Meet Kira Bartlett! She’s been shaking it under the disco ball since January of 2017 and recently completed the Blue Ridge Marathon (also known as the nation’s toughest road marathon – because marathons aren’t hard enough already.) As if running 26.2 miles around Roanoke, up Mill Mountain, and up Roanoke Mountain wasn’t impressive enough, she placed FIRST in her age group! If you see Kira around the studio, tell her how AWESOME she is! Congratulations, Kira – we’re so glad you found us!
Are you a Roanoke native? If not, where are you from and what brought you to the area?
I’ve lived in Roanoke for about a year and a half now. I’m originally from Pennsylvania, although prior to Roanoke, I was going to school at Clemson down in South Carolina. I moved here after graduation for work.
How did you first hear about us?
I was looking for yoga classes on the Mind Body app and saw the studio there, but I also lived super close at the time (we’re talking like 4 minutes max) and would drive by the studio fairly frequently. I was nervous about coming to class since I was never very coordinated, but decided it was crazy not to since it was so close to my apartment.
Have you always been a runner or was running the Blue Ridge Marathon a more recent goal?
I started running when I went to college, but much shorter and slower runs (a few miles here and there). I started school in Philadelphia and felt very cooped up, so running was my chance to get out and about. Over the years it kind of came and went – I’d go through phases where I ran a few times a week and then there would be months where I wouldn’t run at all. At one point when I was living in South Carolina, I decided I wanted to train for a half marathon and immediately succeeded in hurting myself. Probably a few months after starting classes at JDR, I started getting into running again – just a few miles here and there. Then I ran the Blue Ridge Half Marathon last year and I was hooked. I started running more and looking for more races. So all in all I’d say that this is a more recent goal, but that I’ve actually had this race in mind for the past year. I signed up for it last May, because they send you a heck of a discount code for the following year after you run a race and fill out their survey. 🙂
How have JDR classes impacted your marathon training?
The JDR classes have been a great supplement for me, especially during times of icky weather. There are plenty of days when I just didn’t feel like running, but wanted to do something, so I would go to JDR. I think they also helped me get back into running and do my first half marathon. I figured that if I could dance for an hour and a half at MegaMix, then surely I could run for that long.
What’s your favorite song (or songs) to dance to under the disco ball?
I am really immensely terrible at knowing song names and artist names, so I don’t have a great answer for this. There are so many that I love and just have no idea what they are. But one of my recent favorites would be Instruction.
Are there any JDR songs included on your running playlist?
Unfortunately, I have to say no. I actually listen to podcasts and audiobooks while running. When I started running, I would listen to music, but as my runs got longer I found that I needed something more to keep my brain busy. Additionally, my phone suffers from bad battery syndrome and would die if I tried to use Spotify while running. And I haven’t gotten my life together enough to make an actual hard playlist to put on my phone. But I might have to use this strategy in the future! I could certainly see it being very helpful at reviving energy levels especially towards the end of a run.
Anything else you’d like the JDR fam to know about you?
Nothing in particular, but if you’d like a fun fact about me, one would be that I played rugby in college for about a year. I was pretty terrible, but it was fun and a good experience.
