EWU Creative Writing Professor Earns Athletic Sponsorship

Rachel Toor, nerdy little professor of creative writing at EWU, has received an athletic sponsorship a month before her 50th birthday. Every year apparel company Athleta selects 10 women to feature on their Chi Blog. This year, however, the editors of the website “were so awed by [the] sponsorship applicants and how they embody the very essence of Power to the She” that they selected 20 outstanding women to sponsor – including EWU’s Toor.

While many of the women selected have professional connections to their sport or activity (yoga teacher, surfing instructor, personal trainer), Toor’s day job is to sit on her butt and write, lie on her back and read, and sit on her butt and teach. However, she still manages to run marathons and ultramarathons.

She qualified this past fall for the Boston marathon with a time of 3:31 and will be running there again in April. She has led marathon pace groups, competes in a wacky sport called Ride and Tie (where two people take turns running and riding a horse over miles of trail), has run in races all over the world, including a five-day, 100-mile stage race in the Himalayas, and has the scars and bruises on her legs to prove it.

For the next year, in exchange for a bunch of free clothes from Athleta, Toor will blog twice a season. In other words, she will sit on her butt and write. This is something she does. Her most recent book is Personal Record: A Love Affair with Running, has written for all of the major running publications, and has a regular column in Running Times, where she is a Senior Writer. One of her essays, “The Colossal Crack,” about running the Grand Canyon from rim to rim to rim, was a Notable selection in Best American Sports Writing 2011.

TOOR’S ACCOMPLISHMENTS & CREDENTIALS

• 50-60 marathons, PR 3:14
• A dozen or so races longer than marathon (50Ks and 50 milers)
• Marathon wins: Black Mountain Marathon (NC), Gold Country Marathon (CA), Lewis and Clark Marathon 2004 (MT), Mt. Everest Challenge Marathon (India) and Second Place in Himalayan 100 Mile Stage Race (India)
• World Championship Ride and Tie, winner of woman/woman and man/woman divisions. First place overall in two races.
• Has run the Boston marathon five times, and will again in April 2012
• Ran the Grand Canyon from rim to rim to rim (three days after running up and down Mt. Whitney)

2012 GOALS

• Run the Boston Marathon in April (though training will be hard during the Spokane winter)
• Run well in some half marathons
• Tackle some more ultras, maybe the Elkhorn 50K in August in Helena, MT
• Do as many ride and ties as possible
• Become a ski freak
• Run the Snow Joke Half Marathon right after she turns 50 on February 22 (entered in the canine division with her dog, Helen)
• Be as strong, fit and happy as she can going into her sixth decade
• Compete in more women-only races, especially half-marathons