Bertrand has put her competitive running on hold while expecting
her second child
By Angie Young Special to the Dispatch
Kari Anne Bertrand’s typical day begins with an early morning 8-mile run at 6am. That is if the 35-year-old Gilroy obstetrician isn’t at the hospital already delivering babies or responding to an emergency from one of her patients.
Lately, however, the Syracuse, N.Y. native has been cutting down on her mileage – but for good reason. She’s expecting her second child.
No more races for a while. Bertrand’s last one was the Wildflower Run in April. She won the women’s 10K race with a time of 37:37, despite being 15 weeks pregnant.
“If I don’t run, I feel worse,” Bertrand said, regarding juggling career and raising her family. Her husband, Andrew Matthews M.D. (AJ), helps with their toddler son Shay while Bertrand takes a spin outdoors before work. “Running is me time.”
The doctor’s sabbatical from racing will last a few months longer. But after her pregnancy, Bertrand will begin training for the next U.S. Women’s Olympic Trials, which are scheduled for 2008.
Bertrand began running in middle school while growing up on the East Coast.
Her gym teacher asked her to participate in a race. Bertrand was playing softball at the time, but ran in the competition anyway. She ended up winning the entire event. When Bertrand was a freshman, the high school cross country and track coach recognized her talent and urged her to join the team. Bertrand’s success in high school got her recruited by Georgetown University and she earned a track scholarship to the Washington, D.C. school.
While at Georgetown, Bertrand earned All-America honors in 1991-92. Later, she trained with a post-collegiate team sponsored by Reebok in hopes of qualifying for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Trials in the 1500 meters. Bertrand made the first round of the trials, but didn’t reach the semifinals.
Although she was satisfied with her performance, Bertrand still wanted to experience what it would be like to compete at the Olympic level and would try again in 2003.
By then, Bertrand already had lived on the West Coast for several years, established her medical practice and married plastic surgeon Matthews. She ran the New York City Marathon in the fall of 2003, shooting for a coveted spot in the women’s marathon U.S Olympic Team Trials in St. Louis, Mo., which was slated for the following year.
In New York, Bertrand missed her mark and tried again in January 2004 at the Las Vegas International Marathon. Bertrand sprinted through 26.2 miles of desert in an impressive finish of 2:45, despite cold weather and strong headwinds.
Her Las Vegas victory catapulted her into the spring St. Louis Olympic trials where she could compete in a field of 125 of the best female marathoners in the U.S., including Olympians Jen Rhines (a friend of Bertrand’s), Colleen De Reuck, Blake Russell and Deena Kastor, who would go on to win the bronze medal at the 2004 Athens games.
Adding to the challenge? At the time, Bertrand was pregnant with her first child, Shay.
On that sunny April 3rd morning in St. Louis, Bertrand toed the line along with the rest of the Trial qualifiers. Each female marathoner had a single goal: to beat everyone else and make the trip to the Athens Games in the summer.
But only the first three runners to cross the finish line at the end of 26 -plus miles would win top prize money and prestige of competing in the Olympics. The weather began marathon-friendly, with the temperature at a cool 40 degrees with a light breeze.
Thousands of fans lined up along the track at Washington University, waving flags and cheering the athletes. The course looped around the track four times and stretched out along a park near the campus.
By the time the race commenced, the winds increased in strength and the sun heated up the temperature to 65 degrees.
It was pleasant weather for a stroll, but to an elite competitor flying across the asphalt for marathon distance at a sustained speed of five-minute miles or less, such conditions seemed suicidal.
De Reuck took first place in 2:28:23, followed by Kastor and Rhines. Bertrand missed the cut, completing the race in 2:54:39.
The Gilroy physician didn’t quit training after St. Louis.
“I still enjoy the sport . . . track isn’t a huge money-making sport. Running is a mood stabilizer and I did the trials for the experience,” Bertrand said.
Today, Bertrand has put her competitive running career on hold for now and is happy spending time with her family and focusing on the pending arrival of her daughter in September. After that, she’ll begin training for the next U.S. Trials.
Meanwhile, the physically-fit doctor is teaching her patients how to maintain a healthy lifestyle through exercise and proper nutrition.
And who knows? Bertrand may even deliver a future elite runner into the world.
