New Headlamp Powerful, But Can’t Illuminate Running Partner’s Mysterious Past
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A local woman’s newly purchased headlamp is powerful, Dumb Runner has learned, but it’s still not bright enough to shed light on her running partner’s dark, mysterious past.
“It’s sweet,” said Elizabeth Mitchell, 34, of the headlamp, a model from Black Diamond that has a maximum beam output of 500 lumens. “Very lightweight, great battery life, and super bright.”
“Even so, Kate’s backstory remains shrouded in darkness,” Mitchell said, referring to Kate Austen, a running partner she met about six months ago. “She’s a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside a tech shirt.”
Austen’s age is unknown, though she appears to be in her thirties. An online search yielded few clues regarding her hometown, college years, profession, or indeed anything at all she was doing before she “just popped up in the local running scene,” in Mitchell’s words, earlier this year.
“Don’t get me wrong,” Mitchell said. “Kate is an awesome person, very nice and all that, and a strong runner, too.”
“It’s just a little weird that she never talks about her background,” she said. “Like, ever. And every time I try to bring it up, she changes the subject.”
Among other local runners who know Austen, speculation about her past abounds—some think she’s a spy; others wonder whether she’s in the federal Witness Protection Program. And some have even more sinister theories.
“This might sound crazy,” said Jack Shephard, a runner who occasionally joins Mitchell and Austen for runs, “but I think she might have killed someone.”
Reached by phone for comment, Austen referred Dumb Runner to a “representative” at an address near the waterfront that turned out to be a vacant lot. A subsequent phone call revealed that the number had been disconnected.
