Marathon Woman

Veterans of the Twin Cities Marathon may remember Rochelle Taube from the Mile 17 med station. The sports medicine physician staffs it every year, evaluating runners’ faces for signs of trouble and sending those that need help to an emergency department. “I’m making sure people are well-hydrated and are alert and well-oriented,” she says.

Taube, who is known for working with elite athletes such as Greg LeMond, graduated from the University of Minnesota Medical School and did her family practice residency and her sports medicine fellowship at Hennepin County Medical Center. She spent eleven years as a partner at France Avenue Family Physicians in Edina before founding Edina Sports Health & Wellness in 2002 with Noel Radcliffe, MD, and Grant Morrison, MD. She isn’t dogmatic, and isn’t into prescribing a pill when lifestyle changes could suffice. “Sports medicine is really about wellness, helping people live healthy lives, and I think that still motivates us,” Taube says.

Because Taube is trained in both family medicine and sports medicine, she sees both athletes and nonathletes, from kids to seniors. Her training also enables her to be a “one-stop shop” for athletes, treating everything from asthma to depression in addition to overuse injuries and stress fractures.

Much of her work involves helping athletes achieve their goals without injuring themselves. She may advise patients who want to get and stay in shape about cross-training, weight-lifting, and aerobics. She cautions patients who run marathons about overtraining because the body cannot handle the repetitive load of trying to always be ready for the next marathon. The body needs rest, says Taube: “You can’t have peaks if you don’t have valleys.”

She loves working with athletes, because they tend to view themselves more as partners in their care rather than passive observers of it. But she herself isn’t an avid exerciser. Although she ran track in high school and was on a rowing team in college, now she’s content to walk her dog twice a day and do some gardening. “I’m one of a handful of sports medicine physicians who isn’t a jock,” she says.