KU Law News
KU Law News
July 20, 2009
A year of firsts: law school, then marathon
Lisa McDermott, left, and Lauren Kohn smile after completing their first marathon. The students trained for the race during their first year of law school and ran it a few weeks after final exams.
It has been said that law school is a marathon for the mind.
If that’s the case, then two KU Law students made the ultimate mind-body connection this spring by training for and running a 26-mile run in the midst of their first year of law school.
Lauren Kohn of Adrian, Mich., and Lisa McDermott of Lenexa completed the Bayshore Marathon in Traverse City, Mich., over Memorial Day weekend, a few short weeks after finals exams. They finished in about 4 hours 30 minutes.
"I think for many people, running a marathon seems like such an accomplishment," McDermott said. "You go in with this mentality where you figure that if you can train yourself to run 26.2 miles nonstop, you can do anything so long as you put in time and preparation.
"I think the first year of law school was definitely more challenging than the marathon. I have been running for over 10 years, whereas I have never experienced anything close to law school. However, I really enjoyed both because they were both challenging, and it's always good to have challenges in our lives."
The pair answered a few questions about their experience.
KU Law: Do you have a running background?
Lauren: I played basketball in college at Ohio University, so my running background consisted of short sprints and agility training. We ran the mile once for basketball, and that was the longest race I had ever trained for.
Lisa: I ran cross country and track in high school, and I have continued to run a couple miles a day on my own since then. However, this was my first marathon.
KU Law: Describe your training regimen for the marathon.
Lauren: We got a training program online, which consisted of running three to four days a week Monday, Wednesday, occasionally Friday, and long runs on Saturdays. For example, a typical week would be 5 miles on Monday, 7 miles on Wednesday and 12 miles on Saturday. Our Saturday lengths increased every week all the way up to 20 miles and then tapered down. Our 20-mile day was supposed to be the day of our eight-hour Civil Procedure final, but we pushed it back a day. Towards the end, we were putting in six to seven hours a week in training.
KU Law: How did you balance your intense first-year law studies with that training?
Lauren: Balancing running and school was not as hard as one might imagine. There were a few days and weeks that we had to rearrange our schedule to accommodate papers being due or intense studying that needed to be done. This mainly happened closer to finals. Running was actually a great stress reliever for us. It was a healthy way to distract ourselves from our studies and gave us a couple hours a day to exercise and relax.
Lisa: I actually found that training was conducive to better study habits. It forced me to balance my study time with personal time. I also think that running kept us healthy, which is especially important around finals time. Additionally, it gave Lauren and me a chance to take a break from reading and to discuss any problems or concerns we had encountered while studying.
KU Law: What was the actual marathon like? Did you have a strategy? Were you able to stick to it? Was it harder than you thought it would be?
Lauren: The actual marathon was a lot harder than I had imagined. We trained at around a 9:30 pace and planned to run slower than that the first 10 miles or so, so that we did not burn ourselves out right away. When we trained we would always talk with each other, which made the time go by faster, so another part of our plan was to stick together the whole race and chat just like our training. We were able to stick to our strategy, but the last six miles were harder than I had anticipated.
Lisa: The marathon itself was perfect. The Bayshore Marathon course is incredibly flat, the scenery is gorgeous, and the weather was unbeatable. To be honest, going into it, I really didn't know what to expect besides the fact that I knew we were going to finish. I can tell you that it got almost boring near the end; I was definitely ready to be finished after running for over four hours.
KU Law: Do you have plans to run future marathons?
Lauren: Right now I am not planning on running another marathon anytime soon. I am planning on running a half marathon this fall and would love to run in any local 10K or 5K while I am at school.
Lisa: I would like to continue to run marathons. However, I'm not so sure I could ever train for it on my own.