When Perry Shoemaker crossed the finish line of the Eugene Marathon in 2:43:33, qualifying for the 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials, it was the realization of a dream she had pondered as a possibility since 2015.

She had kept the goal quiet, sharing it only with those closest to her. She’s a runner, a mom, and a preschool teacher, and, well, she’s realistic. Sometimes things go according to plan. Other times they don’t, and that’s okay, too.

Plus, she’s 48 years old, and she didn’t know how many chances she had left. For her to run the sub-2:45 she needed? Everything would have to be perfect on race day: the weather, the course, and her training. She’d have to hit the workouts she needed and stay healthy doing it.

“My previous PR for marathon was 2:51:48 at Marine Corps,” Shoemaker told Runner’s World. “That was quite a drop I had to make. All of my stats pointed to the fact that I could do this. It was a matter of having the right temperature, the right course, the right day, the right training, and no injuries.”

She can be forgiven for doubting it would all come together on one day.

There were, however, four people who weren’t skeptical at all: Shoemaker’s husband, Jon, and their three daughters, Abigail, 20, Rachel, 18, and Amelia, 11. They knew she could do it. They had complete faith.

Shoemaker’s journey to Olympic Trials qualifier started back in about 2011, when the family moved from Pittsburgh to their current home in Vienna, Virginia, about 35 miles west of Washington, D.C. Although she had always loved running, and she fit in about 20 to 30 miles per week to stay in shape, she did most of her runs pushing a jogging stroller and holding a dog on a leash.

Only when her older two daughters were starting to get into competitive running did she think about racing herself. She was frequently at their cross-country and track meets and thought maybe she could race, too. Her oldest encouraged her to apply for the racing team sponsored by the local Potomac River Running store.

She did, and soon she was getting free entry into local races—and quickly improving. Jon remembers standing on the side of the road to cheer for her at a local 10-miler and expecting her to finish in about 68 minutes. He and the girls got to their spot at the 8-mile mark, thinking they had a few minutes to wait until Perry ran by.

Instead, his youngest, then 3, started hitting him on the side of the leg: “There’s Mom,” she told him, insistently banging on his knee until he looked up. “She was right,” he said. “Here comes Perry, blasting by in 62- or 63-minute pace [for 10 miles] and blowing away her time.” That was the first time he remembers thinking to himself, Maybe she’s got some talent.

Over the years, she got better and better. She thought she might be able to get to the Trials with a half marathon time. In 2016, the half marathon standard was 1:15, and she ran 1:16:01 in November 2015.

But then USATF tightened the Trials entry standards—now it requires a 1:13 half marathon to get in. That seemed a stretch for her, so Shoemaker decided to pursue the 2:45 marathon time. Jon, who ran in high school, essentially was her coach, designing a training program based on the book Daniels’ Running Formula.



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She encountered frequent injuries, all the typical ones that plague runners: plantar fasciitis, IT band syndrome, a torn soleus muscle. She’d cross-train on her spin bike, the elliptical, or by aqua jogging. She usually recovered quickly.

Through the early part of 2019, she was healthy and training well, maxing out at 70 miles with one full day off per week. One morning her husband asked her, “Perry, what would you think if we got a professional coach for you?” She never had thought about it before. “I was like, ‘Well, okay,’” she said.

“Good,” he replied, “because I already contacted Stephanie Bruce.”

Bruce, who won the recent U.S. half marathon championships, had emailed Jon back and said her husband, Ben Bruce, would be a better fit, because he already had experience coaching runners with jobs and children who don’t have massive amounts of free time to run 100 miles per week. Jon showed his wife the email exchange, and she agreed to the coach.

Jon’s motivation was twofold: He wanted to make sure there wasn’t something obvious he was missing in designing his wife’s training. “[There might be] things real experts know that I’m unaware of,” he said. “You can’t just keep letting years go by and down the road we would regret not doing that if we had only known.”

Second, he thought a professional coach would give Perry a last boost of confidence. “She doesn’t lack confidence,” he said of his wife. “Mine was higher than hers. I wanted to be sure someone else would tell her, ‘Oh yeah, you can do this.’”

Ben Bruce looked at her training, reassured Shoemaker that her goals were realistic, and encouraged her to try the Eugene Marathon on April 28—which was only six weeks away. It meant less time for her to get hurt during her buildup. He made a few tweaks to her long runs and track workouts and spoke to her the day before the race to ease her nerves.

Race day could not have been more perfect. Temperatures were 38 degrees at the start and about 50 at the finish. The course had only one hill to speak of. Race organizers had hired pacers to lead several women who were attempting the sub-2:45 times and set up three elite fluid stations for them.

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Jon ran around the course and spotted his wife at least seven times, texting his daughters—one in college in Chicago and the younger two at home in Virginia—and a few close friends with updates. At 20 miles, he reported that she looked strong and was easily keeping up the 6:15 per mile pace she needed. He cut back toward the finish in time to see her cross the line in third place. In addition to being a Trials qualifier, her time was a PR by 8 minutes. More texts went flying. Their daughters “came apart with excitement,” Jon said.

At 48, she’s the second-oldest woman thus far in the already crowded field of 302 female qualifiers. Molly Friel, 50, is the oldest, but she has already run at the Trials twice previously.

Shoemaker’s progress at this age has brought with it a beautiful, unexpected gift. So many top runners have their best athletic days in college or in their 20s, before they have spouses and children. For Shoemaker, the opposite has been true: She’s gotten better as she’s gotten older, and her kids, all runners, can understand and appreciate what she’s doing.

“They watched her remake who she was in front of them,” Jon said. “That’s pretty neat. They’re supportive, and they get to see their mom accomplish something in her adult life while they’re watching.”

The 5 a.m. wakeup calls, the missed vacations, the hours of physical therapy were all with the blessing of her family—and worth it in the end. “I think he almost had a stronger belief in my ability to do this than I did at times,” Shoemaker said of Jon. “I couldn’t do any of this without my husband’s support and my daughters’ support through the whole thing. Their belief in me? It’s been great.”

Sarah Lorge Butler Sarah Lorge Butler is a writer and editor living in Eugene, Oregon, and her stories about the sport, its trends, and fascinating individuals have appeared in Runner’s World since 2005.

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