What goes great with burgers? Fries. Fries are commonly made from potatoes, and that is our transition to Marabeth Hampton. She's a runner who lives in Northwest Arkansas, and Sunday she’ll be participating in the Pittsburgh Marathon dressed as a potato. Yesterday, we asked her why, and with us during the conversation was Kayla Vogel, senior community engagement manager for Potatoes USA.
Marabeth Hampton says she's been running for a while.
Marabeth Hampton: It was just part of the culture of my big family growing up. My dad is a runner. He ran track in high school and college. He actually did the Boston Marathon as well. So it's just kind of in my blood. We would get up as a family and run three miles every morning before breakfast. And I thought that was a normal thing to do until I got to college and was like, oh, families don't do that. But along the way, at first I didn't enjoy getting up that early, but then I was like, I'm good at this and I enjoy it. It helps me process everything that's going on in my brain. It's a great community to get to know. It really helped open a lot of doors. I made a lot of friends through it, so I just kind of fell in love with it and stayed in love with it.
Kyle Kellams: And when did the distances begin to increase?
Hampton: Honestly, it's been in the last five years or so. I think once I hit my late twenties I started — I think part of it too was I'm not as fast as I was in high school, so let's just go farther instead. So I started really focusing on doing more than 5Ks, doing some 10-milers and some halfs and stuff. And then my dad growing up, he did a lot of adventure races, which are in the woods overnight — orienteering. So I've done some of those. They're fun, but I like being on the road better. I like the safety of the road.
Kellams: Natural progression. You run as a young person, you continue to run, you increase the distances. And then I think everyone agrees the next thing you want to do is run a long race in a potato costume.
Hampton: Yeah, absolutely. Who wouldn't?
Kellams: So how did this come about?
Hampton: I do a lot of stuff on Strava. That's how I track all my mileage and stuff. And I really like to do all the little challenges and everything. So Potatoes USA had a challenge on there. It was really fun, a little giveaway thing. So when I completed the challenge, I went to their website and saw everything for Speedy Spuds. And I was like, these are my people. I have to at least try and get this. I sent my little essay in, and opening the email from them saying I got it — it was like a highlight of my life. Sorry, husband, but the potato is way better.
Kellams: Okay, let's go to the other side. How did the idea of getting people to run in a potato outfit come to be?
Kayla Vogel: We're always trying to find creative ways to communicate the nutritional benefits of potatoes to people. A lot of people love potatoes, but they don't necessarily know they're a nutrient-dense vegetable. We started working with Strava back in 2022, and we found a lot of success with our challenges that were specifically related back to a nutritional benefit in potatoes — whether that was vitamin C or potassium. And we saw people really understand the correlation between the nutrient density and potatoes when we did that. So just working with our PR agency, they kind of came up with — we should get somebody to run a race in a potato costume. So we did two of these last year and really wanted to tie together what we've done on Strava with what we've done individually with a couple runners. And so we said, let's see if we have 26 people that are interested in running the Pittsburgh Marathon for us dressed as a potato. There are 26 grams of carbs in a potato, and so we wanted 26 runners to help visually represent that in a fun and interesting way. Our goal is really to help consumers understand that potatoes are nutrient dense, but we also want our runners to have a fun experience. And Pittsburgh was going to allow us to tie those two things together.
Kellams: Any from Idaho? That would seem to be a natural, right?
Vogel: We do have one from Idaho. Yes.
Kellams: Marabeth, I know that when people run a distance race, one of the things they're thinking about is comfort. You want to, if you're going to go all those miles, you want to make sure that you're feeling as good as you can. Tell me about the potato costume.
Hampton: I was very happy when I received it. It's nice. They got my measurements, they fitted it to my size and my height — I'm a short girl, so it's not hitting my knees or anything. It's got straps on the sides to tighten it. So I'm really happy. I look like a potato. I feel like a potato, which means I'm going to run really well. But it's also — I feel kind of cute in it. Cute little spud.
Kellams: Kayla, what's your favorite way to have potatoes?
Vogel: That's a great question. I like all potatoes in all of their forms, but we all have our favorite potato dishes on our doors for our offices back in Denver. And I have oven-roasted russet fries with feta on them. That's what I have on my door.
Kellams: You know, there are some people who want to do 50 marathons in 50 different states. You now have an opportunity to start something — you could do so many races as different food items.
Hampton: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I'm hoping I get to keep my potato costume because I am going to New Zealand next year to run the Hobbit Halfling. And you have to be dressed as a potato to run a Lord of the Rings race. So I'm like, please.
Marabeth Hampton is a runner who lives in Northwest Arkansas. Sunday, she ran in the Pittsburgh Marathon dressed as a potato. We also talked with Kayla Vogel, senior community engagement manager for Potatoes USA.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
