On Jan. 18, seniors Shelby Stephens and Sarah Churchwell, and sophomore Meredith Wolfe and graduate Jordan Kline participated in a half-marathon race, stretching from Topeka to Auburn.
Kline brought the idea to the girls in the beginning of the winter, and because it wasn’t much longer than their maximum they had ever ran, they decided to do it.
“We thought it would be a good challenge and it gets us in shape for track season,” Stephens said.
The girls believe that this race will have other benefits for track beside getting them in shape.
“I think it has prepared us a lot better because by setting this goal we’ve gotten out and ran a lot more miles. So I think we’re more prepared and our workouts are now becoming easier,” Wolfe said.
The girls prepared for the race by having a long run once a week and they gradually worked up from six miles to 12 miles during the winter. During this time the girls prepared mentally by talking about their goals for the run
On the day of the race, the girls got up early to leave for Topeka. They had a light breakfast and got in the mind set for the race.
“I am excited, I’m glad to run it, we have never really done something like this before,” Churchwell said.
During the race, the girls fulfilled their goal for the three of them to run together and not stop to walk.
“For the most part we wanted to run under an hour and 50 minutes, and if we could run in under an hour and 45[minutes],” Stephens said.
The girls were hoping to keep their mile pace less than eight minutes, if they could. After the race, they found out their average mile time was 8:29, however, they were still happy with the results.
Overall the girls were able to finish with a time of one hour and 51 minutes, almost fulfilling their goals.
“It’s a huge accomplishments, and I think it is also really cool that I can say I have ran a half-marathon,” Wolfe said.
Churchwell, Wolfe and Stephens finished holding hands and together they recieved third place in their age division. They also finished 16th overall.