Shortly before Christmas, Columbia’s Julia Roman-Duval made the decision she had been wrestling with for weeks: Run in the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials on Feb. 29 or roll the dice and attempt to make the French national team for the Half Marathon World Championships by running the Paris Half Marathon the day after?
As a dual U.S.-French citizen, it was a unique quandary for the 37-year-old astrophysicist and mother of three who is still comparably new to the world of competitive road racing.
Bob Schwelm, the top American at the New York Marathon in 1995 and owner of the Bryn Mawr Running Company near Philadelphia talks about his five decades of running sub-3-hour marathons and his plans for a sixth.
Name: Erin Cunningham
Self-described age group: I’m 30
Nothing the doctors told her about her daughter’s Type 1 diabetes diagnosis sounded like “you will direct a race in 10 years.”
She was more worried that Isabelle couldn’t eat when she was hungry, which emotionally tough for both of them, on top of Isabelle’s physical discomfort. She was concerned with how much she could eat relative to her insulin levels, trying to avoid a seizure or diabetic coma. She was concerned with keeping Isabelle’s blood glucose levels under control while she was playing, trying to let her just be a kid.
On Feb. 29, runners competing in the Olympic Marathon Trials will race a rough, hilly course in downtown Atlanta. Caroline Bauer will feel right at home, having started her journey there on similar terrain.
Four years and one day prior, she took off on the RRCA Club Challenge course in her then-hometown of Columbia, Md. It’s one of the tougher courses in Maryland, one that forces runners to scrap relative time goals and focus on the race’s inter-club competition. That didn’t shake Bauer, though, as she ran 1:01:33, finishing less than one minute behind Julia Roman-Duval, her Howard County Striders teammate who had finished 50th at the Marathon Trials two weeks before.
Meetings and setbacks for the Capital Crescent Trail in Bethesda, MCM bans a course cutter, national awards for DC cross country coaches.
Name: Nate Rathjen
Self-described age group: slowly admitting I’m not a recent college grad anymore (25)
Saucony runner and American 25k record holder Parker Stinson talks about finding the sweet spot in his training.
Editor’s note: Five years ago, we published one of my favorite stories, and I wanted to share it with you here.
Matthew Hua relished his first season of cross country at J.E.B. Stuart High School (now Justice High School). With no prior athletic background, his 24-minute three mile time is a point of pride. Lifelong health problems have been an obstacle in his running career, but they haven’t stopped him from fully participating as part of the team — except maybe in the team dinners.
Name: Hannah A.
Self-described age group: Millennial (25)