Age: 29
City/State: Champaign, IL
Occupation: P.E. Teacher
Hobbies/Interests
outside of running:
I coach XC/Track and Field for the
school I teach at. We have both high school and junior high (8th
grade only) athletes. This means lots of meets to attend, which I enjoy. I am
currently getting my Master’s in Social Work through a hybrid program, so I
spend a lot of free time doing school work. When I am not doing schoolwork or
coaching, I am reading a book for the book club I am in or hanging out with my
cats and boyfriend.
When
did you start chasing the OTQ and what inspired you to try?
My first attempt at the OTQ was at
the 2018 Illinois Marathon in Champaign, IL. I started chasing the OTQ goal after
I ran my first marathon in 2017. This race was the Illinois Marathon. I went in
with 0 expectations and ended up winning the race in 2:47:26. One of the best
parts was that my college teammate, Elise (Sigg) Jensen finished second. I honestly felt great the whole race, never
hit the “wall” which made me think “I can get the OTQ.” My coach, James
Walters, really believed in me and encouraged me to set the goal of qualifying
for the 2020 trials. I thought the next time I ran a marathon I would be able
to break 2:45:00, but as we all know, the marathon can be a beast.
Tell
us about the races you attempted to OTQ and the outcomes
I attempted the OTQ the first time
at the 2018 Illinois Marathon. I put a lot of pressure on myself for this race.
One part of the pressure was because I had won the previous year, so I thought
I needed to do it again. The second was that I wanted to qualify for the trials
and had been vocal about this being my goal.
About 5 miles into the race I knew
it was going to be a rough day. The two woman I started the race with, who were
also trying to run the standard, went out faster than I expected and instead of
backing off I tried to hang with them. I fell off pace with them around mile 5
and right around then an old teammate from college found me. He blocked the
wind for me and kept encouraging me, but had to split off where the marathon
runners go their separate way from the half (shoutout Matt Smoody, I owe you!).
From there it was a mental challenge to get myself to finish the race.
I ran the rest of the race
completely solo, except for the times I got passed by people. I thought about
dropping out more times than I would like to admit, especially when I knew by
mile 18 there was no way I was going to hit the standard. But I couldn’t get
myself to drop out. I wasn’t injured and I figured I would need to know how to
run without feeling great to I stuck it out. I felt a lot of emotions when I
crossed the finish line in 2:47:50, but so many people were there to lift me up
and help me feel less sad.
The second time I attempted the OTQ
was the 2018 Philadelphia Marathon. My plan had been to run the 2018 Indy
Monumental Marathon, but it was the same weekend as high school XC state and I
couldn’t miss watching my athletes compete. I was excited and feeling good
about Philly. In my build up I had run a PR half marathon at the Go! St. Louis
Halloween Half Marathon and set a course record in 1:17:09. Philly had a 2:45
pacer so I was excited to be able to run with him a bunch of other women
chasing the standard.
The first few miles of the race
were great but somewhere around mile 7 I realized I needed go pee. So I pulled
off the course and went, but was able to make my way back to the 2:45 group.
Looking back, I probably tried to catch back up too quickly. I made it through
halfway with the pace group before falling off. I stayed on pace through 30k,
but my legs felt like lead. I just remember not being able to get them to
respond. I finished the race in 2:47:27. After my right foot was hurting, but I
thought it was just from wearing flats. Later I would find out I actually had a
stress fracture. Honestly, the foot bothered me some during the race, but I
don’t think it had anything to do with not hitting the OTQ.
I gained a lot of strength from
trying to hit the OTQ and failing. It was heartbreaking not being able to put
the fitness I know was there into a race, but it also made me grateful for all
the good days I have been able to have as a runner. I was also able to follow a
lot of amazing runners, some who got the OTQ and some who didn’t.
What
are you most proud of about your OTQ pursuit?
I am proud that I tried to reach a
goal even though I fell short. It has been amazing to see all of the women who
didn’t get the OTQ share their story and do some pretty amazing things to try
and get it.
Do
you have any regrets or things you wish you’d done differently in your OTQ
pursuit?
I wish I would have been kinder to
myself before the 2018 Illinois Marathon. I was putting a lot of internal
pressure on myself and if I could go back and change that I would. Otherwise, I
think I did everything I could to get the OTQ, I just couldn’t put the race I
needed to together during either of my attempts.
What
message would you like to send to those following your running pursuits?
I hope that those following my
running pursuits see that anyone can set a goal and go for it. Even if you
fail, you still win because you learned something from your experience.
Tell
us something unique about yourself.
One thing is that I was a walk on
athlete at Illinois State University my Junior year of college. Two years later
I was an athlete on a full ride scholarship.
Another unique thing is that I have
been on quite the injury journey since finishing the 2018 Philly Marathon. As I
said above I had a stress fracture in my foot after Philly, so I was out for 6
weeks while that healed. When I returned back to running I was still having
some foot pain so it was an extremely slow progression. I ran most of March
2019 and then had a setback with my knee.
At first the doctors thought it was
just pain caused from tightness of my hamstring and IT band. However, after
taking 3 weeks off I still had pain if I tried to run. I got an MRI that showed
I had bone marrow edema of my bipartite patella. Bipartite patella is when your
kneecap is in two separate pieces. The pieces of your kneecap usually fuse
together in early childhood, but mine never did. After getting the MRI results,
I took 8 weeks off. All I did during the first 6 weeks was swim using only my
arms with the assistance of a pull buoy.
After those 6 weeks, I tried to
return to running on the Alter-G, but I was still having knee pain. I went back
to the doctor at the beginning of August and he referred me to an orthopedic
surgeon in St. Louis. I went to meet the doctor, Dr. Matthew Matava, and he
recommended having bipartite extraction surgery. This sounds scarier than it
actually is, and it was a rather quick procedure.
However, my recovery from the
surgery took longer than I was told by the doctor. About 8 weeks after the
surgery I began a return to running program through my physical therapist. I
was feeling great until I hurt my foot playing badminton with my students right
before Thanksgiving (this is super embarrassing). I went into my physical
therapist and she thought I had sprained by cuboid bone. She tried to
manipulate that back into place but nothing happened.
A week later I went back because I
was still in pain and they were finally able to manipulate it back into place.
Thankfully this fixed the majority of the foot pain I was experiencing, but
something still didn’t feel right. An x-ray showed that I had an evulsion
fracture of my 5th metatarsal. On the positive side, it was small
and had already started healing by the time I had the x-ray. I am now currently
running a little bit, but have been battling some left hamstring pain. So if those
of you reading this can send me positive vibes and prayers that this is the end
of injury battle, I would greatly appreciate it.
What’s
next for you?
Getting healthy. I am not sure if racing is in my future or not at this point,
so just being able to run pain free and every day for 30 minutes is my future
goal.
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