Name: Emily Heithaus
Hometown: Bellaire, Ohio
Title: Coordinator for Lifetime Fitness and Physical Education
Start Year at Kenyon: 1999
Back in 2009, Emily Heithaus, coordinator for lifetime fitness and physical education, created a new workout and fitness plan based on the theory of behavior change as part of her doctorate studies. The program was part of an official college affiliation with Weight Watchers, and was incredibly successful for its participants. Pretty cool.
Now, Heithaus, along with husband David Heithaus P’99, are the founders and organizers for the Mudman Triple—an event encompassing three races in two days through some of Gambier’s hilliest, loopiest and dirtiest trails. A powerhouse of fitness and personal health, Emily shared the story of her journey to Kenyon with Her Campus, how she found love, and a couple answers to life’s most tantalizing questions.
Where did you go to school?
The first round of graduate school for my master’s was at Ohio State in Exercise Physiology. Then University of Missouri Schools in Health Sciences for my doctorate.
What brought you to Kenyon?
When I was in college I ran cross country and track and we competed against Kenyon on several occasions, and I always liked it here.
…How did Kenyon do?
They had really good distance runners at that point in time, and I was generally in a clump just behind them…I was running against some national champions so I didn’t really stand a chance.
Back to my original question?
I found out about Kenyon initially through track and cross-country. While I was at Ohio State, Coach Gomez, the cross-country and track coach here, asked if I’d be interested in a part-time job. So I said, “Yeah, that sounds great!” and then I finished graduate school, came back here in 1999 and I started teaching fitness classes and coaching.
Do you still coach?
I don’t. I haven’t coached since 2001, but at this point I am the chair of the physical education department and I do other recreational fitness class planning in addition to the outdoor fitness program.
What’s the outdoor fitness program?
At this point, it involves the Mudman Triple Races, the Earth Day Challenge Marathon in the spring which gets about 500 participants as well as 200-300 volunteers, and then we host some events for kids like trail running activities, games at the Fall Harvest Festival, etc.
What is the Mudman Triple? How did you get involved?
It started back in 2007. It started because my husband (David Heithaus P’99 Brown Family Environmental Center Land and Facility Manager), at that point, was just a guy I worked with, and he was looking for ways to get more people out on the trails.
Sidenote: Professor Emeritus of Environmental Science and Biology Raymond Heithaus P’68 and Instructor of Biology Patricia Heithaus are the parents of David Heithaus. The Heithaus’ are a super-power Kenyon family.
He needed to find a way to do upkeep on the trails and find ways to get people to use them more, so we decided that trail races would be fun.
What is the race like?
We decided that regular trail races were too boring, so we tried to give them a quirky difference. So we came up with the time trials on the trail, which is at night, and everyone wears a headlamp and they get glow sticks. It’s a blast. Then we decided to go with a 5k Steeplechase on the next morning, and so you’re jumping over hurdles for a couple of miles, but ours are like hay bails and all sorts of different obstacles—tangles of rope, go in pits and come out the other side—it’s a blast. Everybody who does it is just thrilled with it. It’s fun, it’s weird, it’s great. The third race is a 10k cross country race on an area of the [Brown Family] Environmental Center that’s normally not open for public access, and we cut the hilliest, twistiest trail that we possibly could. So it’s a two loop race on grass, but people say it’s a little bit of a mind-bender to really not have any idea how well you’re doing in a race because you can’t tell where you are.
Is the Mudman Triple how you met your husband?
It is! We met in the fall of 2006. He was looking for a way to get people on the trails, as I mentioned, and he wanted to have a meeting but I was busy and I kind of blew it off at first. But he was persistent and asked for another meeting and I agreed. We started working together on these different projects. We got married in 2008, and now have a one-year-old son.
Favorite gossip magazine?
U.S. Weekly.
Space Jam or Mighty Ducks?
Space Jam.
Favorite Snack from Xtraction?
Crunchy Tuna Wrap.
Thoughts on the KAC Kreeper?
Creepy…
The Mudman Triple will take place Saturday, Oct. 29 through Sunday, Oct. 30. To register, volunteer, or learn more about the Mudman Triple, contact heithause@kenyon.edu or heithausd@kenyon.edu for more information.