Originally printed September 15, 2015
Kimber Mattox has been around the track a few times in her professional career. After all, the Team Run Eugene steeplechaser has qualified for the USATF outdoor championships twice, including a 14th-place finish this past June.
But what sets Mattox apart from other elite athletes is what she’s done off the track and on the trail in a segment of professional running that’s gaining attention — obstacle races, trail running and mountain running.
“This year has been focused on just really trying to compete at the highest level,” Mattox said.
In fact, Mattox won a pair of world championships in the past year, first in obstacle racing at the Warrior Dash in Esparta, Calif., and then in trail running at the XTERRA Trail Running Series on Oahu, Hawaii.
Her coach, Ian Dobson, sees her as part of a new breed in the sport.
“Kimber is on the front end of what I think will be kind of a wave here — really competitive endurance athletes moving into these more sort of specialized, or typically what has been more of a niche kind of thing,” Dobson said. “So that really kind of starts to fundamentally change that sort of category of our sport.”
And Mattox is changing things quickly as she goes for another world title Saturday at the World Mountain Running Championships in Wales. She landed a spot on Team USA after qualifying at the U.S. Championships at the end of July in Bend. It was her first race in the mountain classification, which for women features two laps around a 4.2-mile loop course with equal elevation gains and losses.
Last fall, Mattox decided to enter races for both the Warrior Dash and XTERRA after friends told her she’d have fun. And Mattox had a great time, not only placing high enough in each national competition to qualify for worlds, but going on to win world titles in both events.
“It’s fun to think about her and see her as one of the people who are kind of leading that shift and saying that, ‘Hey these are really fun events and I’m going to take them seriously and do my very, very best in them,’” Dobson said.
Mattox isn’t shy about putting herself in a variety of races — covering obstacle, trail running and mountain competitions in addition to the track.
“When those seasons come around I’m going to hit them hard and try and hit the big races, and just try to compete at the highest level that I can,” she said.
Right now, that means focusing on the Mountain Running Championships. The next Warrior Dash is scheduled later in the fall, and she expects to decide about that race based on how Saturday goes. Her competition calendar is almost year-round. Late summer and fall are for mountain, trail and obstacle racing, and winter, spring and early summer are for track.
Although Mattox has made a career as a runner, she actually came to the sport later than some.
She grew up in Bend, playing soccer and basketball at Bend High School and running cross country only when it didn’t interfere with her other sports. She won the Class 4A state cross country meet her sophomore year the day after playing a full soccer game. Mattox didn’t come back to cross country until her collegiate career at Willamette University when she also began competing in track.
The third of four children, Mattox compares obstacle running to her competitive childhood with her two sisters and brother.
“An obstacle course is kind of like going back to your childhood playing kind of days — making self-made obstacle courses and playground adventures,” said Mattox. “When I was a kid, we did a lot of playing in the mud and making giant mud pits to wrestle in and those kinds of things.”
Mattox said she appreciates, on a philosophical level, the challenges of steeplechase, obstacle, trail and mountain racing.
“I think that’s it for me, having a sense of accomplishment along the way to get you to the finish line and just new adventures and ways to make running and competing more fun,” said Mattox, an instructor of physiology and a volunteer steeplechase coach at the University of Oregon.
“I feel really lucky to get to balance the teaching, training and coaching, because I think they all really complement each other well.”
Her typical day includes an early morning workout before she heads to work, then squeezing in an additional session afterward. Summer term ends just in time for her to travel to Wales to compete before returning for the start of fall quarter.
Although she’s new to mountain running, Mattox and her coach say they are confident about her preparation. Dobson has examined footage of the course and says it plays to her strengths.
“The big thing is just getting to wear that U.S. jersey and know that there’s not a lot of opportunities when you’re a post-collegiate athlete that you really get to compete for a team title in a team setting, and this one you do,” Mattox said.
Scoring in mountain running is similar to cross country, with runners earning points for their team based on their finish.
“I think that will be the fun part is to get to connect with these women who are really experienced, learn from them, and be out there representing the U.S. and my teammates in what will be, I’m sure, a very tough race,” Mattox said.