OFF THE RECORD
Kat Statman:
From the Cyclocross Course to the Courtroom
F
The Houston Lawyer
By Kimberly A. Chojnacki
to keep their fitness in winter with the added benefit of crossrom mid-September to mid-December in any given training through running. year, you can find Kat Statman—a litigation associate Kat balances his practice with the demanding race schedule at Baker Donelson in Houston—tearing through 10 he keeps through early morning training sessions, with the to 20 cyclocross races, right on the heels of the eight commensurate early retirement in the evenings. He is sure to acto 12 mountain bike races he completed since March. count for his work obligations and the ever-present emergencies As he puts it, the racing season helps him “handle the day to that arise in litigation when he and day stress of work and stay sane” his coach develop his annual trainand hone his “ability to make deciing plan. He plans five to six trainsions in stressful situations,” such ing rides per week, ranging from one as “mak[ing] tactical decisions on to six hours (the latter falling on a the fly at high speed while accountweekend), with one to two short runs ing for a variety of variables around per week as the cyclocross season apyou and while your heart rate is at or proaches. All told, his training takes near its maximum.” If that’s what he up about eight–14 hours of his week. signs up to do in his spare time, it’s And during the travel for races, he’ll no wonder he finds it “easy to stay take advantage of riding shotgun to calm, collected, and rational” in his work in the car and “keep [his] mind everyday practice. While originally a competitive Kat Statman says cyclocross sometimes involves running as off of the upcoming race to keep from swimmer from second grade through well as biking, depending on the terrain. Photos©HardcorvTM overthinking things.” Having raced competitively for 15 years, Kat has racked up high school, he also taught mountain biking to middle school an impressive set of achievements. He is most proud of the mostudents during a summer camp in the Black Forest. Without a ment he became “pro” as a mountain bike racer (that being the swim team to call home in college, he picked up mountain bike highest category achievable) after the season in which he won racing his sophomore year. His achievements in that regard led the expert 19–29 age group National Mountain Bike series, him to join the collegiate cycling team, work with a professioncapped off in Brian Head, Utah. He also is proud of winning al mountain biker and coach in upstate New York, and branch his first “pro” cyclocross race in the fall of 2010 in Texas before out into cyclocross between the mountain biking season and going to law school, followed by finishing on the lead lap at off-season training. multiple national-level races during his first year of law school So, what’s cyclocross? “Cyclocross is a little hard to describe. against the best cyclocross racers in the country. It’s sometimes described as steeplechase on bikes,” though Kat While Kat is deliberate in his planning, and has built up an isn’t entirely on board with that description. Rather, it’s a hyimpressive foundation of fitness, consistency, and expertise in brid, is high intensity, and lasts about an hour on a two- to the sport, he insists that “none of it would be possible without three-kilometer course. A cyclocross bike looks like a road bike, [his] wonderful wife to help keep [his] head on straight.” And but has wider, knobby tires for racing on mixed terrain. Yet the throughout it all, he’s had the pleasure of meeting people from bike won’t always be all you need to finish the race: sometimes a all different walks of life and backgrounds, from engineers to cyclocross event “can involve running due to a variety of course business owners, in-house counsel to architects, and so on. conditions that are not rideable, be it long sections of sand on a beach, a set of stairs, a set of 40 cm wooden planks in the middle of the course.” And in those scenarios, Kat must not Kimberly A. Chojnacki is a litigation associate at Baker Donelson only run, but carry his cyclocross bike at the same time. in Houston. She represents corporate clients in eminent domain It’s no wonder that the sport—developed in France in the earproceedings, complex commercial litigation, and insurance defense ly 20th century—was originally designed for road bike racers disputes. She is an associate editor of The Houston Lawyer.
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