Stephanie Bruce Is Getting Faster With Age as She Pursues Her First Olympic Team – runnersworld.com

Relentless. Grit. Humble. Over the past year and a half, Hoka One One Northern Arizona (NAZ) Elite athlete Stephanie Bruce has chosen one of these words as a personal mantra to guide her training and galvanize her supporters. And from the roads to the track, she’s embodied every one of them.

In 2018, Bruce won the Peachtree Road Race 10K—her first national title—and finished third at the USATF 10,000-meter Championships. In November she ran 2:30:59 at the New York City Marathon to finish eleventh, and just four weeks later set a new PR of 2:29:21 at the California International Marathon. It was a year of breakthroughs for the 35-year-old mother of two that has carried over into 2019.

Bruce won her second national title at the USATF Half Marathon Championships with a new PR of 1:10:44. Two weeks later, she dropped her 5K PR to 15:17:76 at the USATF Distance Classic.

Bruce seems to defy the odds with every race, getting faster after having two kids and competing against the undefeated Father Time. How does she do it? By taking nothing for granted.

“The last couple years I’ve been reminding myself that every race you get to the starting line is an opportunity, and I never want to look too far ahead,” Bruce tells Runner’s World.

Next up is the Chicago Marathon. And though Bruce will tell you that’s her sole focus, not too far down the road is another goal. The title she has tried many times to attain but thus far has been unable to grab: Olympian.

Train smarter, not harder

As Bruce gets older, she understands even more the importance of taking easy days easy and recovering properly. Since Bruce returned to racing after the births of her boys, ages 3 and 5, she hasn’t been injured or had to take time off from the sport.

“That’s been huge, so in the back of my mind, I’m like, Okay, I need to keep doing that,” she says of her consistent physical training.

In order to keep doing that, Bruce doesn’t make many big jumps in training or try to run many more miles than she knows she should. “I have a calculated way of choosing days of the week I feel like I can push on and others I can’t,” she says.

In her younger years, Bruce may have “gone to the well” in every workout, chasing times and efforts. Today, she might choose to push really hard on Wednesday, and not overdo it in her Friday workout. This strategy has helped keep her fresh as the demands of elite training at elevation in Flagstaff take a greater toll on her body.

“When I’m at practice, it’s like, you have two and a half hours this day to be a total badass,” Bruce says. “Badass might mean getting your workout done or running slow one day to make sure you recover. But that’s my time to ask myself, How good do I want to be today to make sure I’m better tomorrow?”

HOKA ONE ONE

Just because you haven’t doesn’t mean you can’t

Another evolution for Bruce has been balancing conservative training with boldness on raceday. Bruce says her recent results, PRs, and successes were only possible because she’s been more willing to take risks.

“I didn’t do that when I was younger because I either physically felt like I couldn’t or I didn’t believe I could do things simply because I hadn’t yet,” she says. “A big part of my mental shift is knowing that just because I haven’t done something doesn’t mean I’m not ready to do it.”

That’s Bruce’s attitude entering the final weeks of training before Chicago, which will host a stacked women’s field, including Jordan Hasay, Emma Bates, Brigid Kosgei, and Betsy Saina.

“[Chicago] will feel like a big jump, but I truly believe I’ve done the work,” she says. “I might not be one of the favorites because I haven’t run the same times as the top women, but I’m starting to realize you don’t have to have that PR on paper before the race to be someone who could be a contender.”

“I’m trying to have that mindset as I go into Atlanta,” Bruce adds, referring to the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, where she’ll vie for that elusive Olympic team berth against America’s best.

The story is still unwritten

When asked what it would mean to make the Olympic team, Bruce says she has goose bumps. She pauses to reflect on the question, not for the first time.

“That’s what dreams are made of.”

Then she laughs as her mind snaps to memories of recovering after a 24-mile training run.

“I’m sitting in a hot Epsom salt bath, and my kids come in, and they’re like, ‘I want to get in!’ One kid sits on my lap and they bring their cars in there, and I’m trying to relax and recover from a really hard workout, just looking at these two children in the bath with me, and I’m like, ‘Ah, yes, this is what dreams are made of.’”

Bruce admits she feels “immense guilt” when she has to leave her kids to train or race, and worries she’s not spending enough time with them. “I hope at the end of my career the boys see Mama is pursuing her dreams wholeheartedly. Then it was totally worth it,” she says.

Making the Olympic Team would provide that validation. And Bruce knows it will have been a group effort—chiropractors, massage therapists, her husband, Ben, who trains with and assistant coaches NAZ Elite (and cooks family dinners), and her family.

“I just feel like it would be a cool-ass story, to be honest,” she says.

Leaving the sport better than she found it

Bruce knows times, records, and titles comprise most people’s impressions of a pro runner’s career. That’s why she blogs about her training and shares insights into her life on YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram. By putting herself out there, she hopes to help leave the sport better than she found it.

“I always believe people can give more of themselves,” Bruce says. “I choose to share all of [me] wholeheartedly.”

If fans of the sport had a more personal connection with pro runners, Bruce says, maybe it would help grow the sport. “You’d have all these people who’d want to go to that race, or pay for coverage to watch this race, or show up at the Trials and pay for tickets,” she says.

“I choose to share my voice, and I think the more I do it, the more personal messages I get…from women who told me things I’ve written or said have changed their lives. That’s hugely impactful and keeps motivating me.”

Freelance Writer Heather is the former food and nutrition editor for Runner’s World and the author of The Runner’s World Vegetarian Cookbook.