Andrea Kooiman - An Everyday Mom at Western States 100

Andrea Kooiman refers to herself as an everyday mom. She is not a professional runner, and has no major sponsors – Andrea just loves to run. And this year her goal was to concur the legendary Western States® 100-Mile Endurance Run.

July 29, 2019

Andrea Kooiman refers to herself as an everyday mom. She is the mother of two and happily married. She works at Road Runner Sports in Laguna Hills and is a part time running coach.

She is not a professional runner, and has no major sponsors – Andrea just loves to run.

This year her goal was to run the legendary Western States® 100-Mile Endurance Run in less than 24hrs and she started out looking great!

Through mile 43 she was looking pretty good. She was pacing at 15 minutes/mile.

Andrea Kooiman Pushing Through After Falling Off Pace

Andrea Kooiman Keeping Pace and Accelerating

But after that things started falling apart, she fell off pace and from mile 43-96 averaged ~21 minutes/mile. At No Hands Bridge, she had 4 miles to go but was on pace to finish after the 30hr race cutoff.

Watching Andrea enter the 96th mile and accelerate across the bridge gave everyone the chills. Over the last 4 miles, she accelerated and cut 5 minutes/mile off her current pace to finish with a time of 29:53:28 - six and a half minutes slower and she would not have finished. A 100 mile race came down to a few minutes.

Andrea Kooiman Thankful and Proud To Accomplish Her Goal

Running means something different to everyone, and not all stages are the same. The winners and finishers of 100 mile trail races won’t be on ESPN, but when you see the families, the fans, the support, and the runners you would never know that. Your race may mean little to most people in the world, but it means everything to a few.