In August, 2002, www.raebaymiller.com came online to feature Rae Baymiller's active sportswear line as well as her silkscreened posters.

Running Times, June 2002, p.67

A Brief Chat with Rae Baymiller by Peter Gambaccini
Runnersworld.com, September 18, 2001

Rae Baymiller was perhaps the most extraordinary age group long distance runner of the late 1990s. She set a 55-59 world age group record of 2:52:12 at the 1998 Chicago Marathon, along with other U.S. marks for the half-marathon (1:23.36), 20-K (1:18:44), and 10 miles (1:02:39). Earlier, in 1994, she set 50-54 age group records for 25-K (1:38:39) and 10 miles (1:02:01) and, in 1993, the half-marathon (1:19:40). She ran her best marathon, a 2:51:44, at Twin Cities in 1994 at age 51. Now 58, Baymiller is coached by fellow New Yorkers Jerry Macari and Dan Hamner. She is a fashion, products, and interior designer--and a grandmother. Her goal at November's New York City Marathon is to become the oldest Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier in U.S. history.

Runner's World Daily: Your New York City Marathon goal is an ambitious one.
Rae Baymiller: Very. I have the world record for the age group in the marathon, but I really wanted to break 2:50 to qualify for the Olympic Trials. But then I found out from David (Monti, NYC's elite athlete coordinator) that it's now been changed to 2:48. So it's very ambitious, and I'm the first to realize that. I'll go in to break the 2:50, and halfway through I'll see how I feel and change in midstream if I feel good, and go for negative splits to get that 2:48.

RWD: In past marathons, did you negative split, or at least feel stronger in the second half?
RB: I haven't been as mechanical about running. I would go through marathons and not even watch my own clock and see what I was doing every mile. I was blase about it. Now I think it's time to start to be responsible. So to answer your question--not really. I always go back to that one marathon (Twin Cities in 1994) where I was doing so well and I got dehydrated and ran a 12:00 mile at the end (to finish in 2:51:44).

RWD: For your 2:48 goal, is New York City the best course to run?
RB: Probably not, from what other people have told me. I've only done it once, and it's a wonderful marathon. But it's also a demanding marathon. Yet I think if you have those good runs, why not? I am from New York now. If it's a bad run day for me, I would turn around and go after another marathon next year. But I'm determined that I have to do this.

RWD: What happened with your running after all your records in 1998?
RB: In 1999, I was injured. I tripped on the stub of a signpost that was in the ground. My knee just went bonkers. They thought I had fractured the kneecap, actually. It turned out I hadn't, but I had to baby it for three months. And last year my mother died from cancer, and I was constantly going back to Minnesota, so I couldn't train.

RWD: And what's happened in 2001?
RB: Dan (Hamner) was going to Australia for the WAVA Championships. I thought I would tag along and do the 800 meters, just to get back in competition. I got a silver in that event (for a 2:40). I hadn't been involved in any track since 1994, so this was a great experience for me to go back and be in a whole different ball game. Then I went to Red Bank, New Jersey, for the George Sheehan Five-Mile. My pace was 6:03; I was in fourth behind two Kenyans and an American in the open. They announced my name as I passed the four-mile mark, and there was a little incline, and all of the sudden my leg went. I was so dehydrated that I ended up on someone's lawn with oxygen. That was the week it went to 101 degrees.
My running this year is very good and I'm very pleased, but it's been this kind of mixed bag with things that I've never experienced before.

RWD: Speed is the element that really dissipates with aging. What are you doing to keep that from happening?
RB: I'm learning more about pacing and I think that's wonderful. If you have good help along the way, somebody that will listen and really watch you, and if you work at it, I think sometimes we can move away from the "typical" a little bit. The last time I ran that Sheehan race, I'd averaged 6:08. So that (five-second improvement) this time made me feel good.

RWD: You've been described as "driven." Were you surprised to discover that quality in you, and do you know its source?
RB: I was totally shocked. My family and friends at first laughed and said "you're so undisciplined"--before my first marathon. It's a quality I didn't even know was there. And yet I'd seen it in work--when you love something and do everything you can to have it come out as you planned. When my mother was dying, she was such a gallant fighter and never complained. I looked at her and was amazed. If I've gotten strength and determination, I think it's come from her.

RWD: You had an established adult life before you discovered this sport. How has that life changed?
RB: The negative has been that it took its toll on my design career, truthfully. At first, I was not a good juggler. When I started to compete, I really loved it and it just took over. But I don't look back and regret it, because I think I had to do things that way at the time, and it gave me so much in return.
But I am very curious, and I believe people need to repackage themselves as they go through life a little bit, and take what they've learned and apply it to something else. I'm fascinated by aging and longevity and our unfit population. A comment was made to me years ago that you move through life with one vehicle, and if you don't take care of that, what have you got?
As we age, I see people who don't do anything for fitness. I might take my experiences and find some opportunities there. I'm doing a couple of mission statements about it. I'd like to become a kind of spokesperson for longevity and fitness. I'd like to develop an idea for a mobile gym that you can travel with; it's basically with you 24 hours. It's another way to do design.

RUNNING TIMES
1998 MASTERS OF THE YEAR RANKINGS

Rae Baymiller was ranked as the top woman 55-59 in the March 1999 issue of Running Times.

1998 USATF MASTER LDR AWARD

Rae Baymiller was awarded the Masters Female 55-59 award at the Awards Breakfast at the USATF Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida in December 1998, presented by Adidas America Inc.

