Jody Hawkins

Competing against the youngins at the Texas A&M Invitational, W40 Jody Hawkins yesterday lowered her own American indoor record for 3,000 meters, clocking 9:51.60 to break the 9:56.24 she ran in 2007. Jody is 43, so her age-graded equivalent to an open time is 9:09.2.   See results here. As it turns out, the listed W40 world record is 9:02.83 by Russia’s Lyubov Kremlyova in 2002. Unbelievable. Still, Jody’s time may be a single-age record. Jody and her husband have three kids, and she coached at the high school and college levels. Her biggest achievement, however, was overcoming a bout of bone weakness, as one site reported: “Her running career was stalled by osteoporosis brought on by the rigors of military training in the Army’s World Class Athlete Program.”

I wrote Jody for details on her latest running and work gigs, and she replied:

I’m not (coaching) at Centennial (High School) anymore. We moved back to my hometown to let our boys finish school close to family and friends. I’m coaching a youth team on the side called Leap of Faith Racing Team. For now that is enough to keep me busy.

I had run a 16:55 in October and I thought then I would have a shot at the record again, but shortly after the Race for the Cure in October I had to take two weeks off to let a calf injury heel. I’m about 8 weeks into my base phase right now and have not even touched the track yet this season, so I was thrilled to run the 9:51. I want to give it one more go before indoor is over to get under the 9:50s, hopefully.

 The A&M track was banked, which was really hard on my body. If I can recover and get in a little speed work, I’ll try Houston in a couple of weeks; it is a flat 200 track.

As far as my racing schedule, I will try and make a run for the 43-year-old age-group 5K American record it is 16:43 and would love to go to Carlsbad to give that a run in April. I would love to revisit some of the bigger races I ran in as an open elite and run them as a masters. I’m fortunate to be racing and running and so very thankful for every day I’m given to be a runner. What an amazing ride!

Here’s Jody’s AR race at Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium:

Women 3000 Meter Run
=======================================================================================
     Gilliam: F 8:42.03  3/14/2009   Jenny Barringer, Colorado                 
        Meet: M 9:40.60  2/14/2009   Nichole Jones, Baylor                     
                9:13.00  AUTO
                9:32.00  PROV
    Name              Year School                  Finals                        Points
=======================================================================================
  1 Lennie Waite           Unattached             9:26.07MPROV             
  2 Asia Myrland           Texas                  9:51.27                   10   
  3 Jody Hawkins           Unattached             9:51.60                  
  4 Lauren Watson          Oklahoma               9:57.44                    8   
  5 Nichole Jones          Baylor                10:02.14                    6   
  6 Katie Dalton           TCU                   10:09.57                    5   
  7 Molly Ferguson         Oklahoma              10:09.63                    4   
  8 Amanda Mcmahon         Texas-Arling          10:19.32                    3   
  9 Allison Mendez         Texas                 10:20.47                    2   
 10 Katie Barry            Baylor                10:24.98                    1   
 11 Heather Bullin         Texas State           10:25.33                  
 12 Stephanie Armstron     Texas State           10:25.71                  
 13 BreAnna Briggs         Texas A&M-Cc          10:34.57                  
 14 Sheila Salil           Texas A&M-Cc          10:37.08                  
 15 Rebecca Ulrich         Unattached            10:48.74                  
 16 Lydia Chebii           Texas-Arling          10:50.08                  
 17 Kelly Dawson           TCU                   10:56.62                  
 18 Karensa Ellis          Northwestern          11:00.32                  
 19 Angela Rojas           Houston Bapt          11:05.26                  
 20 Lexi Crommett          Texas A&M             11:29.57                  
 21 Allison Fontenot       Northwestern          11:30.15                  
 22 Laura Pacifico         SMU                   11:33.26                  
 

Wouldn’t this be a great place to hold a USATF masters national championships?