Navigate

Fast Is for Running, Not Eating

Elyse Kopecky and Shalane Flanagan

Elyse Kopecky ’04 and Shalane Flanagan ’05, cross-country teammates at Carolina, drew from their sports experience to develop the cookbook. (Photo by Alan Weiner)

Former Carolina runners team up for cookbook

Runners obsess over numbers: Training intervals, race splits, personal records — and calories eaten, calories burned, weight gained.

Elyse Kopecky ’04 and Shalane Flanagan ’05 tell runners to care about the first set, relax about the second. By “indulging — yes, indulging — in real food they will not only train and perform better, but also improve overall health, all while enjoying what they eat more than ever before,” the two wrote in their cookbook.

The Carolina cross-country teammates espouse “indulgent nourishment” in Run Fast Eat Slow. The only numbers in their recipes are ingredient measurements, cooking temperatures and times, and 
recipe yields.

“The recipes in this cookbook do not include calorie counts or macronutrient (carbs, protein, fat) measurements. This wasn’t an oversight but intentional,” they wrote. Their focus is on eating a balanced diet of foods that keep diners energized and satisfied.

After almost four years of researching, perfecting recipes, writing and editing, with a world-class marathoner — Flanagan — road testing each recipe, their cookbook was published Aug. 9, 2016. Five days later, their indulgent-nourishment philosophy got a crucial test.

On Aug. 14, Flanagan finished sixth, the top American, in the 2016 Rio Olympics women’s marathon, bettering her 10th place in the 2012 London Olympics. Rio capped a banner year as Flanagan set personal bests in the 10K and half-marathon. All fueled by meals from Run Fast Eat Slow.


Approach cooking as “your new awesome hobby that benefits everyone in your life.”
–Elyse Kopecky ’04

“The only way I can explain that I was able to do that is I think I was recovering better and just feeling healthier,” Flanagan told The Charlotte Observer. “I was more excited to train because I was feeling better. … Certainly I needed a change, because I was definitely feeling a burden with my diet. I wasn’t having fun fueling myself.”

You needn’t be a marathoner, nor run at all, to benefit from Run Fast Eat Slow.

“Run fast” references the fast-paced American lifestyle, the authors say, that contributes to poor nutrition, obesity and declining health. People buy too many “quick-and-easy” packaged, processed foods to meet hectic schedules. They don’t spend enough time selecting fresh foods that provide better nourishment.

“Eat slow” means taking the time to sit down with family and friends and enjoy meals. Converse, take time to chew, and savor flavors in foods with unprocessed ingredients.

They acknowledge the challenge in that approach. “Cooking wholesome food from scratch takes time, there’s no way around that,” Kopecky said. So approach cooking as “your new awesome hobby that benefits everyone in your life.” They offer coping strategies: A well-stocked pantry and staples in the fridge ensure “something delicious that you can get on the table fast.” They provide 10 tips to transform a beginner cook into a confident one.

Subsistence eating

They didn’t always eat this way. When Kopecky and Flanagan became friends in 2000 as freshmen on the cross-country team, many of their teammates subsisted on cold cereal, protein bars and “Pop-Tarts slathered with peanut butter.” Kopecky and Flanagan tried to cook whenever possible, especially their junior and senior years when they shared an off-campus duplex. “We thought what we were eating was healthy,” Kopecky said, but it wasn’t always, given their sparse nutrition knowledge and meager student budgets.

After graduation, both moved to Portland, Ore., working for Nike — Kopecky as a digital marketing producer, Flanagan as a professional runner.

Flanagan is America’s top female distance runner. At Carolina, she won NCAA cross-country and indoor track championships. She won the 10,000 meters silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She placed second in her first marathon, New York City in 2010. She finished the 2014 Berlin Marathon third with a personal record.

Flanagan, who grew up north of Boston, has run the Boston Marathon twice, finishing fourth in 2013 and seventh in 2014 — the latter a course record for American women. (She missed Boston this year after fracturing her iliac bone during a training run in snowy Portland.)

Kopecky began running competitively in seventh grade at Charlotte’s Providence Day School. She says fierce competitiveness enabled her to outrun most boys on her cross-country team, and, as a senior, she won the 1999 Independent Schools Class 3A girls’ state championship.

While running faster each year, eating what she thought was nutritious food, Kopecky was experiencing health issues. At 14, she developed stress fractures in both knees; she was as thin at 
16 as at 12.

When she came to Carolina, the team doctor diagnosed her with “athletic amenorrhea” — a lack of monthly periods caused primarily by intense exercise. The doctor prescribed birth control pills. “This resolved the immediate issue … but didn’t address the root cause of why it hadn’t happened without drugs,” she says. “It never crossed my mind that the low-fat ‘health’ foods I consumed regularly were causing more harm than good.”

