November 14, 2008 (Anchorage , AK) – World Cup winner Kikkan Randall (Anchorage, AK) might appear to be all athletics from the outside – and for the most part that is true – but in the lead up to her World Cup season, Randall had a few other loose ends to tie up before heading out on the road. To hear what she’s been up to, read on.

What have you been up to lately?
Kikkan Randall: I’ve been training a lot. We’ve been driving a little ways outside of Anchorage to get new snow. That’s taken up quite a bit of time, but I’ve also been able to visit some elementary schools and give some presentations about the importance of living a healthy active lifestyle. I also got to record a new Subway radio commercial yesterday.

What goes in to filming for a radio commercial?
KR: I went into the studio and they came up with a script for me that talked about the Subway gift cards and how they are a good gift for the holiday season. I read through it and they gave me some pointers and we worked through it and had a lot of fun. Then, when it’s all done, you get to hear yourself.

Do you hear yourself on the radio sometimes?
KR: Yeah, once it’s the final product, I’ll be out driving around and my commercial comes on. It’s kind of funny.

So, back to visiting the elementary schools. What do you say to
the kids to try to get them to be healthy?
KR: I start off by riding my unicycle in to the gym to get their attention. Then I go through a quick story of my life and highlight what I was doing at their different ages to show them that I was doing the same things they are. Then I show them a slideshow of me doing different sports growing up and some photos from the Olympics. When that’s done, I talk to them about how it feels so good to be active every day.

What makes you want to do these visits?
KR:I speak on behalf of a program called Healthy Futures and the program gives the kids incentives for filling out activity logs to show that they are being active every day.

Do you ever tell them that Subway is a part of a healthy diet?
KR: Oh for sure. I love to throw that in there and the kids usually get it because they’ve seen my commercials. Every once in a while I’ll be eating at Subway and I’ll see a kid that was at one of my assemblies.

So, now that you’ve wrapped all this stuff up and the World Cup
season nears, what are your thoughts?
KR: Last year I got a taste of what it feels like to be on the top of the
podium and I really liked it. I decided looking forward to this season that I’ll have double the amount of chances to win a skate sprint than I did last year. This year has six scheduled on the World Cup. I’m also really excited that there’s a skate sprint at World Championships in Liberec, Czech Republic. That’s going to be my biggest focus of the year. I’m just excited to get out there and test everything out.