Sara Donahue qualifies for Olympic Trials

Sara Donahue in action at the Tufts 10 km in early October photo by Ted Tyler
2:43:43 personal best!

I got these quotations from Sara Donahue just before she grabbed a red-eye to get back to Boston in time for classes on Monday after her brilliant marathon where she easily qualified for the Olympic Trials at the California International Marathon in Sacramento, CA on Sunday, Dec 2.
"What a fun day. The weather was great through there was a bit of wind
on several of the long straight-aways. There were a lot of women
trying to make the qualifying time and we broke into a few packs at
the start. I met up with a girl from Minneapolis at the start (named
Nicole, not sure her last name or even much of her story!) and we ran
together for 21 miles or so. We worked together really well -- we ran
in a group for about the first 16 miles and then we split off and ran
together for the next 5." [the runner was NICOLE CUENO who ran at Grinnell College and placed 2nd in 2:42:03]

Katie Wasilenko, Sara's brother and others provided partisan cheers along the way that bolstered Sara's spirits


"We were trying to go around 6:18 pace but the
splits were in a pretty big range. We heard we were in 6/7th
place around mile 17 which was exciting. Nicole kept picking up the
pace, and she zoomed off at about mile 21."


Last year Sara ran 2:51:56 while she attended grad school in Seattle. She is now back in Boston working on a doctorate in public health.

6 SARA DONAHUE 27 01:22:20 02:43:43 06:14

Also former GBTC member, Mega Doshi, who is in grad school in California ran a big personal best, of 2:52:35.