Catching Up With ... 
        Gymnast Tammy Sutton Carney (June 20)
        Legendary basketball coach Les Habegger (June 27)
        Hoop star / Virginia associate coach Ritchie McKay (July 4)
        Women's soccer player Brittany Langdon Barkley (July 11)


SEATTLE – Eddie Strickler can never get enough racing.
 
Younger sister Suzie can never get enough volunteer and service opportunities.
 
Living on opposite sides of the state, the two former Seattle Pacific distance runners recently found new ways to satisfy their individual thirsts.
 
For Eddie, it was staircases.
 
For Suzie, it was with AmeriCorps.
               
Today, Eddie, a 2007 graduate as a computer science and math double major, continues his career with a software company in nearby Bellevue, while competing in a handful of local stairclimb events a year. One of those is the hike up 69 floors of Seattle's Columbia Tower.
 
"It's very exhausting," said 30-year-old Eddie, who graduated in 2007 after winning back-to-back Great Northwest Athletic Conference titles in the 800 meters and advancing to the NCAA Division II indoor and outdoor nationals in the 800 in 2007. "It's a heavy cardiovascular workout.
 
"At least outside (on the track), you might get a little breeze or something, But you don't get that on the stairs."
               
Suzy, 27, has just completed the second year of a physical therapy program at Eastern Washington University. But before that, she spent two years as part of AmeriCorps.
               
"I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to do next," said Strickler, an outdoor track All-American in the steeplechase who finished her exercise science degree in 2010 with a 3.99 grade-point average. "It seemed like a good way to get experience. I just love volunteering, and service work in general."
 
UP THE UP STAIRCASE
At heart, Eddie Strickler is still most at home running on an oval, dating back to his Falcon days as an 800-meter man.
 
But about four years ago, former Falcons track teammate Mike Gaverski, who works for one of the major sponsors of the Cystic Fibrosis Stairclimb in Seattle's WaMu Tower, convinced Strickler to give that event a try.
 
He has been doing three or four a year ever since.
 
"The big difference is you're all by yourself," Strickler said. "You're racing against the clock and against others. But you have no gauge of where anyone else is."

 

Like any race on the track, particularly the distance events, stairclimbs have a strategy.
 
"It's definitely not going out too hard. I'll pay for it later if I do those first 20 flights too hard," Strickler said. "You have to pace yourself well.
 
"It probably took three or four climbs before I felt like I knew what I was doing."
 
While Boston might the ultimate destination for marathoners, the big events for stairclimbers are at the Empire State Building in New York, or the Sears Tower in Chicago, "but it's really hard to get into those," Strickler said.
 
When not on the steps, he's on the trails. Twice, Strickler has won the Cougar Mountain Trail Series just east of Seattle. The four-races-in-four-months event starts at five miles in May and lengthens in succeeding months to eight, 10, and 14 miles.
 
But Strickler has stretched out his distances even farther than that. He has competed in three marathons, including both Boston and New York in 2011
 
"Boston was so much fun, I signed up for New York, as well," said Strickler, who placed about 300^th in Boston in 2 hours, 40 minutes, and about 150^th in New York in 2:38. "New York was probably my favorite, just with the diversity of the people, and runners from all over the world being there – and the two million people on the sidewalk.
 
"But Boston was awesome. The whole state is on vacation (Patriots Day), so everyone just comes out and cheers. You get to the starting line and realize everyone around you can run just as fast as you. The energy there is pretty incredible – it feels like you're an all-star even though you're not winning the race."
 
Whether it's stairs, trails, or marathons, his running heart still lies elsewhere.
 
"I can still consider myself a track guy," he said. "I still love the track."
 
FROM CLASSROOMS TO BLACKBERRY FIELDS … AND BEYOND
A sense of service long has been one of the things that drives Suzie Strickler.
 
It was while she was on a service mission in 2008 in the Dominican Republic that she suffered a major injury when her left heel got mangled in a motorbike accident. It essentially liquefied about 25 percent of her Achilles, and required immediate surgery. That knocked her out of cross country and track action for the 08-09 school year.
 
She came back strong enough to score for the Falcons in the 2009 NCAA cross country championships, as the team brought home the fourth-place trophy.

 "I really don't think about it anymore," said Strickler, a veteran of four cross country nationals. "It's well-healed, although I still do some work to keep it strong and loose."

 

She earned an NCAA postgraduate scholarship – one of four runners from that year's seven-member national cross country squad to do so, an unprecedented achievement for any Seattle Pacific team. Her near-perfect grades made Strickler one of the inaugural NCAA Elite 88 award winners. Those are given to the competitor at the national championship in each sport with the highest cumulative GPA.
 
But with further education plans not yet solidified, Strickler turned back to service, joining AmeriCorps, an organization now in its 20th year. Its approximately 80,000 memberslink up with non-profits, schools, public agencies, and other groups around the United States.
 
Strickler, who loves engaging with people, found plenty of them from all walks of life. Stationed in Walla Walla in the southeast corner of Washington state, she worked in first in an elementary school, helping students with reading and math, but also worked outdoors.
 
"Our team did some environmental restoration – which was pulling blackberry bushes," Strickler said with a laugh.
 
But during her second year – also in Walla Walla – Strickler got into something that was more suited not only to her background, but also to her eventual grad school plans: Working in the medical referral program the local YMCA.
 
"Doctors could refer patients there if they needed physical fitness-type exercise, and I would get them set up on a basic training program," Strickler said. "A lot of them had never been in a gym before, so it was fun to do that introductory stuff with people and follow up with them.
 
As she gets ready to start a series of three clinical internships to complete her physical therapy program at Eastern, Strickler continues to run – and run fast. In June, she raced in Spokane's Windermere Marathon, her first 26-miler. She won the women's 25-29 age division in 3 hours, 26 minutes, 47 seconds, a margin of nearly three minutes ahead of that group's second-place finisher.
 
That time also put her fourth among the 236 women in the race, 23^rd among the 421 overall entries, and was fast enough to officially qualify her for next year's Boston Marathon.
 
"It was a lot of fun. I was a little bit nervous, but it was more excitement and curiosity," Strickler said. "I didn't really have a plan going into it, so I just started out slow and wanted to see how it goes. It was a Boston qualifier, which was my overall goal."