Alex Townsend, manager of regional sales and marketing at the Washington, D.C., office of A Royal Flush, has worked the New York City Marathon for years. Her family’s company — which also has locations in the Bronx, N.Y.; Springfield, Mass., and Bridgeport, Conn. — has provided portable restrooms for this premier U.S. road race for 13 years. The past three years, Townsend also helped out as a volunteer handing out blankets to runners at the end of the race.
But it wasn’t enough. She wanted to be IN the marathon … as in running … all 26 miles. And on Nov. 2, she will be.
GOING THE DISTANCE
Townsend, 25, had been running since her days on the high school track team when she was, of her own admission, “by no means a track star.”
“But I had a good coach so I stuck with it,” she says. Years after high school she got into a few 5k’s.
“5k’s are just fun because afterward you feel great and you can hang out with your friends,” Townsend says. “I still do 5k’s.”
A full marathon, however, takes the sport to a much higher level, which is why when she mentioned it at a meeting of her book club, she didn’t quite believe it when her friend Rachel Collins piped up and offered to train for and run a marathon with her.
“She was not a runner at all,” Townsend says with a laugh. “She was a cheerleader.”
As it turned out, Collins became a runner and Townsend’s cheerleader. Together they ran both the Baltimore Half-Marathon and the full Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C., in October 2007, and another half-marathon in Sedona, Ariz., this past February.
“I was so nervous those last couple of weeks of training for the Marine Corps Marathon,” Townsend says. “Toward the end, she (Collins) was what kept me going.”
While Collins, 27, had not been a runner, her father was. He supplied the two with tips throughout their 11 months of training for the full marathon. This helped them stay motivated and on schedule, because they found fitting an ordinary workout into a hectic work schedule is challenging enough, but finding time to train for a marathon is even more of a challenge.
“I work from home so I could work my schedule around it,” Townsend says. “But it does take a lot of time. I get up early, especially in summer, so I can run before it gets too hot outside.”
RUNNING FOR SUCCESS
Townsend says rather than taking focus away from her work, running actually improves her job performance.
“If I’m having a bad morning, I will run at lunchtime,” she says. “I’ll come back totally refreshed and ready. If I don’t run, I can’t get past it. I can’t shake I off. If I run, I can start fresh.”
Townsend believes people who have physically demanding jobs, including drivers for restroom companies like A Royal Flush, also benefit from physical activity outside of work.
“It’s important for anyone to do stuff outside of their job,” she says. “A job shouldn’t be our source of fitness. Especially when a job is very physical, it benefits a person to work out because not being in shape is how people hurt themselves on the job.”
In the months prior to a marathon, Townsend runs three to 10 miles a day on weekdays, but longer 15- to 20-mile runs are necessary too.
“The longer runs take three or more hours,” she says. “So they have to be on the weekends, especially in winter when it gets dark early, because I don’t want to run in the dark.”
Running isn’t the only exercise that prepares Townsend for marathons. She does weightlifting a couple of times a week and yoga once a week.
“Yoga is especially good for runners,” she says. “I even went to yoga the day after my last marathon because the more you sit, the tenser your muscles get and the more pain you’re in.”
DIET MATTERS
Preparing for a marathon isn’t just about physical training for Townsend, it’s about diet too.
“I pay attention to the way I eat because everything I put in my body is fuel,” she says. “Every day I try to get five different colors of fruits and vegetables. I don’t eat a lot of carbs, but when I do they are all whole wheat. I also drink tons of water because you dehydrate really quickly.”
Townsend says she bikes and kayaks a bit for recreation, but as for racing, she’s sticking to running.
“Running is an easy sport because there’s no equipment other than shoes,” she says. “I enjoy the people too. With the longer distances you get more camaraderie with other runners and the crowds are just fantastic. Before you know it you’re on mile 15. It’s hard to talk when you are biking, and in yoga you have to be quiet too … you can’t chitchat, which is what I love.”
After Hours is an occasional feature that describes how business owners reconcile work life with family, leisure time, charitable pursuits, and personal interests and passions. Pumper welcomes story ideas. If you take part in something interesting outside work, or if you know someone in the pumping business who does, please send a note to editor@pumper.com.
