Timing had a lot to do with it. When Angela Stanford realized that she would not be traveling to Asia last fall, she thought college football season would be a perfect time to train to run a marathon.
“I didn't feel very strong mentally last year,” Stanford said in January when asked what went into that decision. “I felt pretty weak, in general. I thought, you know what, I'm going to figure out how to beat this. I have to be stronger mentally out here, and I guess the best way to do that is to train for something.”
Last Sunday, with the training complete and the goal set, a smiling major champion crossed the finish line after completing 26.2 miles at the Los Angeles Marathon. In the process, she raised just north of $12,500 for the Angela Stanford Foundation after having only begun fundraising in the final week before the race.
“At first, I didn’t want to put (the fundraising component) out there because if I couldn’t complete the training, if I couldn’t complete the race, I didn’t want that (financial commitment) to be out there,” Stanford told LPGA.com. “But as it got closer and I knew I was going to do it, we decided to go ahead (with the foundation tie-in). In the short time we had (the word about the donations) out there, it got more (attention) than I could have imagined. We had 55 donors who pledged anywhere between $2 and $100 a mile. It was really cool.”
She posted her marathon journey on Instagram.
Of course, there were apprehensions. “You really do need five months of training,” she said. “When I didn’t qualify for Asia (late in 2019) the door was open. I wasn’t going to play from October through January, so that timing worked out. But (training) also played in a part of me not going to Australia (for the ISPS Handa Vic Open and the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open early in 2020). I knew that if I went to Australia, it was going to cut into an important time in my training.
“I wasn’t going to qualify for Thailand and Singapore (in February). And I knew I couldn’t miss a day (of training) if I wanted to finish.”
She didn’t have shin splints and she never lost a toenail, which happens to a lot of first-time marathoners. Stanford attributed that, in part to, as she said, “(Tour pros) have an advantage because we spend so much time on our feet.” But she also checked in with the LPGA physio team throughout the process.
“Our physical therapy guys were great,” she said. “I checked in with one of our guys at the US Women’s Open in Charleston and he looked at my stride and said, ‘You have no problem training. If anything, your left hip is a little weak so this might help."
The biggest surprise in the process was the lack of surprises. She never “hit the wall,” and said afterward, “someone is going to have to tell me what that is, exactly.” And she didn’t get the euphoria she often heard described.
“I think on mile 15 or so I experienced the runner’s high,” she said. “And I could tell from my training that the first part (of my runs) were always great. The first eight miles were great. I truly enjoyed it. I was like, hey, I might do this again.
“But in all my training, I didn’t really like the long runs. I really liked the first four- to eight miles. I could do that. But the long runs I just didn’t enjoy. So, maybe the runner’s high was what I experienced early.”
She also didn’t have the endorphin rush she expected when she finished. “Everybody I talked to said you’re going to have this high when you cross the finish line,” Stanford said. “For the last mile I could see the finish line, but I didn’t want to look at it until I had to. I was happy when I crossed it, when I knew that I’d done it, but I didn’t really have that high when I finished.”
The high came later when the donations for the kids of the Angela Stanford Foundation were tallied. “There is a sense of accomplishment,” she said. “I just think it’s great what people in a short period of time turned out to do.”
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