Hall of Fame
Narrowing her college choice to Georgetown and Stanford, Kathryn Landau decided to join her older sister Caryn on the Hilltop. Continuing to battle multiple stress fractures and an eating disorder, she broke out in the indoor season of her second year and helped Georgetown to first-place team finishes at the BIG EAST and ECAC championships, and to seventh place at the NCAA nationals. During the outdoor season that year, the Hoyas captured first place at the BIG EAST and a sixth-place NCAA finish. The following year, Kate and the Hoyas took sixth place as a team at the NCAA indoor championships. In her final two years, she led her team to two top ten finishes at the NCAA cross country championships.
Kate was a BIG EAST and ECAC individual champion in the 5000-meters and a twotime BIG EAST champion in the 10000-meters. Kate also broke the school record and finished second in the 10000-meters at the 1996 NCAA outdoor championships, as well as sixth in the 5000-meters at the same event. In the 1997 NCAA Indoor championships, she finished third in the 5000-meters and set the current school record for the event. In NCAA championship cross country competition, she closed out her college career with two top-20 finishes. Under the guidance of Coach Ron Helmer, Kate was a five-time All- America performer and a recipient of Georgetown’s Bunn Award for outstanding cross-country runner.
A Dean’s List student, a three-time Academic All-America selection, and the 1999 recipient of the Robert A. Duffey Scholar-Athlete Award, Kate completed a degree in Biology from the College in 1998. The following year, she added a second major in Psychology while concluding her final season of eligibility. Kate stopped running after her last race as a Hoya in 1999. She continued to exercise and took up bicycling. In 2002, she completed a master’s degree in the physician assistant program at Samuel Merritt University in Oakland, California.
Kate remained in Oakland, working as a physician assistant in vascular surgery. In 2011, she sought help for her eating disorder and gave birth to a daughter the following year. Resettling in Washington state in 2013, she began taking her infant daughter for stroller walks, which soon became jogging, and eventually turned into running on her own. In 2016, Kate returned to competitive racing. She won the Portland Marathon in 2:38:45, the fastest Masters time in the event’s 45-year history and the second fastest overall time ever. e following year, at age 40, Kate entered the Boston Marathon, less than a year after running her first marathon, and finished second in the women’s Masters’ division. In 2018, she continued to shave minutes off of her marathon times. Kate won the Eugene Marathon with an Olympic qualifying time, finishing on the same track where she had her nest college performance at the 1996 NCAA championships. Last October, she finished eighth overall at the Chicago Marathon in another Olympic qualifying time of 2:33:24, a personal best.
Kate credits her faith, her family and friends for the support she needed to overcome the obstacles in her life and to reclaim her health and her record-setting running career. She plans to return to Atlanta for the 2020 Olympic Trials, where 24 years earlier, she competed in the 1996 Olympic Trials.
