A TCC employee has accomplished two major feats in just a couple of weeks. Elizabeth Eder joined our staff in the Institutional Research Department on February 11, and she set a new Cowtown Marathon record on February 24.
While we’d like to believe that becoming a TCC employee was the inspiration Elizabeth needed to achieve a Cowtown Marathon best, as well as a personal best, we suspect that it was the months of hard work that had more to do with it.
Elizabeth credits a disciplined training regimen and a perfect day where everything fell into place for her time of 2:46.09, breaking the previous women’s record by almost 20 minutes and beating her own personal best by almost 10 minutes.
“I had to change my training quite a bit this time around, and the weather was unbelievable,” she said. “I had a few things going my way [Sunday], which made it really nice, and I had a great support group; so I was very pleased.”
Miles Upon Miles of Preparation
Running every day — sometimes twice a day — rain or shine, averaging more than 80 miles per week, and exceeding 100 miles one week helped Elizabeth reach this important milestone for competitive runners.
” It’s all about time management, and then pulling yourself out of bed when it’s raining, or if it’s cold, and you just gotta do it,” she said.
She was about halfway through the 26-mile run when she realized she had a chance to break the record.
“I was more concerned with hitting a personal goal of mine, and I kind of realized I was heading in that direction,” she said. “After the halfway point I still felt great, and so from there I just kind of let everything go and did my best; and the last half went really well.”
Dreams of Competing on the Olympic Level
If she shaves off three more minutes in a future race, she’ll be eligible to achieve a lifelong goal, competing in the 2016 Olympic trials.
It’s kind of what people equate to running in the Boston [Marathon] or running in the New York [Marathon], and it’s hard to achieve,” she said. “But it’s one of those big, big races that would just be unbelievable to compete in. I don’t care if I finish last place.”
When asked how she even managed to show up to work the day after such a physically grueling challenge, she replied, “I took the elevator, how about that?”
You can read more about the Cowtown Marathon and see a gallery of pictures at Star-Telegram.com.