Community Profiles: Q&A with Jade Belzberg
"I think giving oneself more grace about what athletics or art has to look like is really important" and other wisdom from one of my favorite humans
Two weeks ago, I had plans to road-trip up north to cheer friends on at the 30th annual Chuckanut 50K—one of Washington State’s oldest, finest and most competitive ultras. My car had other plans, breaking down on me the day before. I thought I was disappointed then, but it was compounded when I learned that two of my friends, Claire DeVoe and Jade Belzberg, went 1-2 on the women’s podium in an incredibly tight race until the very end, and I didn’t get to be there in person to witness their amazing day out there! I’ll never forgive my car for making me miss it.
One of the things I’ve wanted to do with this Substack is shine the spotlight on others in the community—particularly those with blogs/Substacks of their own where you can follow their writing and running, too. I met Jade Belzberg exactly a decade ago and have loved following along with her journey over the years—so after her spectacular day at Chuckanut last month, I felt moved to get “Community Profiles” officially launched on Runners Who Write, and kick it off with this Q&A.
I first met Jade when she moved to Carbondale, Colorado, to intern at Trail Runner magazine. At the time, she was working on a long-form piece for the magazine about the Barkley Marathons and specifically her boyfriend Nick who’d invited her to crew him that year for his third go at Frozen Head State Park; she’d met him on Match.com a few months earlier and Barkley was her introduction to the ultrarunning scene. Clearly, it was an auspicious beginning all around! Nick won Barkley that year, becoming the 13th finisher ever; soon after, Jade, too, fell in love with trail/ultrarunning and now runs professionally for Topo Athletic; and this year Jade and Nick will celebrate their seventh wedding anniversary. They also operate a successful coaching business together.
But back to 2014: on “editor row” at the Trail Runner office, Jade and I connected over our shared love for books and writing, our Dutch familial heritage, and our homesickness for the Pacific Northwest. (Sorry, Colorado! I know you’re very cool. Still, at the time, I’d been living there for over a year already and couldn’t help but feel a whiff of envy for Jade when her three-month internship at the magazine was up and she was free to move back to Washington, where—clearly—my own heart still resided.)
Jade and I crossed paths again at Cascade Crest 100 in 2016, where we shared some glorious miles on the PCT. Since then, we’ve stayed in touch, and even from afar, I’ve so admired her growth as both a writer and athlete—particularly as someone who, like me, didn’t come from a collegiate running background, and instead stumbled on this sport in their early twenties. I also really appreciate the work Jade has done around mental health advocacy. Plus, she’s just one of the kindest people I’ve ever met.
I’m certainly not the first person to write about Jade—please check out this more in-depth piece by my friend Sarah Lavender Smith—but I did enjoy connecting with her to don our writing hats, instead of just our running caps, to put together this Q&A. With no further ado:
Yitka: Congrats again on your second-place finish at Chuckanut! How’s your recovery going?
Jade: Recovery has gone well! I enjoyed a few easy walks and hikes with Nick and one of our dogs, Cashew, in the days after Chuckanut and got back to some easy running once we made it back home to California. I’m now back into training for an upcoming race in 4 weeks!
Yitka: Do you feel more strongly aligned with your identity as a writer, or as a runner? Maybe another way of asking this question: Do you think of yourself as a “runner who writes” or a “writer who runs,” or do both of those resonate equally? (Or is this a dumb question? When I was 16, I made a T-shirt that read, “LABELS FOR JARS,” so can sympathize if you do not want oversimplified labels foisted on you either.)
Jade: This is a great question, though I align more with your 16-year-old self! I think of myself as Jade who likes to run and write, rather than “I’m a runner and a writer.” I think we often have to play the game of social media and box ourselves in for the sake of a career, but I don’t feel like these are my identities.
Yitka: I love that. Years ago, someone told me that my social media presence made it look like running was the only thing that mattered in my life, and I remember thinking, YIKES, I hope people know there’s more to me than just that. Anyway! I’m interested to hear what experiences you feel have helped you grow most as a writer.
Jade: The biggest growth has happened during writing workshops, both during and after my MFA. It’s always nerve-wracking to share your writing with a group whose purpose is to critique it, but it’s also a valuable way to learn how to distance yourself from your work. I’ve learned to separate myself from my writing: that is to say, I may create my writing, but I am not my writing. Having it critiqued or finding ways to improve it myself is not a declaration about me as a person. It’s simply an opportunity to improve my writing. Rejections still suck, and criticisms always carry some amount of sting, but having this boundary between oneself and one’s work has really helped me.
