A mindset for competition
Jenny Overstreet is not one of the runners who grew up running. She played soccer would do a 5K here and there. Or she would do intervals, but she always said that she hated running.
But she started doing obstacle course racing (OCR) and training more seriously for that sport, with a little bit of running. But when races were canceled for a year she didn’t have a specific race to train for so she started running in the woods. And she fell in love with the feeling of running trails. She gradually started adding more miles and after a while started thinking that she would try a 50K.
She got connected to the trail running community and was aware of a 50K race in the Kansas City area. But her first race was in Arkansas in January 2021 a 50 K called David’s Trail Endurance Run. She said it’s a beautiful trail, and some of it is very easy and runnable and some of it is not runnable at all. It’s very drastic in different parts, but it’s a lot of fun for her.
She started obstacle racing in 2018. She is a personal trainer and one of her bootcamp classes wanted something to train for so all of them signed up for a local even, the Kansas City Timber Challenge. They enjoyed the event and signed up for a couple of more races. Jenny saw the elite racers who started the course first and began to wonder if she could be competitive. She entered a local competition and placed 10th, enough to qualify her for the North American Championships. So she decided to start training specifically for OCR.
For Jenny, every race is a little different, but mainly it’s a running sport so she runs a lot for training. You also need upper body strength so she also does indoor climbing workouts.
He also likes to train in the woods but it’s very different, he’s done some short ones like 5K, 10K and stuff like that but it’s usually to have help with speed work and to force himself to do it, he usually runs in the woods to have some rocks to jump over the trails.
Although Jenny would love to do some big name races there aren’t many local ones, the closest ones are usually Chicago or Dallas so she prefers to go to trail races which are a beautiful place.
She is quite competitive, and this season her idea is to increase her distance because the furthest she has done so far is 50 miles. She is confident she can do a 100K, but when she thinks about 100 miles and the idea of running through the night it kind of thing scares her a little bit. She likes to be prepared, and she likes to train very well for what she does so she thinks it might happen someday but she doesn’t know exactly when.
His biggest goal for now is to go to the world championships for OCR that are in Vermont. She would like to make it a priority this year to experience it. It’s in the mountains which she finds very fun and also being around people speaking other languages and competing but at the same time helping each other. Tough mudder is also something that is on her list, and she is trying to figure out if she can make one of those fit into her season this year so she can qualify. She loves strength training, enjoys doing deadlifts, leg movements, single leg squats and the like.
Although soccer was her main sport in the beginning she also did some extreme sports like skateboarding, which is another male dominated sport. She is grateful to have that experience and thinks it contributed to the talent in what she does now.
Bridge questions
The must-have piece of running gear for her is a pair of shoes that are her favorite and the most comfortable she has worn so far. They are called VJ, and she thinks they are from a European country.
The strangest thing she has seen while running is a snake coiled in a tree. She tripped and fell and then saw the snake about two feet from her face.
Her philosophy is that life is short and you should be willing to take chances and try new things.
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