Alexandra couldn’t help but compare her experience to her Hartford Marathon experience in 2018. She compared the traveling, the training group, the stakes at hand, the starting line camaraderie, the work-life balance, and the result.

Traveling: more.

Training Group: cooler.

Stakes: higher.

Starting Line Camaraderie: more friendly amongst strangers.

Work-Life Balance: harder to maintain.

Result: mixed feelings.

One of Alexandra’s biggest takeaways from this experience is fully understanding how much an effort like this takes. The amount of time and effort it took this time around was different. It was much more than her training cycle for Hartford in 2018, but it was enjoyable with this crew. Alexandra’s last marathon took place in the first month of her graduate degree program. She was working full time and her part-time to commitment to her degree blossomed for a month before race day in 2018. This time around, work remained full time and her part time pursuit of her degree was fully ramped and running. This race wasn’t the time she wanted, but she knows one thing:

Alexandra says that she still has the bug and burning desire to drive to run fast. However, this work-life balance may be more of a factor. She says that she may need to factor in school and work a little better to see when a race makes the most sense for her. Onward and upward!

Nobody could have prepared Kate for how her first marathon would feel.

It’s a 20 mile warmup and a 10K race.

It’s going to feel bad at 22 and you’ll need to push for the last 4.2 miles.

The first 18 will be easy and then it gets hard.

All of the anecdotal truisms are worth as much as the paper they’re written on when it is your first marathon. It is your experience. It is your race. It is your struggle. It is your triumph.

Kate experienced all on this day.

Her words deserve to be heard in full and not doctored, edited, or paraphrased in any way. Listen to her race weekend experience and what is next for her.

Louis Serafini wears many hats: the organizer, captain, coach, Tracksmith Community and Events Manager, and athlete. He’s the first to say that juggling six things is preferable to just one. In June, two of his roles collide: coaching five amateur athletes for a 2:45 OTQ Standard and chasing the mens “A Standard” for the marathon at Grandma’s Marathon.

Photo Credit: Tom Flanagan

The training group toeing the line in June in pursuit of the Standard seemed to come together brick by brick as these similarly-situated runners all came to Louis with the goal of running fast. He said that it was easy to bring these athletes together in pursuit of a greater goal. Louis recalls going to the 2016 Olympic Trials and seeing a group of ten athletes coached by Terry Shea who all were racing together. “Why can’t that be us,” Lou pondered.

Leading by example, Louis will also be racing Grandma’s Marathon in June in pursuit of the “A Standard.” Hard work this spring has laid the groundwork for success and a little flair for the dramatic in June. After a 10th Place finish at the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler, Louis nailed the OTQ Standard twice within the span of a month by clocking a 1:04 flat at the U.S. Half Marathon Championships in Pittsburgh and a 1:03:14 course record at the NYRR Brooklyn Half. With his safety net, Louis can set his sights on pushing the envelope further.

Just keep raising the bar.

Louis says that Grandma’s can be a great day. It could be a day to run well, and ride the train as long as he can on the day. Chasing “faster” as an abstract is and always will be his motivator to perform in the sport more so than any OTQ Standard. According to Louis, you train hard, you put yourself in good opportunities with good competition and you go race and know that you’re fit.

Louis is fit. Louis is ready. Louis is just getting started

Listen to his full interview below:

Race week came about and the numbers dwindled. Many of us planned to race the James Joyce Ramble 10k as a tune up. It was an opportunity to test our fitness and race together for both tactical and mental reasons. However, injuries, plans, schedules and life got in the way for some of us that week, leaving Kate the sole teammate taking on the 10k on her own. Not only would this race be new to Kate, but this race distance was also new to Kate as well…and she was taking it on solo. Kate knew that taking on the unknown by herself this time around would challenge one thing:

Copyright: Michael Scott (2019)

Kate said that she knew that every move on her own reminded her that she, and she alone, would pay the price or reap the benefits. She went out with another athlete from the BAA and planned to work off of her. As bib 671 started to fade, Kate felt fresh and decided to keep her foot on the gas. While leading the field, her motivation came from the Master’s field. Kate weaved around the masses of competitors and her compatriots cheered “First Woman!” as she chewed up the road beneath her.

Looking forward, Kate sees racing alone as another chapter in her playbook as she approaches yet another race. She will race Bay to Breakers alone as well. The race will feature the same elements: solo miles, a new race distance, and accountability.

Listen to her take below:

Rav’s father likens her training to her work as a corporate attorney: It can really be a grind and you need to push through some unpleasant periods. Rav even says that she both loves and hates training for marathons. She loves the marathon “in concept” and the workouts around it, but it takes so much out of you.

Why does she make it work?

Balance. Running and training, for Rav, is so different from what she does on a day-to-day basis, that it is a welcomed stress release. She believes in the importance in developing and investing in things outside of work to stave off a work burnout. However, Rav is the first one to mention that she burns the candle from both ends and sleep sometimes takes a back seat.

How does she make it work?

Flexibility. Rav’s controlled chaos of her profession oftentimes throws wrenches in to the plan. She may have told the squad that she’ll be ready for a workout at 7am, but may need to scrap those plans due to something at work. The willingness to adjust, prioritize, and work out as a lone wolf has kept her training on track. Rav knows that she runs for fun and if running feels like a second job, it isn’t worth it.

Rav’s logic rules all. The OTQ standard is just a time that someone else set, but it is something worth pursuing. Rav debuted in the marathon with a sub-3 hour time and has successfully chipped away at her time to reach her most recent time of 2:50:55. In her most ambitious “cut-down” yet, Rav chases the OTQ she’s had her eye on through her career on the roads thusfar. However, there’s a team pursuing the standard together.

