Boston resident Molly Seidel qualified for the 2020 Olympics in her first-ever marathon
Molly Seidel ran her first-ever marathon Saturday in Atlanta.
Her next will be at the 2020 Olympics this summer in Tokyo.
Seidel placed second in the U.S. Olympic marathon trials, becoming one of three American women to punch a ticket to Japan. The 25-year-old Wisconsin native finished with a time of 2:27:31, behind only Aliphine Tuliamuk, another soon-to-be first-time Olympian. Seidel congratulated her teammate via Instagram Tuesday.
“You’ve showed me an indomitable spirit can do anything,” she wrote. “I wouldn’t have made this team without your strength and support those final six miles. You deserve every second of this joy.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/B9Rf07fnKX6/
For Seidel, Saturday’s results fulfill a lifelong goal.
“Ever since I was a little kid, this was the only thing I dreamed about doing,” she said during an interview that aired on “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” Monday. “To be able to say, ‘Yes, I’m an American athlete,’ that’s the highest honor, I think, an athlete can have.”
Seidel lives with her younger sister in Boston, where she works two jobs as a babysitter and barista in order to pursue running. Heading into her first marathon, her expectations weren’t high. She just wanted to have a good race. An All-American cross country runner at Notre Dame, Seidel is an experienced — and accomplished — runner, but has battled injuries, anxiety, and an eating disorder over the course of his career.
“I kind of self-destructed even before I got to the line at the Olympic trials,” she said. “Going in, I was like, ‘I want to go out and try and run well for my first marathon.'”
That she did.
https://twitter.com/NBCOlympics/status/1233842340999106562?s=20
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