LIST OF USA SINGLE AGE RECORDS
(USATF Road Running Information Center, 5/15/2000)

• Female 55 5 Mile, 30:42, George Sheehan Classic, 8/8/1998
• Female 50 12K, 46:29, Examiner Bay to Breakers, 5/15/1994
• Female 51 12K, 46:41, Examiner Bay to Breakers, 5/21/1994
• Female 50 10 Mile, 1:03:52, Trevira Twosome, 4/16/94
• Female 51 10 Mile, 1:02:01, Bobby Crim, 8/27/1994
• Female 55 10 Mile, 1:02:39, Bobby Crim, 8/22/1998
• Female 51 15K, 57:37, Gate River Run, 3/11/1995
• Female 55 20K, 1:18:44, New Haven 20K, 9/7/1998
• Female 51 25K, 1:38:36, City of Lakes 25K, 9/11/1994
• Female 50 half-marathon, 1:19:40, Philadelphia Distance Run, 9/19/1993
• Female 51 marathon, 2:51:44, Twin Cities Marathon, 10/2/1994
• Female 55 marathon, 2:51:14, Chicago Marathon, 10/11/98

THE RUNNERS WORLD INTERVIEW

In the January 5th, 1999 edition of Runner's World online, Peter Gambaccini interviewed Rae Baymiller.  You can check out the official version.   But here is the original version:-

Rae Baymiller set a pending world and American record in the 55-59 age group with a 2:52:14 at the 1998 LaSalle Banks Chicago Marathon. Baymiller missed nearly three years of competition due to a slipped back disc that caused nerve damage in her left leg, but returned in 1998 to set pending U.S. age group records in the half-marathon (1:23:36), 20k (1:18:44), ten miles (1:02:39), and five miles (30:42). At age 50, Baymiller set a U.S. record (50-54) of 1:19:40 in the half-marathon. At 51, she ran her marathon personal best of 2:51:44 at the 1994 Twin Cities Marathon. A University of Minnesota graduate, Baymiller is now a New York City-based fashion, product, and graphics designer - and a grandmother.

RWD: If you broke 2:50, you'd be the oldest U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier ever. What do you have to do to get that?

Baymiller: It's there. I'm not a very experienced runner. I haven't been running that long. I have two coaches, and one was trying to educate me how to pace. He tried to tell me that a marathon's a little different and you have to pace yourself, and you can correct your time at each mile if you go out too fast or too slow. You can get it down to a science. I'm just doing some nincompoop things, being a little stubborn and not listening to people. I just have to gather a little knowledge and then work hard.

RWD: Are you looking next for a spring marathon?

RB: It looks like it'll be in the fall. I want to do some quicker and shorter races in the spring, some 5K's, like Carlsbad in March.  But we haven't ruled it out in the spring.  In the fall, I'd probably go back to Twin Cities.

RWD: You started running in your late 40s. How did you get into it?

RB: I had a bet with my youngest daughter, Tanya, that we could do a marathon. It's a family joke that I have very little discipline, so everybody just laughed it off. We signed a little pact in a bar over a glass of wine. She lived on the West Coast and I lived on the East Coast so we met in Minnesota for the Twin Cities Marathon in 1992.  I did 3:18.

RWD: Did you resolve at that point to get serious about running?

RB: Yes and no. A friend called and said  I was the fourth master, and I said "What does that even mean?" But then I found out I'd qualified for Boston and I signed up for that. But I missed Boston because I got this horrible stiffening form of rheumatism and I thought I was going to end up in a wheelchair. I could hardly get up and down stairs. My doctor told me to keep going out there and running, but it was difficult. I had to almost jump to get the body running. I started running with the Central Park Track Club. That fall, in 1993, I did 2:53:53 in the New York City Marathon.

RWD: You may be the most talented age group distance runner in America. Your times beat anyone in the 50-54 group. Obviously, you have incredible talent. Has anyone analyzed your physiological strengths, or any other factors?

RB: I don't think anyone's even tried. I've never been asked that. I don't think I have answer. You're very kind, but it's funny how you think of yourself.  Someone said, and it's so true, that you're only as good as your next race. I guess that's my attitude. With my back thing and the nerve damage to the leg and three years' getting back, it's been crazy. Maybe I'm just glad to be back again, and I haven't thought beyond that.

RWD: After all that time you missed, and your disc operation, you've returned to top form quite quickly.

RB: Yeah, knock on wood.  People have been kind. There have been a couple of teammates who reached out with their concern. They were nurturing and very supportive. It's really helped me a lot.

RWD: Are you saturated with bids from race directors?

RB: Not scads of them, no. Sometimes I think it's because I'm 55. I would love it if they would think that any athlete who can place with the masters should not be relegated to the age group only. At one race, I was second woman overall, and in the results I was just scored in my 55-59 age group.  If you work hard and you do it, at a race, you should get that place.

RWD: Had you done any sports seriously earlier in life?

RB: I'd always done spots and loved to be active, but I'd never really landed in one area. It went in different phases - one was downhill skiing, and then tennis. It kept changing.

RWD: When you were 48, a mother of three, and a nonrunner, you probably had different expectations for your future. Has running really changed your life in a positive way?

RB: Yeah, a lot.  It's given me that discipline. You can take that from one avenue of your life and it helps you with everything else you do. No one can now say "Oh, you can't." You've got the power. The thing that's been absolutely mind boggling is the word "athlete." And I am an athlete. When I grew up, I never even considered that.  It's been a delight that I can put myself in a category like that.

NY Running News, December/January 1994