In her previous races, the lone wolf has lone wolf-ed. The team aspect is something Rav looks forward to for training and on race day as well. The team makes it worth something more, despite the outcome. She says that even if she doesn’t cross the line under 2:45 and someone else from the team does, she feels like she played a part in the success of her teammate.

Listen below:

A young veteran in the sport, Jessie Petersen has seen many things her running career: several collegiate cross country seasons, an assistant coaching stint after college, a sub-75 minute half marathon, and a marathon debut at the 2016 Olympic Trials.

Photo: Molly Malone

Unfinished Business? Perhaps - but her passion seems to run deeper than just settling a score from a 3-year-old PR. There’s a reason why she returned to this distance with a team this time around. Her love of team and camaraderie coupled with her desire to help others seems to draw her to this opportunity. She said it herself: one of the reasons why she loved competing in cross country because you feel like you’ve done it for other people. You are running FOR other people.

The girl gang, to Jess, feels very similar to her time at Syracuse. There’s a common goal, there’s friendship, there’s tension as well. She calls it sister workouts, which implies a level of caring for each other that exceeds the little points of discontent. In this model, Jess may be the big sister who has the experience to lead by example and bring everyone up. Whether Jess is leading the 5th rep of mile repeats or tagging us on Instagram when she runs a 7 mile tempo on a treadmill in Vietnam, she does so for the team.

However, Jess’s knows that this may not be the case. There may be some carnage along the way and the day may look different for many people. She knows that, at 20 miles, it may be an “everybody for themselves” moment. Having earned her way to the Trials before, her emphasis on this training block is simple:

Listen to her whole interview below:

Gabi Drummond is soft spoken. She will never tell you her Personal Bests unless you ask her—and even then, she does not give them up easily. She shuns her college results. She even says her twin sister, Dani, is a better version of her.

Where does that come from? Relativity.

I don’t know.

Gabi is fast. Gabi is intelligent. And clearly, Gabi is humble.

While Gabi may be quick to shrug off her recent PRs of a 17:15 5k and a 1:17 half marathon this winter, her humility seems to fuel and endless pursuit of something great in the sport.

Her more recent training blocks have been characterized by more miles, more friends, and more playlists. 30 miles per week accelerated into 60+ miles a week. Running alone became running with Rav and then the training group as a whole. The one constant in her training from the beginning has been her running with music, or “music doping,” as Louis affectionately calls it. One of her proudest playlists include the playlist posted at the bottom of this page.

Gabi’s fun-loving attitude keeps training light-hearted and social, which may even result in her taking phone calls during her tempo workouts. In her words, if it wasn’t fun, there would be no reason to train like this. Her racing and goal-setting feels like it’s more for her and self-asserting than ever before. For someone who has nothing to prove to anyone, not even herself, she leaves us with her thoughts on the 2:45 Olympic Trials Standard:

Gabi knows that 2:45 doesn’t make or break her passion to run. Listen below:

A playlist featuring Ava Max, Robinson, LÉON, and others

Alexandra describes her journey to the marathon distance as an itch to scratch. After a collegiate career left her wanting a break from the sport, she started over—back to social running. The consistency of training with the Greater Boston Track Club and the contagious atmosphere of the Boston running scene influenced her decision to take her training a little more seriously again.

Alexandra approached her first marathon in October of 2018 with the poise and intensity of her collegiate athlete roots. She even said that she wanted to do the marathon, but wanted to do it at the right time—when she knew she could devote the appropriate amount of time to this level of training. Alexandra debuted at the marathon distance with a hard fought 2:51 finish, crossing the finish line as the fourth woman and twenty-first finisher overall. She’ll be the first to say that she had a storybook day on the course and can’t pinpoint a low on the day, but she worked immensely hard to earn a day this pedestrian to her. Alexandra recalled coaching herself through some rough patches and, for the first time, telling herself that she can do it…out loud.

Approaching the Olympic Trials Qualifying (OTQ) standard in her second race brings a level of objectivity to her new foray in to distance running. Whereas her first marathon was the litmus test to understand her capability in the sport, her second marathon is her chance to attack a goal set for all athletes.

Despite being motivated by the goal of an OTQ, Alexandra doesn’t put too much pressure on herself. She recalls several people she knows who have chased the elusive 2:45 for years with no luck. In her opinion, they’re no less of a talented athlete. A 2:45 to her is a culmination of hard work, miles, and the balancing act of life, but the journey makes this whole process worthwhile.

Listen to her interview below:

We know the challenge. We know the person.

Kate Raphael never thought that she would find herself chasing an Olympic Trials Qualifying time (OTQ). She thought that OTQs were reserved for people with sponsorships and crop tops - her words, I assure you. Coming off of a college season ending in the spring 2018, Kate’s race calendar took on a similar track to most post-collegiate athletes. Kate competed in a fall cross country season before changing gears to indoor season in the winter, including the 5k and 3k.

With almost no prodding, encouragement, or strain, Kate agreed to take on her debut marathon with this squad in June, almost one year after graduating from college. She may say that I convinced her over a beer; a truth we may never know.

Kate defines growth through the unknown and the uncharted; A void is an opportunity for gains in her mind. She recalled that her jump up to steeple chase in her junior year of college was one of the greatest challenges and reaped immeasurable results for her as a runner. A debut marathon is no different. Embracing and thriving in ambiguity is Kate’s value add to this team. She knows what she doesn’t know — and she’s ok with that.

Listen to her whole interview: