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By Cecily Stoute

Grady Sports Media

Running has always been a huge part of Elizabeth Herndon’s life. So much so that eight months into her pregnancy, she was still going on runs for two. 

 

“Pregnancy affects everyone very differently,” said her husband, Greg Larsen. “She went in cautiously and was thinking about how to basically get in as much mileage as possible.” 

 

Fifteen months after giving birth to her daughter, Herndon’s work paid off when she ran 2:37:27 at the 2018 Grandma’s Marathon

“As I ran the first 20 miles I was trying to stay pretty steady,” Herndon said. “But as I got further in I sped up and ran the last six miles faster than I did any other miles during the race. I beat my former personal best time by two minutes.”

 

Herndon, a Division III All-American at Washington University in St. Louis, had qualified for the 2016 Trials and wanted to have another go in 2020. While pregnancy was a factor leading up to her qualifying race, it wasn’t the only obstacle she had to overcome.

Larsen said another obstacle was finding a balance between training time and family life. He believes they’ve been able to create a flexible schedule through a lot of communication. Every week follows a set schedule with the exception of a few last-minute changes.

By 7 a.m. most days, Elizabeth has already run roughly eight miles. She then heads to work at the Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee, where she is an environmental geochemist. After work, she picks up her two-year-old daughter, then heads home to make dinner. If there’s time, she’ll squeeze in another run. 

 

Three days a week she’ll go for a mid-length run. The other two days of the week, she’ll get a track workout that usually averages around twelve miles. Sundays are reserved for long runs. 

“I know Sundays are the long-distance days, so she’ll be gone for three or four hours and usually get in about 22 miles,” Larsen said.

 

Herndon’s dedication to this schedule has continued to pay off. She endured a battle with tendinitis throughout the summer of 2019, but her husband said she put a lot of focus and commitment towards her recovery. 

“She would go for an aqua jog, stretch religiously, and go through her exercises that would prevent any further injury,” he said.

For the 2020 Olympic Trials, Herndon has established some goals for herself. She wants to pace herself early so she has enough energy for the final hills near the end of the course. But she also wants to make sure she appreciates the moment.

“I want to try to compete and have the best race I can while also having a very good time doing it,” she said.

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.