Training for the dinner table

When Kopecky and her husband moved to Switzerland for work, she began making the connection between a different approach to food and her health issues. “The packaged products I was used to buying in the U.S. didn’t exist, so I began cooking everything from scratch,” she said. “My perspective on healthy eating changed. I happily discovered that food could be indulgent and nourishing at the same time. My weight did not change, but I felt stronger and healthier than ever before.”

Run Fast. East SlowWhen the couple returned to America, she quit working to attend the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts in New York. After Kopecky finished school, the couple returned to Oregon, and she reconnected with Flanagan. While grilling and eating bison burgers in August 2013 at Flanagan’s Portland house, they began talking about food, nutrition and running. By evening’s end, Run Fast Eat Slow was out of the starting blocks.

The birth of her daughter, Lily, in 2015 was Kopecky’s final impetus to complete the cookbook. She had worried that athletic amenorrhea had affected her ability to become pregnant. Doctors told her pregnancy wouldn’t come quickly or easily. Instead, it did. “I didn’t need hormone therapy, IVF or other medical interventions to get pregnant, all I needed was a hearty, healthy diet.”

Kopecky and Flanagan gathered 120 recipes and tried them all, culling 15. “All of our recipes were crafted to maximize flavor and nutrition,” Kopecky said, “and to minimize inflammation, digestive distress and toxins.” Final testing was done by Megan Scott, who with her husband, John Becker, are stewards of the famous Joy of Cooking, written by Becker’s great-grandmother, Irma S. Rombauer.

Two recipes come from Kopecky and Flanagan’s UNC days.

“In college, Shalane got our household hooked on topping bowls of rice with cheese-loaded scrambled eggs and any assortment of accompaniments we could dig up — the perfect solution for hungry runners on a budget.” Flanagan’s Breakfast-Meets-Dinner Bowl recipe replaces scrambled eggs with a fried egg and avocado cream.

The second was borrowed from a Chapel Hill restaurant. When Kopecky and Flanagan would find only sketchy leftovers in their fridge, they went to Foster’s Market for Carolina Tarragon Chicken Salad. They added it to their book with a change, replacing mayonnaise with whole milk yogurt, blended with mashed avocado to replicate mayo’s richness.

The cookbook produced another change. A book tour made the self-described introverts “push ourselves out of our comfort zone,” Flanagan said, and they became better public speakers. They combined cookbook talks with running clinics. “Our favorite stop was Chapel Hill,” Kopecky said. “It was sold out, over 300 people!” A follow-up book has been greenlighted by the publisher.

When Flanagan finished that Rio marathon, which Run Fast Eat Slow recipe did she turn to for a celebratory treat? Pecan Butter Chocolate Truffles? Cocoa-Coconut Macaroons?

Neither. Instead it was her guilty pleasure.

“Doughnuts,” she admitted, laughing, “are my celebration after a marathon.”

But her next full meal was from the cookbook. “Run Fast Eat Slow is more than just a cookbook,” Flanagan said, “it’s a lifestyle.”

— Jay Anthony ’71

Garden Gazpacho

A mood-lifting summer soup

Garden Gazpacho

Garden Gazpacho

A chilled gazpacho soup is one of those dishes that brightens your mood as you’re eating it — especially if you’re slurping it on a hot summer day when your body is craving nourishing hydration. The key to an impressive gazpacho is to wait patiently until tomatoes are truly in season (better yet, grow tomatoes in your own backyard). Bonus: Tomatoes are an excellent source of the antioxidant lycopene, which supports bone health and decreases inflammation.

2 pounds tomatoes, quartered
1 cucumber, peeled and quartered
1 jalapeno chile pepper, stem removed (for a milder gazpacho, discard the seeds); wear plastic gloves when handling
4 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon soy sauce (preferably shoyu or tamari)
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1 Granny Smith apple, finely chopped
¼ red onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (optional)
¼ cup minced fresh cilantro, basil, parsley or mint (optional)

 In a high-speed blender or food processor, place the tomatoes, cucumber, chile pepper, garlic, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, salt and black pepper. Process on high speed until smooth.
 Pour the soup into a large bowl with a lid.
 Add in the bell pepper, apple and onion and stir to combine.
 Place in the fridge to chill for at least 2 hours or overnight to allow the flavors to meld.
 Stir before serving. Ladle into bowls and top each with a drizzle of oil and a sprinkle of herbs (if desired).

 

Share via: