Senior Charlotte Healy, the Phi Mu sorority president and a civil engineering major, found time in her busy schedule to accomplish a longtime goal of hers on Saturday, October 15th in downtown Baltimore--a full-length marathon. Healy finished the 26.2 mile Baltimore Marathon in three hours and thirty one minutes, just over eight minutes per mile, and was awarded the honor to participate in the Boston Marathon. To The News-Letter's current knowledge, Healy was the only Hopkins student to qualify for the Boston Marathon.
NL (The News-Letter): Hey Charlotte, and welcome to the hot seat! To start off, what was going through your head at the beginning, at the middle, and at the end of the Baltimore Marathon?
CH: At the beginning I was super psyched. Throughout the race I wanted to keep my momentum, stay in the moment, and stay positive. For most of the race, I knew that if I kept a good attitude I knew I'd be able to make it, so up until the last couple of miles the philosophy worked well. The last few were tough and were a bit of a grind, though.
NL: Was there a particular song you sang in your head the whole time?
CH: That one Chumbawamba song (Tubthumping) was a go to. They were also playing music for most of the race so that was helpful. The Eye of the Tiger from Rocky was something I've sang to myself in the past, so that helped as well.
NL: How'd you find time to train between school work and sorority responsibilities?
CH: A large chunk of the training was during the summer. From May to August I focused a lot on core exercises and yoga as well. For the most part during the school year, I ran the long runs, mainly 20-plus and 15-plus miles during the weekend when I had the most free time. But pretty much I just made it a habit to keep up with the regimen.
NL: Do you have any cross country running experience?
CH: I ran in high school and ran a little bit my freshman year at Hopkins, but it was a huge time commitment. I was really busy with school, Phi Mu and Engineers Without Borders, so I had to stop running cross country. It was important for me to do really well in school and become involved with outside organizations.
NL: When is the Boston Marathon and what are some things you have learned from the Baltimore Marathon to help you train/run?
CH: I qualified for the Spring 2013 Boston Marathon because the registration for 2012 closed way before the Baltimore marathon even took place. Because so many people qualified so quickly for the 2012 race, they lowered the qualification time for 18-35 year old women down five minutes from 3:40:00 to 3:35:00. Luckily, I was still able to qualify. Before the race, qualifying for Boston was something I had in the back of my mind, but thought of it as ambitious. It helped push me through training as well. Throughout the race, I kept checking my Garmin mile tracker and stopwatch. So about half way through, I knew that if I kept my splits up, I had a really good shot at making it. This helped motivate me throughout the race and pushed me to go faster as the race went on.
When it comes to training and lessons learned, I'm definitely going to take a break for while.
NL: A well deserved break right?
CH: (Laughs) Definitely, but I plan to start back up and do more half marathons up until the big race. This will keep me in the shape I need to be in while also making sure I don't over do it. Also, now that I know I can finish a marathon within that time frame, I plan to work on sprinting and speed training. Whereas before I worked to build up my endurance, hopefully now I can build up speed to improve on my time.
NL: What did you eat before the marathon and what did you eat after the marathon?
CH: Before the race, I had some oatmeal with nuts and fruit. During the race, I ate a banana and one of those espresso GU energy snacks. I'm a huge caffeine addict, so that was a huge help. It also has a good amount of sugar, which is good during a race. For most of the race I stayed away from the water/Gatorade stops, but after mile 20, I grabbed a water after each mile to stay hydrated. After, I pretty much ate anything and everything in sight. They had a great spread for the finishers but I stuck mostly to granola bars and chocolate milk.
NL: Be honest, what is more of an honor, qualifying for the Boston Marathon or being named The News-Letter's Athlete of ºthe Week?
CH: I think the Boston Marathon, no offense.
NL: Is there anything you would like to tell your fans and supporters.
CH: You can do anything you set your mind to. If you want to run a marathon, go out and do it; anything is possible when you believe that you can.
NL: Thank you very much and best of luck with everything in the future.
CH: Thanks for having me and go Blue Jays!
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