This is the forty-third edition of The Duluth Runner Interview Series, where I get in touch with (mainly) local runners and athletes to share a bit of their story while inspiring others to pursue an active lifestyle.

Intro

“I grew up in a small town in Central Wisconsin, called Nekoosa, as a football/basketball/baseball kind of guy, with the idea of running very foreign to me. In the 7th grade, the first year of organized school sports in our town, I broke a bone in my wrist during football practice early in the Fall season. Not wanting to miss out on school sports, I decided to go out for the cross-country team and I found myself becoming attached to the new challenge.

I began making wonderful friends through running and started training consistently with them, and I was officially hooked. I was part of a great high school cross-country and track program, having collected many achievements and accolades individually and as a team in the state of Wisconsin. I wanted to experience a Big Ten undergraduate education, but wasn’t talented enough at the time to run for a Division I school, so instead I joined the University of Minnesota Running Club.

The club allowed me to still run competitively and taught me how to truly love running, not just for achievements, but for pure, raw enjoyment. After my time at the U of M, I made my transition to road races with the Twin Cities Track Club for a few years while finishing my graduate degree. Sometime during that time, I fell in love with trail running and decided to move to Duluth to have exceptional access to more and better trails. Currently, I’m working my way up in the ultra-marathon scene.”

Today’s guest is…Kyle Severson!

Interview

Why is running important to you?

Running makes me feel truly alive because it comes with such a spectrum of physical and emotional feelings.

On one end, running can be uncomfortable; it can be a challenge; it’s hard, and can really hurt at times. Voluntarily subjecting the body to that kind of discomfort leads to those great feelings of self-worth, accomplishment, and pushing limits. And at its best, running can cultivate a great deal of peace and euphoria in the mind and body because it allows me to find unfiltered happiness in the world around me.

In a nutshell, running is important to me because it’s my way of feeling in tune with my body and to experience the many things this life has to offer.

What are the top two or three things that you do to prevent injury? Have you been susceptible to certain injuries in the past?

Overuse injuries have definitely been a familiar face throughout my years of running and the way I dealt with them have really shaped me into the person I am today.

I literally chose my career path as a chiropractor because of the help it provided for the running injuries I sustained in high school. So, still to this day, consistent chiropractic care is the number one thing I do, without fail, to keep my body working at a top level.

I used to be interested in all the “tricks-of-the trade” when it came to injury prevention; what stretching routines to do, what strengthening exercises were best, what to eat, ice baths, you name it. Honestly, it got pretty exhausting keeping up with everything, because no matter what I did, if I trained too hard, too soon, it would eventually lead to injury.

So, as I’ve grown throughout my 16 year running career, I’ve kind of taken a holistic approach when it comes to injury prevention. Injuries are just the body’s inability to overcome and cope with an external environmental stress.

I’ve gotten better, not perfect, at reading the body on where that limit is and how close I can push over that line without the body failing to react effectively. And if I do end up overdoing it, to not be afraid to take the needed rest to heal and be as patient as possible in the process.

What keeps you motivated when you don’t feel like heading out the door for a workout?

There are a lot of things that help get me out the door to put on some miles. Internally, my competitive nature always knows there’s someone out there working hard and I don’t want to let my training get behind. But it took me a while to learn if being the best is all that matters in running, you won’t really enjoy it that much.

For me the number one motivation is getting outside. Every season of every year brings some real beauty to the area and running is my way to get outside and see it. Especially being in Duluth with endless possibilities of trails, I am able to immerse myself so well in the outdoors by running. I hate the feeling of missing out on the uniqueness of nature that each day brings, but when I get out for a run, that feeling goes away.

Who is in your running support group (training partners, people to bounce ideas off of, etc.)?

I have a number of strong friendships and acquaintances that have developed throughout my life due to running. Nowadays things are so busy, running is really my social time to catch up with those friends, which has also been another motivating factor.

My bride-to-be is also an avid runner and offers me a ton of support. She knows how important running is to me and she is my biggest fan during races.

Nonetheless, I am my own best friend and there’s nothing I love more than a run through the woods in solitude, completely connected with nothing but my thoughts to entertain me.

When/what is your next race?

Hard to know at this present day. I’ve been itching to run a fast marathon on the home course of Grandma’s, but I’m not sure if I’ll do it this year. I’ve spent the last couple years working on trail running and have found the 50k to be a good intro into ultras…so I’d like to do a spring and fall 50k. Good chance I’ll run Wild Duluth 50k in October since I love that race, but that’s about all I have planned out for now.

Do you prefer roads or trails and why?

It’s probably no mystery from my above answers that I’m addicted to trails. In fact, if the trails are open, I rarely run on the road unless it’s a road to get to a trail. All those emotions that come with running are so much more heightened when running trails. Most of the running I do on the road, I’m looking forward to stopping. When I’m on the trail, more often than not, I want to keep going!

What do you think about while your run?

Sometimes running clears my mind, so I literally think about nothing. Other times I think about memories of the past, whether it was something that happened on that day or something that happened years ago. Once in a while I will dream about the future, my goals in my career, my life, and running. But more than I care to admit, I’m probably thinking about how long I have to go until I can stop running and get to eat something.

What is your most memorable race or running achievement?

This is a super tough one, I have so many great running memories! I think I’ll go with something more recent in 2018. I ran the Gary B. half marathon for the first time as a resident of Duluth. It was my first half marathon race and I felt that I ran a strong race with a respectable time. It was most memorable because I had developed some great friendships in the short time I moved to Duluth, and it was fun to recognize so many people and be recognized by them as well. It was a moment I felt truly like Duluth was my home.

Name one racing experience you would like to forget (please describe).

There’s a lot of these as well. Sticking with the Duluth theme, I’m not super proud of my first Grandma’s marathon in 2016. That race was actually my first road marathon, and even though I wasn’t too far off my goal, I wasn’t happy with the way I ran it.

I was still making the transition from track and cross-country to longer road races, and I went out fast only to tank hard at mile 18. It was a death march to the lift bridge and a horrible feeling to just be slogging by friends and family. To this day, I still struggle with the road marathon, but that race taught me a hard lesson.

What is something non-running related you would like to share with readers?

If I’m not running, I have no trouble filling up my time. I run my own chiropractic practice and put a good deal of work into building that up. I love getting outside doing other activities like backpacking and canoeing, which is why Duluth and the surrounding North Shore are my favorite places to be!

Closing

Many thanks to Kyle for agreeing to stop by The Duluth Runner and share some of his knowledge/experiences with everyone. I hope you enjoyed this edition of the Interview Series – stick around for more to come!