these women that you knew could run at that pace.

Yeah, they're both

Mimi Smith: phenomenal athletes. It's just sometimes what, how the race comes down to that day, right?

Chris Detzel: What the day gives you and you probably have no idea what they're going through, or even if they're like on their A game, how are they in this great shape as they're usually, what did they run before there? Are they injured? So

Mimi Smith: exactly.

Chris Detzel: Just know him. That's really cool. And you just ran Chicago. Back in October. Okay. I knew you did that in 2023. So you came back and did it again.

Mimi Smith: I [00:36:00] did. Yeah. And again, the decision for me with that was I'm from Chicago, so I could stay and see my parents.

I wanted to, Berlin and New York are still races. I really want to do, but I also really want to do it when I am in a good financial spot and I'm in a spot where I can really train all out and do them well. And this year I had again, two weddings. This fall and a couple of other things this fall that we had commitments for.

And then next year, again, I've got two or three weddings in the fall. So all out of state and it's your age,

Chris Detzel: 27, 28, it's all great, but

Mimi Smith: I would rather just be a hundred percent at those events or a hundred percent at the marathon. So for me, time wise. And rather than doing New York this past year, because both of my weddings were in November, I was like, let's just do Chicago.

It's a great race. I can get another good time, stay with my family. And [00:37:00] it's funny the place that I placed at in 2023 and 2024 was the exact same. So I finished 21st for the females. Both time and I was the first non elite finisher both times a little bit slower this year like a minute and 30 seconds slower.

So I ran 235 52 I think this year so pretty much very similar races, which is which is Consistency is good. So i'll keep it. It probably just tells

Chris Detzel: you're still very close to that

Mimi Smith: and

Chris Detzel: Just as you mentioned is that it takes a while to do a breakthrough. I've seen many times where people run a marathon and they hit, your first marathons always in general, not always, but slower.

But then over the next few years, you just get better. But then a lot of people stay at that same time, right? And then, Then they start doing some different things training or their body is used to it and then they have a breakthrough Yeah, I feel like you're right there [00:38:00] with this breakthrough.

I mean you're at 234 235 it's coming. I believe it. I mean you're putting all the time the effort the Focus it's coming. I have no doubt about it. So That's gonna be fun. Do you have any thoughts around know you're super serious right now, but as kind of time moves on, thinking about maybe getting, the seven stars or, this, or the six, what is it? Five, six majors? Yeah

Mimi Smith: it's, it was six majors and they added Sydney. So I think now it's seven, but I'm honestly not quite sure. I don't think it is

Chris Detzel: technically yet. So right now it's just six.

Mimi Smith: Okay. And then

Chris Detzel: it's the seven, it will come. Sydney will come. Do you think about that at all?

Or is it just

Mimi Smith: no, I do think about it. To be honest, I think more about Chicago New York and Boston, just cause they're phenomenal races on our turf and then Berlin, just because ~ ~Berlin has. Shown time and time again to be a extremely fast course. It's at a perfect time of year and people just [00:39:00] run excellent times ~ ~And I definitely would want to do Tokyo and London when given the opportunity London is very challenging to get into because it's lottery and be it like English citizens Are able to get in if they have a time, but nobody else's.

Unless I'm in a position where I run really fast and maybe can get in with a pro field,

Chris Detzel: which I

Mimi Smith: think I do have to run probably a lot faster at one of these majors to get in the way that I would be able to get in for London since it's so selective. Or you

Chris Detzel: just pay for it and that becomes really expensive.

Mimi Smith: Yeah. Yeah. I, there's a lot of other really great marathons. That I personally don't think think I would really want to get the six stars, but for me, there's other ~ ~versions of and other competitions. I think there are a little bit more important. Right now, the two next Olympic trial cycles, because the next in twenty, twenty eight, I'll be thirty and then in thirty two, I'll be thirty four.

Those gotta go after those first maximizing my [00:40:00] races with what I want to do and the best time. There's so many great places in America to just to get marathons, you've got C. I. M. is an absolutely great one. You've got Houston that we just talked about. There's grandmas, there's so many really awesome ones here.

I would say ~ ~it's hard because I think what I really liked about the major marathons was that at least with Boston, there was a level of, okay, now we're adding this. You need to be a certain caliber of speed to get in. Obviously you've got the charities, which I think is great because they have to raise so much money to get to Boston for a charity.

