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Are You Fit Enough? TRAINER PROFILE
JASON KARP IS BORN TO RUN Sherry Ballou Hanson When Jason Karp competed in his first middle school track meet, the idea of running faster than the kid in the next lane excited him. He decided to figure out just how to do that, and his dream of coaching others to do the same was born. In 2011, when he was named the IDEA Personal Coach of the Year, Jason was quoted as saying “While others see exercise as something they have to do, I see running as who I am,” and that has not changed over the years. Becoming a champion Jason Karp, PhD. is a USA Track & Field nationally-certified coach and owns Run-Fit, the premier provider of “innovative” running and fitness services. Along the way he has authored 8 books and in 2013 was a member of the silver-medal-winning United States masters team at the World Maccabiah Games in Israel. He is a sought-after speaker and presenter at conferences and clinics and is the 2014 recipient of the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition Community Leadership Award. Karp feels lucky to be able to have a career doing what he loves, and in his conferences and coaching clinics, as well as coaching athletes 1-on-1, he tries to inspire others to find what makes them tick and work toward establishing a career doing that. Asked how he helps athletes become champions, Karp responds with 2 key points: “First, he uses a systematic, progressive training plan that caters to the runner’s strengths. Second, he helps each athlete advance to the point he can believe in their potential to become champions. Choosing his track In high school Karp competed in both cross-country and track. One day he happened to see a TV program investigating why black athletes seemed to be better than white athletes, and at his mother’s urging, Karp contacted the presenting scientist, who ran a biomechanics lab in California. Taking that step helped steer him to the best schools and programs to achieve his goals. The scientist told him to aim for Penn State, which had 1 of the best biomechanics labs in the country.
He earned his undergraduate degree in exercise and sport science and, while there, worked in the biomechanics lab. Because Calgary hosted the 1988 Olympic Games, it has all those facilities and is 1 of the top biomechanics programs in the world. Karp completed his master’s degree at Calgary and then accepted a job as head coach for a college cross-country team in New Jersey. A
year later he and his twin brother moved to San Francisco, where Karp coached track and cross-country at a couple of high schools, also teaching classes in the fitness certification program at UC Berkeley and continuing to coach privately. “Jason is intensely competitive,” says twin brother Jack of this early time California. “I was the first 1 of us to run a