Krista (Limbo) Davis grew up in Boston, where she ran track through high school, but always with obstacles – hurdles, a high jump bar - never just straight ahead and not over long distances if she could help it. From Boston, she went out to Colorado for college and the life of a ski bum for six years, competing as a sponsored snowboarder in the X-Cross and Half Pipe. Krista moved to California because her family was out that way and she was sick of snow. As she tells it, her second to last weekend in Colorado it snowed 30 inches on Mother’s Day and she thought, “You know what, I ‘m done. “ Krista met her husband Dale in San Diego, and his brother provided the encouragement to begin running marathons.
As it happens, Krista ran 3:19:43 for an eleven-minute personal best at Boston on April 21, then married Dale on May 1st. Just now returning to running and with Dale within earshot, she admits, only partially joking, “The wedding was planned around the marathon schedule – Boston is only once a year, but you can get married anytime.”
1. How did you start running?
My mom said I never really learned how to walk. I started running track in fifth grade in a youth track program in Boston. I ran high school track in middle school, and HATED distance. The cross country meets were just miserable.
2. Who is your running role model?
I would say I have two: Jonathon Riley (2004 5000 meter Olympian and Krista’s high school teammate), and my old track coach, Dave Counts. We still keep in touch. He’s run 1:10 for the half and 2:20-something at Boston. Getting to run with Riley is getting to run with greatness. I was the bad influence that made him eat ice cream after practice. He is always someone I can talk to about running and who knows all aspects of it.
3. What has been your most memorable running / racing experience?
Boston the last two years. The first year I was on the verge of tears the whole time throughout the race – it was such an emotional experience running through all the towns where I grew up. This year, it was great to go back and actually race it. I wasn’t sure I could run that time, but to do it in Boston was incredible. When you are coming up that last stupid little hill there is nothing that looks better or sounds better than that stretch.
4. What have you enjoyed about working with Focus-N-Fly?
It takes the guesswork out of what I am supposed to be doing and how I could improve. Each week I knew what I was supposed to do and knew the paces. Especially over the winter when I was coming back from injury, I knew that if I was left to myself I would not have built back up with the same patience.
5. What is one part of your racing routine you can’t do without (sleep, pre race meal, tie shoes certain way, other ritual)?
Dinner is always spaghetti with red sauce. Everything is always already in my bag the night before. And, the last thing that I do before bag drop is body glide.
6. What is your favorite place to go for a run?
Anywhere in San Diego. La Jolla along that cove in the shore, where you get to see all the seals on the beach. There is a route up in Carlsbad along the ocean that is part of the Carlsbad Marathon, and actually, a lot of my long runs are up in Huntington Beach, right along the boardwalk and the riverbed. It is relatively flat, but has great people watching.
7. In the next year, what goals do you hope to accomplish?
New York for sure (with her time in Boston, Krista met the May 1st guaranteed entry standard for the 2009 ING New York City Marathon), but I don’t know what I am going to do there. I didn’t think I could run 3:19, so who knows what I can do now! Part of me wants to see how fast I can run in a half, but getting my brother through his first half is a big one. We hope to do one together late summer or early fall. He has probably lost 60 pounds and calls me every weekend letting me know how his running is going.
