Show Notes
A native Kansan, Rebeka attended the University of Kansas, where she competed and trained from 2008-2012. Under the direction of Coach Michael Whittlesey, Rebeka's career as a Jayhawk flourished, earning a Big 12 Steeplechase Title in addition to Academic and Athletic All-American Honors. Her time as a Jayhawk came to an end 2012 US Olympic Team Trials, as a finalist in the Steeplechase.
Off the track Rebeka earned a number of honors, being recognized as a University of Kansas Woman of Distinction, Female Senior Scholar Athlete of the Year, and University of Kansas Outstanding Female in Athletics. Rebeka was also named to the Big 12 Community Circle of Champions Circle.
Following her time at Kansas, Rebeka moved to the East Coast to pursue her professional running career under the supervision of Frank Gagliano, Tommy Nohilly, and the New Jersey New York Track Club.
Three years later, after narrowly missing the 2016 Olympic Trials she chose to stay on the East Coast to build as a coach. Athletically, she continued training with the direction of Jason Vigilante at Princeton University.
In 2017 Rebeka qualified for her 7th US Outdoor Championships where she competed in the Steeplechase. She is currently training for the 2021 Olympic Trials.
She continued to learn and diversify as a coach upon her move to the East Coast. Stowe began working with local youth programs, and spearheaded the development of a high school running program in the Princeton, NJ area.
Rebeka currently works with runners of various backgrounds, ages and aspirations, both individually on VDOT O2 and as a coach with NIKE Running in New York City. You can learn more about her private coaching at: https://coaches.vdoto2.com/rebeka-stowe
Producer: Andre Laboy
Song: Breakadawn, by Mike Quinn
More from The V.O2 Podcast
In Episode 4 of The V.O2 Podcast, host Brian Rosetti sits down with 2:12 marathoner and 1:03 half marathoner Will Norris. Will details his journey from a rural Iowa high school runner and NAIA athlete to achieving a 6+ VDOT jump post-collegiately. We dive deep into practical marathon and half marathon training insights, including why stacking consistent training blocks beats chasing shortcuts, the role of long single runs over doubles, executing key 90-minute goal pace sessions, and using VDOT to train where you are today rather than where you want to be.
In Episode 3, we sit down with Renee Gunning, head distance coach at William Penn Charter School. Coach Gunning shares how she transformed a local program into the #16 team in the nation and state champions, missing a national championship berth by just three seconds. We discuss balancing high-level competitive ambitions with athlete longevity, using VDOT to streamline individualized training, avoiding the trap of social media overtraining, and why raising the floor for your JV athletes is the secret to elevating your entire team.
In this episode, we sit down with the 2026 LA Marathon champion Nathan Martin. We relive his photo finish that shocked the running world and break down the exact mental grit required to pull off a late-race surge.
V.O2 kicks off the newly relaunched show with running coach Megan Cooke, founder of Never Give Up Coaching (NGU Coaching). Megan brings a unique background to the running world, having spent 25 years competing and coaching at the highest levels of D1 NCAA rowing (including head coach at Duke University) and representing Team USA. After transitioning to road racing, breaking 3:00 in the marathon, and launching her coaching business on the V.O2 platform, Megan built a thriving, waitlisted coaching business in less than two years. In this episode: Transitioning Elite Coaching Experience: How Megan leveraged decades of D1 rowing and high-performance physiology to launch a running coaching business without a traditional running resume.
Ariane Hendrix is a VDOT Certified Coach and the 5th fastest U.S. born African American woman of all time in the marathon. She’s shown steady progress first running the event in 3:57 ten years ago. Recently, she placed third at the Bayshore Marathon in 2:42.