Yitka: I’m taking notes. So much great advice! Allow me to request more: How do you make time for both writing and running (not to mention caring for dozens of animals!) in your life?
Jade: I have my husband, Nick, to thank here! The biggest responsibility (and biggest time commitment) is to our animals, but we do a good job dividing tasks to reduce the time spent feeding everyone and cleaning cages; Nick takes the rabbits and guinea pigs while I care for the rats and my horse, Casper. We usually take care of the dogs and cats together.
Regarding writing and running, over time I’ve seen the fluctuations of how one activity can dominate. It’s hard to balance big writing goals with big training. In more recent years, running has taken greater priority, though I did participate in NaNoWriMo this past November which showed me that I could write 1700 words daily—good enough for the beginning of a hefty novel!—in a month, while still putting in 12-13 hours of running a week. My life was not well-balanced during those 30 days (I was either running, writing, coaching, cooking/eating, or taking care of animals) but it worked for the duration of November.
Yitka: NaNoWriMo! I’ve DNFed that at least four times. (One finish, though! Back when I was 17.) You’re my hero. When did you start writing, and what did writing look like for you in the early days? How has it changed over the years?
Jade: I remember having my first journal at the age of six and have journals from almost every year of my life. They’re a mix of what happened that day, random thoughts, the beginnings of stories, bird species I’ve seen, and include a short-lived but very passionate stamp collection. Writing still looks similar, at least within the pages of my journals, but there’s a greater structure to the type of writing that I do as part of freelance work or in my fiction. If anything, the type of writing that I do has grown. I think some of that has come with confidence to try new things, while simultaneously losing the seriousness or judgement that what I write has to be something.
Yitka: What’s harder—writing a book, completing an MFA, running 100 miles, or notching a podium finish at an uber-competitive race like Chuckanut? Just kidding (kind of?); these false-equivalency questions are silly. What I’m getting at is this: All these accomplishments require years of (often unglamorous) work and preparation to pull off, and sometimes heartbreaks (e.g., writing rejections, races that don’t go as hoped) along the way. Have any of these pursuits broken your heart more than others?
Jade: Ha! Hands down, writing a book! It took me several years to write my first novel, between researching the history, conducting interviews, thinking about the potential issues of writing a novel with characters who don’t share my ethnicity/culture, and editing (and re-editing, again and again) the manuscript. Unlike running 100 miles or placing well at a competitive event, there was no finish line to my book. It hasn’t ended in a publishing deal and all I’m left with is the satisfaction of having completed what I set out to do (which, don’t get me wrong, does feel good!). But, it’s been a very internal experience, both during and at the end of the process.
Yitka: I can relate to that so much. What keeps you motivated on a daily basis to grind toward big, ambitious goals?
Jade: I love the process of training and the act of creating, so I tend to focus on the day-to-day rather than zooming out to the bigger picture. I get a lot of satisfaction from completing my daily run, or writing a paragraph that feels solid to me, so that alone is great motivation for me!
Yitka: What kinds of books do you enjoy reading? Who are some of your favorite writers?
Jade: I love memoir, historical fiction, literary fiction, personal essays, and mystery the most, but I’ll read almost anything. I tend not to gravitate toward science fiction or fantasy (I’ve never read Harry Potter!) but I have enjoyed reading Octavia Butler and John Wyndham. My favorite writers are Brian Doyle, Haruki Murakami, Percival Everett and Ross Gay, though that list has shifted throughout my life.
Yitka: Where do you do most of your writing? Paint the scene for us! Do you prefer writing by hand or on a computer or other digital device?
Jade: I love reading about this for other writers but I’ve always had this rule where I don’t want to have any rules for how and where and when I can write, so I’m very minimalistic! Most of the time I write on my laptop, sometimes by hand, and it’s either at my office desk where I’m surrounded by plants and animals, or at the kitchen table, where I’m once again surrounded by plants and animals. I love writing outside, but that’s not always practical, so I try to stay flexible. I know my time may not always be so self-set and so I want to encourage myself to be able to write when and where I need to, not where I want to.
That said … I’m currently writing this in our courtyard in the California sunshine. Nick is working at a small yellow table we’ve set-up underneath our lemon tree and I’m on the ground, sprawled out on a climbing pad as I type. Surrounding me is a variegated lemon tree, a strawberry guava, a lime tree, an elderberry and flowering nasturtium that we’ve planted in the garden. Figuring that the animals would enjoy the midday sun, we’ve brought out three dogs, two cats, four rabbits, and two guinea pigs who are munching on the leaves of the strawberry.
