Runner Susannah Davies is living life in the fast lane

Clockwise from top left, Susannah Davies competing in a marathon in Berlin, Germany. Susannah running varsity track at Kenyon College. Susannah waves at crowds during  NY City Marathon. Left, Susannah was the top female finisher at the Turkey Trot 5K in Bedford Village held the day after Thanksgiving.  Contributed photos

By JOYCE CORRIGAN 

It may have taken two million years, but female runners are finally getting their due. Bravo to the French for breaking with tradition and scheduling the women’s marathon rather than the men’s as the grand finale event of the 2024 Olympic games. And bravo to the tens of millions of fans who tuned in to witness so many Team USA Track & Field gals, in their electric-hued Nike Maxflys, scoop up bronze, silver and lots of gold.

It turns out watching ladies outpace each other is more than a thrill, it’s a primal instinct. In the last four years, paleontologists have published evidence that refutes the accepted hunter/gatherer theory which held that hunting was men’s work, while women foraged for edible plants. Recently analyzed Mesolithic-era rock paintings from Madhya Pradesh, India, depict men and women chasing bison, buffalo and boar; another represents four running women with bows and arrows. Elsewhere, an unearthed Paleolithic-era engraved antler from a cave in the French Pyrenees shows a reindeer stalked by two men and a woman. Scholars surmise that, thanks to estrogen, which gives muscles a longer-lasting energy source, women were especially well suited to long-distance hunting. Since hunting advanced human evolution by adding meat to prehistoric diets starting roughly 2.6 million years ago — our brains grew bigger! — let’s all agree that, besides gathering and bearing children, fleet-of-foot females were crucial to the creation of our advanced civilizations.

Bedford native Susannah Davies neither hunts for her food nor aspires to the Olympics. The 28-year-old runs long and hard almost every day and competes regularly in marathons. At last count she has completed four New York City marathons, two Boston Marathons and others in Big Sur, California; Newport, Rhode Island; and Berlin, Germany.

On Nov. 30, for the very first time, she entered the annual Thanksgiving 5K Bedford Turkey Trot and was the top female finisher. “I will definitely be doing it again,” said Davies, now a Manhattan resident. “It was great seeing people of all ages out there and I loved running  through the village and conquering the Indian Hill climb. Of course, I’m happy I could pull out a win in Bedford; it’s been over a decade since the last one!” 

Ms. Davies cherishes a memory of hiking in Jackson Hole one summer with her uncle when she was 13. He couldn’t help but notice how quickly and easily she scaled the mountain and remarked she would make a very good runner. “That fall I started running up and down my street,” Ms. Davies recalled. “My stepfather (Tony Langham) had his stopwatch and would time me.”

 The following spring she joined the Rippowam Cisqua track team. “I started winning races immediately — beating a lot of boys, too. In the long-distance Clinton Road Run on Field Day, I always had to kick it at the end to beat my longtime rival,” she recalled, laughing. Davies graduated in 2011 as the track champion.

Davies said her mother, Heather Langham, Tony Langham and her father, Philip Davies, are her biggest cheerleaders, attending all her student races (bearing chocolate chip cookies for the team) and the marathons. Heather Langham, a longtime Bedford resident, also runs 5 miles every day (bad weather, who cares) and, as both kin and kindred spirit, seems to have ensured Davies was born to run.  

Hitting her stride in high school at Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Conn., Davies racked up awards as Best New Runner (2011), Most Valuable Runner (2012) and Most Valuable Distance Runner (2013). At Kenyon College, she was on the varsity track team for three seasons, competing in cross-country, and outdoor and indoor track. She still texts her high school track coach after every marathon. “He was thrilled this year when I broke three hours in Boston (2:59:02) and New York (2:52:48),” she said.

“As a freshman,  I was  already the fastest on the team and didn’t really have anyone to train with,” she recalled. “Coach would pace me through workouts and also do regular mental check-ins. Running is much more than just  physical well-being.” She is also grateful that she learned how to run alone. “It’s really served me well in my post-collegiate career,” she said, “being able to push myself when no one else is around.”

“From a young age, running has made me feel strong and given me a confidence that I apply to other aspects of my life,” she continued. Currently Davies is working in construction project management in Manhattan. “It’s ideal because I’m not at my desk all day. As a runner, I like moving around. I’m always out walking job sites — these days at the new Disney headquarters in Hudson Square which is very exciting.”

After work, rather than feeling overwhelmed by the city, the Bedford native feels remarkably at home. “Whenever I’m running in Central Park, I feel part of a community because I always pass familiar faces on the track. I’m there every day, even now when it’s cold and gets dark early,” she said.

Davies also joined the New York Harriers running club, which holds workouts twice a week.  “I’ve made lots of friends on the team,” she said. Another focus is  preparing healthy meals. “Sometimes my boyfriend cooks. He’s a runner, too, and understands the time commitment, the importance of recovery and refueling,” she observed. They also share something else in common, she added, “We both have huge appetites!”  

Like the Olympian champions, Ms. Davies is highly selective when it comes to sneakers. For regular runs she favors the high-tech Japanese-made Mizuno Wave Rider, but when racing the streets of a city marathon, she’s been opting for the Nike Alphafly. “In hyper pink,” she clarified, “for girl power.” Evidently, two million years’ worth.