Thinking Outside the Box

This week Perki interviewed Naomi Hampson. 2012 is her 2nd year with Phillyfit.

Perki: How, what and/or who started you on the road to training for distance?
Naomi: I had tried to do couch to 5k on my own without success. I needed a buddy. Maggi convinced me to join this great group of people.

P: What is your motivation?

N: I wanted to learn how to run. At first my goal was 3 miles. I’ve reached my goal and now I just want to get out and run. Oh and I want to avoid Zombies.

P: What has been your hardest lesson to date?

N: You can’t do it all. You have to pick the parts you are going to try to improve and focus on those. If you try to improve everything all at once, you’ll fail to improve anything.

P: Tell us about a EUREKA! moment.

N: In running class (at The Running Place this spring) we started with 3 minutes running and 1 minute walking. This is more running at one time than I had done before, and although I was able to complete it, I thought I was very close to my limit.  The next week we were scheduled to do 6 minutes running, and I didn't think there was any way I could run for that long. But I did it! I realized I was capable of much more than I thought possible.

P: So by the end of the summer you will have your PhD?

N: That’s the goal.

P: I know the topic is Materials Science. In layman’s terms what is Materials Science?

N: My degree will be in Materials Science and Engineering. The Materials Science part is about understanding materials and the properties they have. The engineering part is about taking the understanding and designing new materials.
P: (still looks confused)
N: Take running shoes for example.
P: (something Perki understands J )
N: I over-pronate. I need more support inside the arch. Ultimately, a material was needed that could provide the support and last 350 or so miles. A materials scientist looked at the foams that are used in the shoes and figured out the properties of the foam; what made it squishy and what made it firm. The engineer took that and designed a foam that would have the ideal properties.  Shoe designs actually call the different materials to attention and they are used as a major selling points.  Brooks shoes have a material in the sole that is squishy when you walk and firm (give support) when you run.

P: Rumor has it that you don’t have a high school diploma, yet you are going to get your PhD.

N. True. I am a high school drop-out.

P: There has to be a good story behind that.

N: In my junior year of high school I was taking Physics for the first time. I knew I wanted to go into engineering by that time. I had a sweet but young Physics teacher, who wasn’t very good at teaching. One day, I did a lab in a different way than he was expecting. My method worked but he failed me because I didn’t do it the way he thought it should be done. So there was a meeting with the teacher, the vice-principal and the head of the science department for the school district. In that meeting, the head of science told me “Do not think outside the box”. But that’s what scientists do!

So I planned to take Physics 2 at West Chester University, but my high school said since the school offered Physics 2, I had to take it with them or not at all. So I dropped out. I took my SAT’s and went To West Chester University full time starting the following year (what would have been my senior year of high school). West Chester had a Physics program where you spent 3 years there and then went to Penn State Main Campus for 2 years. At the end, I would wind up with two bachelor’s degrees.

But in November I met the most amazing person; my now husband, Andrew. I did not want to go away to Penn State. I got an internship at Drexel in the Materials Science department and the head of the department offered me a Master's degree if I spent those two years there.

The Naomi method of schooling “Always Trade Up”.

I never finished at West Chester. Last year, after doing a bunch of paperwork I received a letter in the mail saying “Congratulations on your graduation" and I figured out that I had a Bachelor degree. When I got my diploma it was dated two months earlier. I earned my Masters just this June. Once the PhD is complete I will petition to the state for a high school diploma. I will make sure it is in the year AFTER my PhD. So my resume will say BS, MS, PhD, HS Diploma (in that order).

Then I’d love to go back to that administrator who told me not to think outside the box and say “Really?”

P: What is your favorite sound in training?

N: People talking. I like having training buddies.

P; What is your least favorite sound in training?

N: Cars

P:What is your favorite workout?

N: Zombies, Run!

P: What is your least favorite workout?

H: Hills. I understand that they are important and I want to improve,  so I’ll do them. But they are painful.

P: If you could spend a day with any athlete present or past, who would it be? Why?

N: I’d say Kathrine Switzer. She became an athlete and a celebrity all at the same time, by being the first woman to officially run the Boston Marathon, even though the race director tried to forcibly remove her during the race.  She didn't set out to change the world she just wanted to run, but when she realized that her involvement in the race was going to have an impact on women athletes and the perception of women athletes, she stepped up and accepted the burden. It would have been easy for her to step back after that race or not complete it at all. Instead, she made it her mission to change the running world for women.

P: When it comes to your training or racing what would you love to hear someone say to or about you?

N: That I helped someone else. That I made it fun for them.