Yitka: THIS SOUNDS SO IDYLLIC. I’m currently writing this in my cloffice (closet office) with my toddler on my lap while she watches Paw Patrol on my phone. OK, moving right along: One of the things I admire most about you is your devotion to consistency, because it’s such a useful skill in both writing and running. I love the following quote from you in this article: “I don’t consider myself naturally talented, but rather very determined to reach my potential.” I love it because I think it’s easy for strangers to see you do well at a race like Chuckanut and say something like, “Oh my gosh, what God-given talent!” which I know people intend as a compliment, but can also feel borderline offensive if/when you’ve spent many, many years honing your craft. Are you someone who’s always been this determined to reach your potential, or have there been strong influences (experiences, books, people, etc.) that have fostered that within you over time?
Jade: In elementary school, we were graded on both our academic performance and our effort in each class. I was a good student, but I took a lot of pride in receiving the effort award each year because I was so weirdly determined to give it my all, even in classes that were not a strength (like PE; I was terrified of ball sports). Maybe this was partly instilled in me by my parents, but effort has always been something that I’ve heavily valued.
I was also told growing up that I was not athletic, and early track and cross country meets in grade school solidified this for me (I was usually last place in all events). As I’ve grown, I think I’ve seen this as a challenge, to prove to who but myself, I guess, that I am athletic. Since allowing myself to push back against that narrative, I’ve been curious to find my own potential.
Yitka: I’m appalled anyone would have told little Jade athletics weren’t her forte, but hey, joke’s on them now. OK, one last plea for advice: what would you suggest to others aspiring to make space in their lives for both running (or, more broadly, athletics) and writing (or, more broadly, art)?
Jade: I think broadening one’s perspective about what that looks like can help set one up for success. By that I mean, running doesn’t have to be training hard 6 days a week. Likewise, writing doesn’t have to mean that you spend hours on your laptop each day or even that you end up with a finished piece; it can be scribbling notes or a short poem on a post-it note, or even pulling out your phone and typing out a sentence that has popped into your head while in line at the grocery store. I think giving oneself more grace about what athletics or art has to look like is really important.
Yitka: You’ve lived in a lot of amazing places in your life already. (Can you remind me of them all?) Have you been able to find community—either through running or writing, or otherwise—everywhere you’ve lived, or have some places felt more (or less!) readily like “home” than others?
Jade: I grew up in White Rock, British Columbia, Canada but have lived in San Diego, CA, Bellingham, WA, Sedona, AZ and now San Luis Obispo, CA. Some places feel much more like home than others. Right now, San Luis Obispo feels the most like home, at least compared to Sedona or San Diego, but anytime I’m back in the Pacific Northwest, I feel more grounded, like everything is more familiar and I know the smells of the forest and the feeling of the damp earth. There’s nothing that lifts me up more than a long August day spent outside in BC.
There are some locations that have been better for writing and running (Bellingham has a great literary scene, especially with the Chuckanut Writers Festival) and the San Diego running community is the best I’ve experienced. I think it’s always a balance, but luckily both running and writing are mostly solo pursuits, so you can get by pursuing both activities without a greater community around you.
We’re currently in the process of applying for Nick’s Canadian citizenship, so we’ll be spending more time in BC again in the coming years. I’m looking forward to having the opportunity to experience PNW summers and California winters each year.
Yitka: In the words of the Blue Scholars, “Ain’t nothing better than the summer in the Northwest.” I’m certainly looking forward to getting to run with you again sometime this summer! And appreciate the tip about the Chuckanut Writers Festival, too.
OK, last question: One of the things I’d like to do with these Community Profile Q&As on my Substack is introduce people to each other’s writing. Awesome if it’s about running, but maybe even cooler if it’s not. Is there a piece that I could point folks to for a taste for your writing?
Jade: I’d love for readers to check out a chapter from one of my novels. It’s historical fiction, set in the 1930s on the Capitan Grande Reservation outside of San Diego, CA. The novel centers on the City of San Diego’s decision to build a dam on the reservation, and the implications it had for the people who lived there. You can find it on my Substack, here:
Yitka: Amazing, thank you so much, Jade! I’m so grateful for the time you took to be my writing/running pen pal this past week and share so much of yourself with my Substack readers.
If this were a podcast, here’s where I’d play some sweet outro music and tell everyone to check out the show notes for links to all the places you can find Jade:
On the starting line of Canyons 100K later this month (woot woot! Go Jade!)
Love this! And I love the karma—you spotlighted Jade and coincidentally I’m going to interview you for next week. What you give comes back :-)
Thank you so much for interviewing me, Yitka. Your questions were all so thoughtful and I’m really looking forward to connecting with you in person again soon!