2nd, 2018 Boston Marathon; 11th, 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials

My husband, Blake, and I have two daughters - Emery (3) and Brynn (9 months). Last summer Blake completed his orthopedic hand surgery fellowship and we moved from Massachusetts back to Utah to be closer to family. Blake ran his first marathon (and first official race of any kind) last October. He beat his goal of a sub-3 hour marathon by running 2:57:01 at the St. George Marathon in Utah. We ran the race together and it was definitely one of my favorite marathon experiences. My brother, Ryan, has run many marathons and he, my sister April and my dad, Neil, are all training for Grandma's Marathon this spring. My sister-in-law, Natalie Callister, is also racing the Trials and I'm very excited for us to have this experience together. We were teammates in college and she qualified for the Trials having just moved from Arizona to Toronto, with no family around, and while homeschooling their four children.

My daughters are definitely my #1 accomplishment and joy in life. I'm very blessed to have an amazing husband and lots of family support to be able to pursue running while enjoying the daily joys and challenges of being the mother of a baby and a 3-year-old. I never planned on being able to train at this level once I had children, and I don't know how long it will be practical to continue. But I've loved this training block and recognize how much support it took to have the opportunity to race here.

After the birth of my first daughter, Emery, in 2021, I was determined to return to running and racing as soon as possible. I ignored how terrible I felt running for several months, and finally quit running completely around six months postpartum. When I started again after a break for a few months, I felt like a new person and made rapid progress. My marathon PR happened when Emery was 17 months old. After my second daughter was born in 2023, I took a much more gradual approach to training and it has paid off greatly. It took intentionally backing off and a lot of faith that this would be the smarter approach, because in the back of my mind the goal was always to perform well at the Trials so there was a bit of a time crunch. But I knew forcing it didn't work the first time and wasn't an option this time. Now at nine months postpartum, I think I'm at about the same point as I was 17 months postpartum with Emery.

"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm."

Crossing the finish line at the 2018 Boston Marathon knowing I had exceeded my expectations but having no idea I had finished 2nd.