Eva Rainer

Q: What is your favorite running trail?
Buffalo Bayou in Houston. Sentimental favorite—Houston is not known for its scenic running, so pretty much all long runs go by the bayou. This is where I trained for my first marathon and many memorable long runs happened right there with the mosquitoes and the fire ants.

Q: What is your favorite SLR trail (if different from favorite running trail)?
I like the Cathedral/Clintons route, but I also agree with others about Ross Drive.

Q: What SLR trail should Max and other course planners never have charted and exposed unsuspecting runners to?
Well, the very first time I ran with SLR, I hadn’t been running all winter and was coming from very flat Houston, so I was not ready for the Potomac Overlook/Marymount trail run. Yikes! That was not fun, and I’m still amazed that I returned to SLR the following week. Now, though I have learned to love the hills, I still don’t like that course.

Q: What’s on your race schedule this year?
Cherry Blossom 10 Miler, New Haven Road Race 20K (another sentimental favorite), and a fall marathon, probably Chicago

Q: What’s your favorite marathon?
Chicago

Q: What would you say was your most memorable race?
Honolulu Marathon—my first. Recovery involved swimming in the cold Pacific right off Waikiki Beach. I’m not sure I would have been hooked if I had run a different first marathon.

Q: My Run from Hell, or the Run I Should Never Have Embarked Upon, is . . . ?
New York City Marathon—it was so bad I was hoping my knee would blow out so that I wouldn’t have to finish. To add insult to injury (or lack thereof), P. Diddy ran the City 45 seconds faster than I did.

Q: What’s your best marathon time?
4:05 in Chicago

Q: What is your average mile pace during SLR runs?
9:00 to 9:30

Q: What’s the best running shoe you’ve ever worn?
Mizuno Wave Alchemy

Q: What do you currently run in?
Same

Q: How many pairs of running shoes do you use per year?
3 or 4

Q: What is the funniest thing about your current job? (No need to divulge any classified information.)
The new “Customer Intimacy” initiative. Very Dilbert.

Q: What’s the worst job you have ever had?
After Enron collapsed (no, not my worst job), I went to another energy company in Houston, where I worked with a guy who chewed tobacco all day long. One day his spittoon tipped over and spilled out. I lasted only 6 months.

Q: Name your favorite pizza.
Anything from Modern Apizza in New Haven, CT (my hometown!)

Q: What is the most recent book you’ve read?
Justice by Georges Simenon

Q: Who is/are your favorite Nobel prize winner(s)?
Jimmy Carter

Q: If you were a car, which car would you be?
What was that BMW in the James Bond movie? Z3?

Q: Caribbean Cruise or Appalachian Trail Hiking? Why?
Appalachian Trail. I have nothing against the Caribbean, but cruise ships tend to be terrible polluters.

Q: Preferred Starbucks espresso drink?
Gingerbread Latte, available only around the holidays. I really overdosed this past season, though, so the fixation may be over.

Q: Top three movies ever seen?
1. North by Northwest
2. The Fog of War (Everyone I run with has heard me babble about it ad nauseum.)
3. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
I’m also obsessed with James Bond movies.

Q: What’s your preferred (or least repulsive) Gatorade flavor?
Anything tastes good after SLR!