Professor Finds Outlet Through Marathons

Professor Finds Outlet Through Marathons

BY DANA DURBIN

Rice News Staff
May 13, 1999

When she was in junior high, Rice psychology professor Mikki Hebl ran in a school race, finishing 25th out of 26 runners. Neck and neck with No. 26 for much of the race, she swore that if she could avoid finishing last, she’d never tempt fate again by running.

In April, she ran the Boston Marathon.

The race, held on April 19–Patriots Day in Boston–was actually the sixth marathon she’s run, and marked the second time she ran in the “Big Kahuna,” as she called the Boston race.

Obviously, she decided to tempt fate. Actually, she’s been tempting fate since 1991, when she ran her first marathon in San Antonio while a graduate student at Texas A&M University.

Hebl looks to her uncle as one of her motivations for running marathons. His no-nonsense attitude when, at age 37, he qualified for the Boston Marathon left quite an impression on her.

Last year’s Boston Marathon also left a mark on Hebl. She ran as a “bandit”–she didn’t meet the qualifying time so she wasn’t an official entrant–but she was determined to officially run this year.

She just missed the qualifying time of 3 hours, 41 minutes at the Houston marathon in January. Undeterred, she ran the Austin Motorola in February and finished in 3:40:13.

“You know you’re in trouble when you limp to the starting line,” she said of her start at the Boston Marathon. “It was my third marathon in four months, and I was already sore.”

A shorter race just two weeks before the Boston Marathon in which she hurt her heel made matters worse. In fact, she had a cortisone shot a few days before the big race.

Fortunately, she had a lot to keep her going through the 26.2-mile Boston run, including her friend David Harvey, who ran the entire race with her even though his pace is about an hour faster.

But there were other motivating forces along the way as well.

“Three times I got chills during the race and it wasn’t because I was exhausted,” she said.

The first time came just a little before the half-way point as she ran past Wellesley College.

“The women of Wellesley had come out and they were cheering everybody on. I just felt so empowered when I saw all those bright young women,” said Hebl, a Smith graduate who felt a bond with them.

Later on she ran past Boston College and again felt chills. The Boston College students fired her up with their cheers of “Go, Mikki” (she had her name on her shirt), but she fired them up right back when she yelled “B.C. Rocks!” and gave them high fives.

The crowd of people who come out to watch the runners is perhaps the most inspiring part of the race, she said.

“The crowds are incredible. Here are these people who don’t even know you, yet they lift you so high.”

The children along the marathon route make a game out of the race day, she noted, as they happily hand out orange slices and count how many high fives they get.

She felt chills one last time during the race. “The third time was definitely when I crossed the finish line,” she said.

She was exhilarated even though she wasn’t happy with her finishing time of 4:06. “I have a benchmark now, and I’m going back.”

Hebl said she wasn’t prepared for the hills, and that contributed to her time. Last year when she ran as a bandit, she lived in New Hampshire and trained in a hilly area. Houston, on the other hand, is flat as a pancake.

It was Heartbreak Hill, which comes at mile 21, that got her. There’s a series of smaller hills, and then the big one, Hebl explained. Last year she ran over a couple hills, and, thinking Heartbreak was still ahead, she asked another runner when she could expect to get to it. “Honey, you just missed HeartbreakHill,” he told her.

This year she had no such luck. “It wasn’t at all like I remembered,” she said with a laugh.

She took her slow time and the hardships she experienced during the race in stride.

“Life is like a marathon. There’s good miles and bad miles, but it’s all about enduring in the long run.”

Hebl said running has been an effective outlet for her this year, her first as a college professor. She is a member of the Bayou City Road Runners and runs with the group every Wednesday. She also runs sprints on Wednesdays with friend Jay Henderson.

A native of Pardeeville, Wisc., and still a devout Packers fan, Hebl started her graduate work at Texas A&M and finished at Dartmouth. She teaches industrial organizational psychology, social psychology and psychology of gender. Her research focuses on prejudice and discrimination in the workplace.

She is described by students as having boundless energy and enthusiasm that is contagious to others around her.

Maybe, like her uncle did for her, she’ll even inspire some to run a marathon.