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By RJ Taylor

Georgia Porter didn’t expect to qualify for the 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials during her first ever marathon. At the advice of her sister and trainer, Sarah Crouch, her goals going into the 2018 London Marathon were just to take everything in and enjoy the moment.

Her mindset began to change as the race progressed.

“I was checking my watch and doing the math, and I realized I could actually qualify for the Trials if I kept up this pace,” she said.

As she got closer to the finish, the chances of qualifying became even more realistic. She locked in and ran hard and with the support of a raucous crowd, she finished the London Marathon with a time of 2:44:55. She qualified for the 2020 Olympic Trials by five seconds.

Unlike Crouch and her other sister, Shannon Porter, who had both always been avid runners, Georgia initially showed no interest in the sport. This changed at the age of 24 when Porter approached Crouch about getting into shape due to having what she called “a layer of party.”

One Christmas, when Porter was trying to get back into shape, Crouch visited Porter. 

“She joined me on an 18-mile run with three hard surges towards the end of it,” Crouch said.

Porter managed to hang with Crouch for the entire run, including the surges.

“I remember looking at her during one of the surges, she was breathing so hard, but she had this fire in her eyes. Once we got back home, I told her, ‘You have what it takes,’ and I think that really inspired her,” Crouch said.

Since then, Porter has run in three full marathons—London, California International, and Frankfurt, where she achieved her personal record time of 2:36:52 in October 2019.

Porter’s journey to where she is now has been unorthodox. Out of high school, she was a paramedic for a few years, and at 25, she enrolled at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham, Oregon. She ran for one year there and transferred to Western State Colorado University, a Division II program in Gunnison, Colorado. 

While at Western, Porter noticed the other runners she was competing against were thinner than she was. 

“I called Sarah about it, and she told me, ‘Look, if you drop weight, then you’ll see your fastest times in the next year or two, but by the time you hit your mid-thirties, you’ll be falling off,’” Porter said.

Porter took this patient approach to her development to heart and has seen her times continue to drop. She maintains a similar perspective in her work as a personal trainer.

“When I hear clients complaining about their body image,” Porter said, “I tell them, ‘Quit doing that!’ And before every race, I have started thanking my body for allowing me to do what I’m doing. I want to avoid any negative mindset about my body.”

 

For the upcoming Trials, Porter’s main goal is to just enjoy the overall experience. 

“I do my best when I enjoy the race, take everything in, and keep my mind off the competition,” she said.

On her best possible day, she thinks she could finish in the top 25, but Crouch is aiming higher. 

“As her coach, looking objectively, I think she can crack the top 20,” Crouch said. “I’m looking at her a little more ambitiously than she’s looking at herself.”

Leading up to the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Marathon, Atlanta Track Club partnered with the Grady Sports Media program at the University of Georgia to profile some of the competitors in the 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials. The authors of these stories are undergraduate students enrolled in the program and have been lightly edited by the Club. See all of the stories at https://www.atlanta2020trials.com/news/uga-trials-project.