Girl Talk with Anna Quincoces

The Real Housewives Star is ready to salsa through her hometown of Miami. 

A homegrown superstar will be running through the streets of Miami at the St. Jude Latin Music Miami Beach Half Marathon on Sunday. Ana Quincoces is a cast member on the hit television show The Real Housewives of Miami on Bravo, currently in its second season. Quincoces grew up in a Cuban household in sunny Miami. As a child, she acted as her mother’s apprentice in the kitchen and embraced cooking as her primary passion, which has helped her to author two bestselling cookbooks. We recently caught up with Quincoces as she was making her final preparations to run on a two-person relay team in Sunday’s race.

You will be taking part in the St. Jude Latin Music Miami Beach Half Marathon as a relay runner on Sunday. Have you ever participated in anything like this before?

Years ago I did the Trilogy Sprint Triathlon. The most I ran there was three miles, so no, this is kind of a new experience for me. This race has been on my bucket list, so hopefully I can scratch it off without too much pain. [She laughs.]

Who else is on your team?

I’m doing the race with a friend of mine, Paul, an attorney from Chicago. He’s a runner. He was joking with me today in an e-mail. He asked me how my training was going. I said, “Yeah, it’s going OK.” He then said, “Don’t worry I’m going to give you a substantial lead.”

Do you guys have a goal in mind for the race?

I’d like to say just finish, but I’m so competitive. I definitely don’t want to be one of the last ones to cross the finish! I’m thinking 9-minute miles.

You lead a very busy life. Have you found any time at all to train for this relay?

I’ve just tried to get in a run here and there. I ran in my neighborhood or around the Granada Golf Course. I started doing intervals—running four minutes and walking one minute. Now I’m consistently running and working on endurance. I’m probably running three or four times a week.

How would you say you stack up against the other housewives on the show in terms of speed?

[She laughs.] Oh I don’t think any of them run. I’m not seeing that kind of thing with them. There’s a lot of competition with them about who’s wearing the prettiest dress, not who’s the fastest.

You are a renowned chef in the Miami area. What kind of South Beach restaurants would you recommend for runners who are visiting for the St. Jude Latin Music Miami Beach Half Marathon?

It’s stone crab season. A trip to Miami Beach is not the same without a visit to Joe’s Stone Crab. For the South Beach theme, Prime One Twelve is great. But those are all high-end restaurants. If you want to grab a quick bite from something that is local and is fun, then I would suggest the Big Pink. It’s a diner. It’s a great place to go—especially after the race for brunch or something like that.

There will be Salsa music playing throughout the race. Do you like to Salsa?

Oh yeah. If you are Cuban then that’s in your blood. There is Salsa playing always in the back of your head. If you hear any kind of bongos playing then you immediately start to dance. That’s always been a part of my life.

When you are out on the course on race day and start to feel tired and fatigued, will there be anything you think about to keep you going?

Yes. My brother is in Army Intelligence. He’s in Afghanistan. He’s the most competitive person I know. I ended up doing those three triathlons because of him. I was a cyclist and I cycled all the time. I did the triathlons because he did them. When I was doing the triathlons, running was the last leg and I would hit the wall and want to walk. And he would tell me, “Pain is temporary, but quitting is forever.” And I think a lot about that, but there was a point where that didn’t matter. I saw some guy pass me who had one leg. Running—like hauling. I saw him and I thought, “Wow, I’m not going to complain. That will motivate me, and also for the fact that this race is for a great cause. We are doing it for people who can’t run. We are doing something that many people can’t do. Many of the kids in this hospital can’t run. All those things motivate me to go further—further today than I did yesterday and hopefully as far as the finish on the day of the race.

 

Originally published on Running.Competitor.com.