By Jennifer Kirby
Kelcey Carlson could be forgiven for slacking off on her workout routine. As a wife, mom of two young children, and reporter and anchor for WRAL-TV, her schedule is packed to the brim. But time reserved for running is sacred.
“For me, running is more than just a way to stay in shape; [that’s] an added bonus,” she says. “The best part about it is it helps me decompress. It’s a way to kind of recharge. For me, this is one hour to just run away. Literally, it feels like running away. I can listen to music and get some fresh air and some fresh perspective. I feel like I sweat out all the bad stuff. It’s like therapy.”
To be on the air by 4:30 a.m., as she is on weekdays, Carlson’s alarm goes off at 1:45 a.m., and the juggling act starts immediately: checking her Blackberry to see what happened in the four and a half hours she was asleep, thinking about the morning’s show, setting out the kids’ breakfast, adding diapers to her 1-year-old’s bag, double-checking that her 5-year-old’s homework is in its folder. “All these things are running through my head as I’m trying to figure out what to wear and have pink curlers in my hair,” she says. Her husband, Dave Kent, works a similar schedule, as host of 93.9 KISS FM’s morning show, which airs from 5-10 a.m. on weekdays. But he does all of his show prep at home in the evenings, and his schedule is much more regular than Carlson’s. That predictability, and a network of friends, other parents and babysitters, help keep everything afloat.
So do organization, communication and creativity. “If we’re on top of it we can figure out how to place all of our chess pieces,” Carlson says. “We take it week by week; no two weeks are the same.” She and Kent sync their Google calendars and note all their commitments on a “giant, massive calendar” at their home. Every Sunday they go over the family’s schedule for the coming week, and that’s when Carlson pencils in three one-hour slots for running between Monday and Friday. (Two weekdays are rest days.)
Carlson does her long runs, typically 16-20 miles, with a group of about five people on the weekends, starting so early that they’re mostly running in the dark; she jokingly calls it a “vampire running club.” “We used to run at normal times, but then people started having kids and the time got earlier and earlier, and now it’s pretty obscene,” says Carlson, who was the second-place female finisher in last year’s City of Oaks Marathon in Raleigh with a time of 3:05:09. “It’s worth it. If I get it done early enough it’s like it didn’t happen. It doesn’t take away from any of the time with [family] on the weekend. … I miss my kids when I’m at work, so on a Saturday I want to soak them up.”
As full as her family’s life is, Carlson insists it’s not more hectic than anyone else’s. In fact, though Carlson and Kent’s early mornings present certain challenges, she describes their schedule as “really good for having kids,” and says it helps them have “a really good family life.” Even if the workday runs long, it never interferes with family dinner, for example. And having the afternoons open allows for things like weekday trips to the library with the kids that would be trickier to fit into a “normal” work schedule. “Everybody has a busy life. My schedule is just a little bit odd, a little off the normal track. I don’t feel like I’m any busier than anyone else; I just have to be a little more creative sometimes because of my schedule,” she says. “Life is hard [for everyone], and for me, running has saved me. Running makes me a happier person and I think it makes me a better person. … I think we all need to have something for ourselves that is an outlet. If you kind of unplug a little bit you can get your head screwed on straight, and for me running does that: I get myself back together again.”