So anyone who does a charity is like good for you because you guys worked your butt off to get that. Money raised absolutely worked your butt off. You deserve to be there. 100%. But I think now with adding all these majors, it's going to be interesting because now it becomes a, first of all, did you get in lucky lottery or do you have the financial means to do it?

And I, it's interesting that we like celebrate that when it doesn't really [00:41:00] seem like to me, something that was, Athletic accolade, more of a

Chris Detzel: just

Mimi Smith: where you're given the luck of the draw.

Chris Detzel: Or did you give enough money?

Mimi Smith: Yeah, exactly. Which is again, if we're raising, if we're raising charity or, but to each their own, if you can do it for sure.

But I'm not gonna. It's not like something that I'm going to be heartbroken off if I don't get it, but I would be ecstatic if I did get it.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. My wife has run the severe 11th or 12th Boston in a row coming up. And so she loves, I love the race. I don't run Boston, but and I try not to run too many marathons, but so it's a, I love that race.

And then just qualifying it every year is pretty impressive for me to watch people do it year after year. And and I just love Boston. Yeah,

Mimi Smith: I did too. It's nice to go to an East Coast city.

Chris Detzel: It is. And it's a great one. Is there anything that you just wanted to talk about that I just missed completely?

Mimi Smith: ~ ~Let me think. ~ ~Yeah, I think 1 of the other run groups that I've gotten involved, but I don't know if I mentioned it earlier is Oak Cliff run crew. And [00:42:00] they're a group that runs out of Oak Cliff. It's there's a ton of really fast runners, but what I like about that run group is, it's just a lot of people who are, First time runners,

Chris Detzel: some of

Mimi Smith: them walk, some of them run two miles, only one or two times a week, there's a lot of different runs and we come together on Thursdays, sometimes Saturdays.

And I think what I really like about the DFW area and what I found and I'm sure super similar to pretty much every city in America is that you've got like your more elite groups like I do with completely soft and trim Pegasus, but then you've also got some run groups that are more just way like gateways into getting into it.

And I think, since we're on here talking about the Dallas half marathon, I just want to give a little bit of a shout out to. For anyone who's listening to encourage them that again, marathon training and half marathon training takes a really long time. It takes a really long time.

If you're brand new, and it takes a really long time. If you're at my level doing it elitely, because I've been doing it for, You know for a long time three [00:43:00] or four years now and that was on top of a base of running since I was 13, that's not all that

Chris Detzel: long three or four years. I mean you do have a base Yeah,

Mimi Smith: for sure and but on top of even just like me running in college, right?

So there was a big base to begin with there. With whether it was you were participating this year, the BMW 5k, the 10k year goals are the half marathon, maybe like 3 years down the line, the full marathon don't get discouraged by just 1 or 2 races. Just be patient with the cycle and truly take the mantra of it's a marathon, not a sprint, because that goes for training.

And even just getting out there and doing it. It takes a while and

Chris Detzel: I think that's so true. And I'm glad that you brought that up because, I see a lot of runners come in and they have lofty goals when they first start running and never ran a marathon, for example, and I was like, Hey, I'm going to go.

My goal is to qualify for Boston this year. I was like I was like, you have the ability to qualify. There's no doubt about it. You can see some people that have that ability, but then I was like, but don't be too disappointed because. [00:44:00] This is your first marathon. You have no idea what that's going to be like.

You don't know what it's going to be like on mile 20 when maybe you didn't have enough gels or, enough you just weren't doing it right or whatever. You just learn a lot on that first, second, third marathon. You'll get there. Just continue to push and don't get too disappointed if you don't get it the first try,

Mimi Smith: And especially to when talking about paces.

I'm a physical therapist. I know that you interviewed the the winner of the female marathon for the BMW

Chris Detzel: and she's

Mimi Smith: a physical therapist as well. Yeah, Aaron. And so the mantra that we learn is, it's frequency and duration and volume first. So get your amount of times a week and your duration of doing it before you even focus on intensity.

So start running, getting amounts of run and volume in before you worry about your pace or how fast you're going. That stuff will come, but don't try to work on going a certain pace or going super fast if you can't get the number up there first.

Chris Detzel: [00:45:00] Excellent advice. I love that. Um, hey, That thank you so much Mimi for coming on today.

This was a great conversation and look, I'm sure a lot of people are going to learn from you, and and just your passion and things like that. Thanks everyone for tuning in to another DFW running talk. I'm Chris Detzel. Don't forget to rate and review us. Mimi. Thank you again for coming.

so much, Chris.

Mimi Smith: This was awesome.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. Take care.