Sports

Former ALHS Track Star Now Heating Up Extreme Races

Katie Nowak completes Warrior Dash, triathlon

Nowak and her teammates trek through a lake during the adventure series

Nowak rides through terrain on a bike most wouldn't walk through

Teammates had to carry a boat for part of the race before using it

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When Katie Nowak was a standout athlete at , she never gloated, always had fun at what she did, but more importantly, succeeded at what others may have said was impossible.

From the 800 meter run, to helping her 3200 meter relay team advance to state and in the pole vault where she earned a medal, all she did was set records.

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Her efforts following high school were rewarded with a scholarship to Bradley University. There again, she set more records, in both the 800 and the indoor mile record, while earning a degree in engineering.

"It was really fun and I actually stayed a fifth year as a red shirt and got a minor," Nowak said, "It was almost like you had two jobs. You had to go to school and get good grades and have to go to practice and compete. It taught me a lot about time management."

Now living in Minnesota, Nowak utilizes those skills as she works as an engineer for Vascular Solutions, a medical company.

And just like high school and college, Nowak again is not afraid to tackle the impossible.

Recently she was approached at work to sign up for a race, which while not long in nature, (just 3.02 miles) is so rigid, participants are required to sign a waiver of liability since there is a chance they can get hurt.

Called the Warrior Dash, it boasts itself as “3.02 hellish miles” on its website.

"One of my co-workers asked me to do it," Nowak said. "So I asked what it was and they said it was an obstacle course, and I said sure lets do it. It was a pretty tough race, but it was fun."

Popular because it tests both mental and physical skills, 10,450 people competed in the race, completed in waves of up to 600 people, throughout the day. Nowak finished 79th overall despite having to run up a ski slope, through tire obstacles, over cars, crawl through mud and barbed wire and run over fires.

"Nothing was non-doable, which made it nice," Nowak said. "There was barbed wire and people did have cuts, but it was avoidable and I didn't get cut. The hill was the worst because you had to do it twice and that made it very difficult."

Nowak said the worst part of the race was a water obstacle called the Monsoon, which features misting water and gale force winds that throw off participants because you couldn't see. But she also said the race’s end was interesting as it feature waist-high mud under barbed wire and running over fires.

"It was different than any other race I had done," Nowak said. "It had an extra little element in there of how to think strategically to get through."

If the Warrior Dash seems insane, Nowak also competed in another event this summer, called the Adventure series, which is just as difficult, if not worse.

An adventure race is a multi-sport race which requires navigating a course with a map and compass utilizing combinations of non-motorized disciplines, often including trekking, mountain biking, paddling and fixed ropes (ascending and/or rappelling).

Races are anywhere from 3 hours to 10 days in length and can range in distance from just a few miles to more than 500 miles.  Nowak’s team of four completed the race in seven hours.

She also finished her first Olympic triathlon in Buffalo, Minnesota and won her age group, thanks in part to her running background.

"It was another challenge, but I ended up somehow winning my age group there too," Nowak said. "That one, no one passed me in the running part. You get to it, and it was all the training in college where you learn to run on dead legs and get through it. It was a 10k at the end, and I averaged under seven-minute miles with a 6:45 average to my surprise."

When she isn't doing endurance races, Nowak keeps busy either by coaching cross-country for a local high school, where she is a volunteer or by playing in a number of leagues where nearly every night she plays either soccer or volleyball.

She would eventually like to get back to Cleveland, and still keeps in touch with a number of her former teammates like Colleen Byrne and competitors such as Magnificat's Kaitlyn Chambers along with her former Avon Lake cross country coach, Kim Weaver.    


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