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Dr. Naoko Ishibe 

By Randy Mayes 

Naoko Ishibe moved to the United States from Japan at the age of five when her father, a chemistry professor, was offered a position with Dow Chemical Company. In high school, Ishibe was an accomplished tennis player, a pianist, and a clarinetist in the all-state band. She ran occasionally with her brother, who competed in high school and college. She won her first road race in her hometown of Lake Jackson, Texas.  

Ishibe attended the University of Chicago, majoring in chemistry and graduating with departmental and general honors in 1991. Her favorite sport at the time was tennis, but she ran cross-country for the school to fulfill her physical education requirement. With a modest training regimen, she finished seventh in the UAA Conference Meet. She was chosen as a member of the university’s Ekiden Team that traveled to Osaka, Japan to compete in the International Collegiate Relay event. 

The Harvard University School of Public Health was her home for the next several years. While studying for her doctorate in environmental health and epidemiology, she also trained with the Boston Running Club, and then the Boston Athletic Association. In the Boston area, the running club team competitions are popular and offer a way to socialize. Not owning a car at the time, Boston Running Club and former Harvard coach Ed Sheehan occasionally gave her a ride to training runs. Sheehan, who placed in the top fifteen in the Boston Marathon twice in the 1980s (PR of 2:13), and Ishibe were married in July 1996 in Steilacoom, Washington. The wedding site was chosen because it is equidistant between Japan and the east coast.  

In 1994, Ishibe became an American citizen. She qualified for the 1996 Olympic Marathon Trials with a 2:49:50 winning performance at the New England Championships (Cape Cod Marathon) in 1995. She placed seventh at the RRCA National 10K Championships in 1996. In the fall of 1997, the couple moved to Washington, DC where Ishibe is a post-doctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health. Her primary research is the role of genetics in combination with environmental exposures and how they alter a person’s cancer risk. At a meeting in Paris last year she presented her research on chronic lymphocytic leukemia. 

Since moving to the area, Ishibe has made steady improvements at distances from 5K to the marathon. She has the following PRs: 5K, 16:40-1998 Ferndale; 8K, 27:20-1999 Adidas 3 Stripe; 10K, 35:06-Washington state, 1999; 10 miles, 58:05-1999 Nortel Networks Cherry Blossom; half-marathon, 1:16:22-1998 Las Vegas International; and marathon, 2:43:38-1997 Chicago. Based on her times she was chosen to be a member of the U.S. Ekiden Team for the 1999 Yokohama International Marathon Relay, and with continued improvement hopes to represent her adopted homeland in future international competitions.   

Ishibe has raced frequently and successfully on the local road-racing scene as a proud member of the Moving Comfort racing team; she is also sponsored by Clif Bar. In 1999, she was a staple on the Dodge Grand Prix circuit, winning the series in December. In the year 2000, she will be focusing on the 5K and 10K distances.

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