Elite Runner Will Be in Ridge Run

CHICAGO, IL -- The field of the 40th running of the Ridge Run 10K - Chicago’s oldest 10K race and an annual Memorial Day tradition in the city’s Beverly neighborhood - will include an elite runner who is trying to qualify for the Olympic Marathon Trials for the second time. Kate DeProsperis confirmed that not only is she running the Ridge Run for the first time in 2017 but that she will be leading a training session a couple of weeks before the event.

“It will be nice because my family is going to come to the run and my boys are going to be in the Tot Run,” said DeProsperis, a resident of west suburban Clarendon Hills who remembers as a child visiting her grandmother in Beverly. “Maybe we will even get my 90-year-old grandmother to come out.”

DeProsperis seeks to set her personal record in the 10K at the Ridge Run although she admits that distance is not her strongest. To PR at Ridge, she will have to beat her 38:30 time at the Buffalo Grove Stampede 10K.

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“I run at a marathon pace, but I am trying to switch that up and work on speed a little this year,” she said.

Her appearance in the race this year is due to her racing team picking the event as one of their races in 2017.

DeProsperis runs for Jenny Spangler Racing and has been coached by Spangler, a former Olympian, for years.

“It’s phenomenal to have such a talented coach with great success at the marathon,” DeProsperis said. "She’s a great asset.”

It will be DeProsperis sharing some of the expert advice she’s picked up from Spangler at a Ridge Run training session planned for Wednesday, May 17 at Ridge Park. To participate in the training session, contact Margot Holland at mholland@bapa.org.

DeProsperis says it’s unlikely the session will include a full-course practice of the 10K race but that they may run a portion of it.

“We aren’t sure yet of the ability level of those who will show up, so we’ll be prepared for anything,” she said, adding that “answering general running questions” will surely be a part of the practice.

“We’ll do some stretching… laid back stuff,” she said.

The Ridge Run fits in to DeProsperis’ running schedule in 2017 because it is early enough in the year.

Until the Fourth of July, DeProsperis participates in local races for charity and to build up her own speed. But after the holiday, it’s all marathon training for her.

Although she still has a three-year window to qualify for the 2020 Olympic Trials, she says she wants to qualify early this time. When she qualified for the Olympic Trials in 2012, it was at one of the last qualifying events, so she only had a five-week window to prepare for the actual trials.

“That (the trials in 2012) was more of a victory lap,” she said, noting it was not near her personal best given the short prep time. “I was just happy to be there.”

But this time qualifying early at either the Chicago Marathon or California International Marathon this year would give her some breathing room prior to 2020.

But with the Ridge Run just weeks away her focus is now on the race that’s become a community party for residents of Beverly.

“I’m really glad the race has embraced this community,” DeProsperis said. “I like when they are family oriented.

Photo provided