How Run-Commuting to Capitol Hill Helped Kerry Allen Qualify for Trials – runnersworld.com

In “Satisfied,” a song about unfulfilled desires in the hit Broadway musical Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton tells Angelica Schuyler, “You strike me as a woman who has never been satisfied.”

It’s no surprise that the show tune is an all-time favorite for Kerry Allen, an Olympic Marathon Trials-qualifying marathoner from Washington, D.C., who is just now reaching her potential after years of disappointing running performances left her wanting more.

When Allen crossed the finish line at last October’s Twin Cities Marathon in 2:41:33, she started weeping in the chute. Not only had the 30-year-old broken her previous best time by 10 minutes, but she had also slipped under the Olympic ‘B’ standard of 2:45, sealing her spot among the 285 women who have so far qualified for the 2020 Olympic Trials.

“After I saw the clock, I cracked,” Allen told Runner’s World. “I started bawling so hard when I crossed the line that I couldn’t breathe. The medical team was really concerned about me, so I had to keep telling them, ‘I’m just really happy.’”

Hours earlier, when she toed the starting line at Twin Cities, Allen felt capable of running under 2:45, but she was hesitant to say as much. In her last three marathons—the 2016 NYC Marathon, 2017 Grandma’s Marathon, and 2017 California International Marathon—she also felt prepared to run that fast, but each race ended in disaster.

In New York, a raging blood blister forced her to drop out with 10 miles to go. At Grandma’s, stomach issues that flared up midrace caused her to to DNF again. Then she caught the flu just before her attempt at CIM, and had to half-crawl, half-run for the final 10K of the race, finishing in 3:01:34.

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“I went into Twin Cities without focusing on the standard,” Allen said. “I was on pace at the half marathon, but I still didn’t trust myself. It wasn’t until I hit mile 23 that I let myself think, okay, barring some catastrophic event, I know I’m going to be under 2:45. The hardest part about that final 5K was handling my emotions.”

Rekindling Her Competitive Nature

When Allen first started training for marathons, qualifying for Trials wasn’t the goal. In fact, when she registered for her first race, the 2011 Philadelphia Marathon, she wasn’t sure if she really wanted to run competitively at all.

At the time, Allen’s career was clicking into place—she had recently graduated from Duke University with a degree in public policy, and was working as a staff assistant on Capitol Hill—but her running had been stagnant for a while. Growing up in St. Petersburg, Florida, she had won All-State honors in high school cross country and track, then was recruited to run at Duke. She ended up quitting the team after her freshman year due to persistent injuries.

“I was sick of being hurt all the time, and I needed to take a break,” said Allen. Before Duke, she was out for six months as a high school sophomore with a stress fracture in her lower back, then dealt with IT band and hip pain throughout her first semesters of college. “I spent so much time in the P.T. room, and whenever it seemed that things were getting better, something else would crop up. It made me start hating competitive running.”

After she left the team, Allen took a few months off running. She swam and biked around Durham, North Carolina, to stay in shape, letting her beat-up legs heal. Eventually, she began logging miles again between classes, but much less than before.

“I’d run maybe four or six miles, about three or four times a week,” she said. “I wasn’t going fast. I was very happy to do it just for fitness.”

After graduation, Allen moved to D.C. with a roommate who was training for marathons. “She would leave before sunrise each morning to get her runs in, and it made me feel guilty,” she said, laughing. “I missed having a challenge like that to work towards.”

Motivated by her friend and itching to race again, Allen registered for the 2011 Philadelphia Marathon, which she finished in a respectable debut time of 3:13:39.

“I got excited about qualifying for Boston and New York,” she said. “But the Trials definitely weren’t on my radar.”

At a local group run after Philadelphia, though, someone suggested she join the Georgetown Running Club (GRC), a D.C.-based, semi-elite crew made up of mostly former college athletes.

“Once I started training with GRC, I got a lot faster,” said Allen. “We all have crazy work schedules, but we make an effort to show up for practice. It’s a good community.”

Training for Trials

In many ways, Allen’s day-to-day looks something like a marathon. As a health policy advisor, her work begins each day at 9 a.m. and often ends much later than 5 at night. Since her evenings are so unpredictable, she tries to finish all of her mileage—which typically peaks between 80 and 85 miles per week—in the morning, even if it means running to work.

“I run-commute a few mornings a week,” said Allen, who lives about five miles away from her office on Capitol Hill. “It’s so much faster than the Metro, and it lets me sleep more.”

The day before her active commutes, she leaves a bag packed with shower supplies, work clothes, and lunch for the next day in the office. The following morning, she wakes up around 6:30 a.m. (if she’s not run-commuting and needs to return home, she’ll get up at 5:30), then starts running at 7 in the direction of work, tacking on extra mileage to get in her typical 60 to 90-minutes. Once she arrives at work, she showers, eats a quick breakfast, and heads to the office.

A few times a week, she’ll meet up with her GRC teammates for speedwork around the National Mall, as well as long runs in Rock Creek Park. “D.C. has so many amazing places to run, from paved routes around the monuments to trails along the river,” Allen said. “I doubt I’d be at the level I am if I lived somewhere else.”

Once home for the night, she rolls out, lifts weights, and does core work to stay strong and injury-free.

“From now until Trials, my number one goal is to stay healthy,” said Allen, who’s planning to race faster, shorter distances this summer and fall, like miles, 5Ks, and 10Ks. To keep her legs fresh, she likely won’t do another 26.2-miler until the big race next February.

“The Trials will be unlike any marathon I’ve ever done, competition-wise,” she said. “I’ll definitely be a little star-struck, seeing Des Linden and Amy Cragg in the same place as me. I want to compete as well as I can. I never thought I’d be in this situation, but here we are.”