Why I’m Running: ‘This girl was a fighter, she chose to do the hard things’
Sophie Emond is running in memory of her best friend, Kyla.
In our “Why I’m Running” series, Boston Marathon runners share what’s inspiring them to make the 26.2-mile trek from Hopkinton to Boston. If you’re running the marathon, you can share your #WhyImRunningBoston story here.
Age: 20
From: Berkley
My name is Sophie Emond and I am a 20-year-old college student and avid endurance athlete. This April, I will be running my second marathon, the 127th Boston Marathon, in honor of my best friend Kyla, who passed away after battling a rare form of childhood cancer. Now, I’m not here to candy-coat anything or waste your time with some sappy story asking for money. Instead, I would like to share some of my background and why this race means so much to me, as well as the message behind it.
Flashback to my younger days in middle school. I was always pretty active and found a love for going to the gym with my dad when I was about 10 years old. From cross-country to powerlifting meets, I wasn’t your average soccer player growing up. Then again, neither was what I encountered. When I was 12 years old, I found myself in a very scary scenario; malnourished, restricting my food intake drastically in a very unhealthy way and, in turn, my heart shut down. After being brought to the hospital for an eating disorder treatment, I was admitted for having a heart rate of 30 beats per minute. This is low enough to put anyone in the ICU immediately.
I was in for a world I didn’t even know existed. Mental illnesses are no joke and even though I came through the first time and was able to get back to sports rather soon, the internal battle was far from over. By the time I turned 16, I had been hospitalized over 10 more times, went to two different day programs, lived in two different states for residential programs, and lost out on most of my middle school and high school experience. It wasn’t until I re-found the sport of CrossFit and had the urge to get out of the deadly cycle I was in that I regained my life. There were so many ups and downs, but in the end, I survived.
Right when I thought I had gained my life and found love for a sport I could pour myself into, my best and only friend that checked in on me no matter where I was, Kyla, was diagnosed with cancer. This girl was a fighter, she chose to do the hard things and wanted to live her life. She didn’t want to die, and I know that for a fact. In the end, two years later, her body physically could not. She didn’t get to choose, but she didn’t give up. Simply God had another plan for her and took her away from her battle.
After her passing, I used this motivation to fuel me. I knew that I too, could “do hard things” but never to the same extent that she did. In every run, every workout, I can choose my “hard.” After running cross-country with her when I was healthy growing up, I decided to leave CrossFit and pursue running. I am fortunate enough to have the ability to do online classes for college and train hard to pursue my goals every day. Last year, I took on a new coach, and set the goal to run a sub-3-hour marathon, in my first attempt to run 26.2 miles. In my head, if she could push herself to battle cancer to the point of death, I could push myself to train and run a marathon in under three hours.
Was it going to be hard? Of course, but nothing in comparison. Countless hours, miles ran, recovery swim sessions at the pool, staying healthy, and yes, eating lots of food despite where my background led me. I raced the Indianapolis marathon on Nov. 5 in the elite women’s field. I placed 35th and finished with a time of 2:55:19, an average of 6:42 minutes per mile pace. I got to choose my hard. Every session I knew there was no point in which I could push myself the way Kyla did physically or mentally.
I get to choose my hard, and you can too. It doesn’t have to be running, or food, but literally any way you can get uncomfortable, but have the uncomfortable lead to progressive and positive changes.
Editor’s note: Entry may have been lightly edited for clarity or grammar.
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