I have been so incredibly fortunate to meet and be coached by such a gifted running coach over the past couple of years. She is a wealth of knowledge in running, health, massage therapy, nutrition and wellness in general. She is an incredibly humble and selfless person who genuinely loves helping people accomplish their dreams and goals.
When I first met Julia and learned of the running accomplishments she has achieved, I shared that I always wanted to run a half marathon. She right away encouraged me to pursue my goals & dreams and graciously offered to help me get where I want to go. She offered to write me a three-month training schedule and coached me throughout the process to ensure that I didn’t get injured and completed my first half marathon race. I eagerly took her up on her offer and fell in love with running.
Throughout my training, Julia went on scheduled runs with me to help me tweak my form. She helped me with my speed goals by including sprint work in my training plan and she taught me proper nutrition for during races.
She helped me select the best race for my first half marathon, traveled with me to it, and paced me during it. It was the Cascade Super Series Half-Marathon in September 2018. That was followed by my 2nd half marathon later on that same month where Julia paced as well and cheered me on the entire time (whew, that was a windy day). To close out 2018, I ran my 3rd half marathon in October 2018 that she also paced and supported me at.
During that time, I shared with her that I had always wanted to visit New York and had never been. She encouraged me to enter into the 2019 NYC Half Marathon Lottery and Lucky me, I got in on my first lottery entry!! Being a native New Yorker, she graciously cleared her schedule and toured me all around the entire city. We went on guided runs through Central Park, took in all the best art museums and she showed me New York from a native’s perspective. It was one of the most memorable race and travel experiences that I’ve ever had and I will never ever forget it.
My next goal is to run a full marathon and I am confident that with Julia coaching me, I will get there strong and injury free.
I never could have accomplished 3 halfs in one season without her coaching skills!
Amber; Half Marathoner
I am 57-years old and started doing endurance events 9-years ago. I had been working with another coach for Triathlons / Marathons and ended up with Planters Fasciitis. It took some time and lot’s of PT to overcome it. When it came time that I was allowed to run again I reached out to Julia to coach me back to Marathon race form. I quickly discovered that I had been over-training and not recovering properly to avoid injury.
The first part of “our plan”, yes this was a WE / OUR plan, as I quickly saw we were a team who would work together. I had a Marathon goal in mind and Julia worked on making that happen. I was not ever given a “overall plan” as that is not how she works. We started with a weekly plan and she insisted I give her feedback on each run in the beginning. At the end of each week, I would complete my Long Slow Run and again provide feedback. Once she saw how I recovered the next day, she would then send me the run plan for the week. As I became more experienced and followed the plan, we would do feedback session a few times a week.
I am not great at keeping consistent pace, so Julia would run with me from time to time. This was the best feedback ever, as she would help me to stay on pace and more importantly, work on my form and teach me to listen to my body to stay healthy. I had to learn to “Listen To My Body” as that is what Julia preaches. I quickly found it I tried to power through a run when my legs were not up to it, I would get injured and have a setback. That was on me and not Julia. I had to fully buy-into the plan and that is when things started to work for me.
One big thing that lots of athletes don’t do correctly is self-care. I had to do my home PT and regular massage and self-care to stay healthy. Simply put, you can’t wait for the professionals to work on your body to stay healthy. That part is extremely important, but Julia taught me the value of home self-care to stay healthy. The real key to Julia’s coaching is feedback and modifying the plan. We found types of runs that would work and not work for me. Ultimately, her coaching was to make sure I stayed healthy so I could make the starting line. I am on track to meet my goal and I know it would not have happened without Julia’s coaching.
Bryan; Ironman & Marathoner
I have known Julia for over 20 years, both professionally (she has repaired by broken body on countless occasions) and personally (she's a great friend and running buddy!), so I feel very qualified to provide this feedback about her. Julia is as passionate about her goals and interested and as determined to pursue them with enthusiasm as great as any I've ever known. Once Julia decided that she was going to get her L.M.T. (licensed massage therapist), she committed herself 100% to absorbing every available bit of information and to turning her hands into amazing tools to apply all of the knowledge that she acquired. I have been treated by Julia after many half marathons (and one full marathon). I have always walked in feeling like a complete train wreck, and I have always walked out feeling like a brand new person. Every. Single. Time!
Julia applies the same level of commitment to furthering her education about the body: how it works, how to properly maintain it, and how to repair it. She is currently a handful of classes away from completing her Human Performance program, and she is constantly studying and working on her assignments in between her own training and seeing her clients. Somehow, her passion inspires her to find time to fit it all in.
One skill that I find particularly outstanding is her ability to pace others in marathons. As a pacer, Julia must run a marathon, and not only complete it, but she is tasked with competing the marathon in a very narrow time window. Not only must she run a very exact and specific pace, but she is also busy coaching and encouraging and pushing and inspiring the runners who have chosen to run in Julia's group and are relying upon her to run at Julia's prescribed pace. Over the years, I've realized that Julia finds much greater joy in getting her runners across the finish line than she does in completing the marathons herself.
If you are looking for somebody to help you with any of your goals, whether it's healing your body, or improving your running form, or pursing a goal race or a goal time, Julia is a tremendous person and resource to seek assistance from.
Danny: Marathoner