Barbara Lee Ball: Out There Ballin'
- Katie Bianchini
- Dec 10, 2018
- 5 min read
You know when you’re playing Super Mario Bros and you get the “star power” item from the little floating prize box and Mario takes off like a careless honey badger, flinging every usually-detrimental Goomba, falling hammer, and Koopa shell in his path while that hectic I’m-a-badass-get-out-the-way music pumps in the background?
No?
Well that’s what it’s like to watch Barbara Lee Ball run.
Except her “star power” never runs out.
Barb was the first teammate I met after landing in Nashville in August 2013. That day, as we picked her up to drive to Vaughn’s Gap for a team run before training camp officially started, the sky opened up like I had never seen, relentlessly pelting our rental car, flooding the streets, and amazing my mom and me. A Seattle drizzle has NOTHING on Tennessee’s spontaneous downpours.
What I remember more than the weather that day though, is Barbara’s sweet little voice guiding us through the unfamiliar streets of Nashville as we marveled at the actual cat-and-dog sized raindrops that fell on the windshield.
“We are going to DROWN in this!” I exclaimed (and then immediately sensed the Ghost of Western-Washingtonians Past judging my weak attitude toward the rain).
“No, no,” Barbara replied cheerfully. “Sometimes it just does this for a little while but by the time we get to the park, it’ll stop,” she assured us.
Guess what. It stopped.
“I am in for quite a time here...” I thought, appraising both the sky-waterfall I’d just witnessed and Barbara’s native-of-Nashville ability to predict its termination.
And that day, I ran the first of many runs with Barbara Lee Ball.
Through the years we would cover thousands of miles together—well, uh, sort of. Barb would rampage through 14+ mile long runs, dragging me along for the first 10 miles before I waved the white flag.
It turned out that we could be great training partners though, Barb pushing me through the distance workouts as I pulled her through the speed stuff.
Barb is a 12-time ASUN Championship qualifier meaning that during her tenure at Lipscomb she ran on EVERY possible Conference Championship team in XC, Indoor, and Outdoor Track. (I sifted through ASUN results over the last few years and Barb may actually be the ONLY Lipscomb runner EVER to appear at all 12 Conference meets!!!)
On top of that, she’s a two-time qualifier in the 10k at the NCAA DI East Preliminary Round of Nationals.
Oh yeah, and did I mention she managed to run at the highest level while earning a BS in Nursing in four years, maintaining a 4.0 throughout?
Even more impressive than Barb’s collegiate running resume is her kind heart.
Just as she helped me and my mom navigate the streets on that first day in Nashville, she and her family provided guidance and care for me and many other women on the Lipscomb XC/TF team over the years. They went above and beyond their responsibilities as neighbors to campus, offering us a place to sleep before the dorms opened each year, inviting us over to study on their big porch swing, including us in Bible study at their house, and allowing us to escape cafeteria food with much-needed homecooked meals.
After finishing at Lipscomb and passing her NCLEX nursing exams, Barb enrolled at Vanderbilt in the Primary Pediatric Nurse Practitioner program which she completed in August, again with flying colors.
But here’s the kicker: during her Master’s studies, she started training for the marathon.
And I don’t mean your jogger-brother’s-Ima-go-out-and-finish-a-marathon marathon. (*Please note that I have mad respect for anyone who’s run a marathon. Barb’s marathon running, though, is a little different...)
She’s on the hunt for a 2020 Olympic Trials Marathon qualifying time.
That’s right, folks. Barbara Freaking-Five-Feet-Tall Lee Professional-Runner Ball has some mighty fast little legs.
How fast, you ask? Last December (2017), she WON the St. Jude Half Marathon in Memphis, covering the course in 1:18.10. Pretty good for her first half-marathon I guess.
To give you an idea of my level of sarcasm in that last sentence, that’s 13 5:57 miles IN A ROW plus a little extra “jog to the finish” at the end.
After St. Jude, with nursing clinicals on the horizon, she put her formal marathon training on hold from January through graduation in August.
Then she kicked it into high gear.
And in the most Sarah-Sellers-CRNA/Marathon Runner way possible, while she trains for the marathon, she’s simultaneously working four eight-hour shifts per week as a nurse at a clinic in Nashville.
What.
“It's different than college training because my long run became one of the hard workouts and then I have one other ‘speed’ session per week,” Barb said. “The rest of my training days are 5-8 miles of easy recovery running and I maybe add on some strides after one of those.
“My coach has been great, too. A month before the race, I got sick and started freaking out, but he totally walked me through it. He’s good at telling me to take time off and assuring me that will be ok,” she shared. “He knows how to change things around when stuff like sickness happens and I totally trust his training.”
A sample of that training?
-10 mile warm-up with a pace cut down per mile (10mins, 9mins, 8mins, 7:30, and then 6 miles 7:00-7:20)
-12 miles of alternating 6:30/7:00 miles
-2 mile cool down
10 + 12 + 2 = 24 miles in case you lost track.
“That was the hardest workout of the season, but it helped me practice changing gears,” Barb said, laughing a little. “It’s way harder to do that than stay at a constant 6:45 [mile pace] the whole time.”
On Saturday December 8, 2018, Barbara Lee toed the line of her first 26.2 at the Rocket City Marathon in Huntsville, Alabama.
“Being the first one, I’ve really tried to keep it fun and make sure my passion is in it,” she said. “I went in with the mindset of staying in the moment—taking it mile by mile—because when I think too far ahead, I get stressed.
“I’m not trying to get the Trials qualifier on this first one, just trying to enjoy the process and hit 2:52-2:55,” she explained a few days before the race.
And she did just that. Barbara The-Pace-Hitting-Genie Lee Ball clocked in at 2:55.09, placing 3rd for females and 24th overall.
Get this lady a sponsor, am I right?! Seriously, running companies, you’re going to want to jump on the BLB train before it’s too late!
Whether she’s running, nursing, spending time with her grandparents, cooking up a delicious dish she invented herself, shopping the deals (and listen to me, this girl knows how to find a bargain), or taking care of a new kid who’s learning the ropes in Nashville...Barbara Lee Ball is truly ALWAYS out there BALLIN’.
Know someone in your life who’s "doin’ the most?" Send me a message with the details on the SERVICES page.
I’d love to make his or her story the next feature in the Out There Ballin’ category, named of course, in honor of THE Barbara Lee Ballin' 😊
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