Race Recap: Sarah Trigg at the London Marathon 2022
This October, I ran the London Marathon through qualifying for the AbbottWMM Wanda Age Group World Championships—along with my fellow NBR teammates Alena Alasheeva, Gregg Baldinger, and Joe Chan. To qualify you have to race two marathons in a year and then you’re ranked by your finish times. I found out my marathon in March at Two Rivers didn’t count—it had to be a marathon on their list. I ran Boston in September but appeared at first to be pretty low in the rankings. Luckily, Gregg knew the ropes since he had qualified the year before. I remember him insisting, “Just do another one, any one, and you got it.” So, a month later, I took a team spot for NYC (luckily more were available last minute because of covid). It would be my third marathon of the year—and the fourth in my life. But it was worth it. Gregg was right. I climbed to 45th out of the top 85 that made it for my age group. (The amount that qualify per AG is increasing considerably next year for those interested.)
It's a goal of mine to get into the six marathon majors by time qualifying—but London, unlike the rest of the majors, only allows time qualifications by elites. It was just by sheer luck that this year’s championships were held in London (next year, Chicago). We trained hard. Alena and I were close to each other pace wise, so we did the same training plan and made our workouts days align. I worked up to 70miles a week but had two setbacks with a round of covid in July and a knee-related accident in September (but thankfully not an injury). When race day came, I wasn’t really sure how it would go.
For the race, the four of us were the sub elite wave and lined up on the start line just behind the men’s elite group. It was wild. Among the elites, the legendary Kenenisa Bekele was doing warm up strides a few feet away. They announced all the starters for broadcasting and we clapped as the audience (of course the women elites didn’t have this support—as their start was 40 minutes before).
I felt pretty good the whole race. Above all, the main goal though was to finish. Or I would lose the opportunity for a star for Abbott’s six-star medal (the medal if you complete all six majors). Or, at least through my goal of time-qualifying. So, I didn’t want to bomb. And as most of us know, with the marathon, there are a multitude of ways that can happen.
Along the way I was shaken out of my running trance realizing the person screaming my name with a British accent was intended for me, our very own Natalie Gleed. I also spotted NBR teammates Tiffany Chen and Joseph Logan who were sprinting between locations to hand off nutrition bottles to Joe and Gregg. (I’m in constant admiration of the support among our men’s grandmasters team—who by the way are taking first place for NYRR this year by a landslide.)
Somewhere in Canary Wharf, I got an unexpectedly slow mile reading. Didn’t feel slow, I thought. Then the next mile, too fast, like might-die-later fast. Then current pace readouts all over. The readouts started to mess with my head. So I made a conscious decision to stop looking at the watch and focus on trusting the pace by feel.
As the race went on, I gained more confidence with how things were going to turn out. All I knew was that I was consistently passing people. For those of us in the championships, we wore a second bib on our backs with our age group and name. Since you don’t really have an idea of who your direct competitors are in road races—by age at least—this made it more fun. I could keep my attention on reeling in the next woman in my AG to pass and keep the mind off how the legs were starting to fatigue.
It was especially touching to have a few fellow runners recognize NBR’s name on the singlet and shout out words of support. Most (if not all) of them were guys because there were really only a few of us women up there. And I genuinely think they were psyched to see us there. It was like they were watching our race as a separate race and were like go, go, go! Every once in awhile there was a wail “Go North Brooklyn!!” and I’d do a fist bump in the air to let them know I had heard it. One guy as he was passing me asked if I had raced the Bronx 10-mile two weeks ago—it took me a second to process so far away from my home turf and in an accent I had trouble comprehending with my marathon brain—and then I was like "YES! That was me. Good luck!". He was off. I think he had on a Belgian kit. Another was from Portland and a friend of two former NBR teammates who had moved there. This was my first international marathon and I was really struck by the sense of community so far from home.
After Big Ben, I did check the overall time on my watch. I didn’t know how many meters the landmark was from the finish but I had run the last few miles of the course earlier in the week to have a sense. I knew I was on track to at least get a PR.
I crossed the finish line and saw a fellow AG competitor nearby. I tapped her shoulder, “Good job 45 to 49” referring to our age group emblazoned across our backs. We had a laugh. “I saw you the whole way!” she said. For some reason I didn’t check my finish time right away. Probably from just semi-delirium and my legs starting to cramp. Figured was probably around a 3:15. I knew whatever I got, I had executed what I could. Finally, I checked the app, a 3:13:57. Three minutes and 23 seconds off my personal best this April at the Boston Marathon. Needless to say, I’m thrilled and looking forward to Berlin in 2023.
