The Hansons-Brooks Original Distance Project has produced great talent throughout the years. One of the talented athletes who currently runs with the prestigious group is Anne-Marie Blaney.
Blaney was an elite runner in college during her time at the University of Central Florida, setting multiple school records and earning Second-team All-American honors at the 2016 NCAA Outdoor Championships in the 5000m.
As a professional, she’s moved on up from the track to the roads, and she’s bursting onto the scene with elite performances. Her most notable performance took place at the Boston Marathon, where she was the 9th American woman to cross the finish line and was 25th overall.
“This year has been amazing,” she said. “I ran my fastest half marathon, which was a good indicator for the Boston Marathon. And everyone said Boston is so hard, one of the toughest courses, and we previewed it. So I think my expectations for what the course would be like were up here. And I was like, you know what, it’s actually not too bad. But you never know how race day is gonna go. And I think everything played out pretty well. I never really looked at who was racing, I knew there were a lot of heavy hitters in the race. But I was like, I’m just gonna go out there and do my thing, run the pace that I want to, and kind of see what happens and hope that it’s one of those magical days where everything just kind of flows. Because I think that’s what keeps everyone in this sport. And my first few marathons really weren’t that fabulous. So I was like, maybe this one will be the one and yeah, I think I shocked myself a little bit, but I knew my training going into it was pretty good. So I’m pretty excited with how everything turned out.”
Blaney has always had a knack for running long distances. But it was at UCF where she really locked in on the longer events, especially after racing her teammates in one of the shorter outdoor events for fun.
“So I feel like I’ve just always done long distance and been better at it,” she said. “Actually, at UCF, I feel like this just solidified it. I want to say my freshman year, I asked my coach, Coach Brown, if I could run the 100m with my team, and him. I was like, let’s just do it after practice.”
While her coach was hesitant about the lighthearted race, Blaney and her teammates decided to go for it anyway. The results weren’t what she expected, but it served as confirmation for what she was meant to do.
“And we did it for fun, and I came in last. So I was like, you know what, even if I’m playing around with these cross country girls, and I come in last, that can’t be a good sign for anything fast. So I’m definitely more like a metronome when it comes to hitting paces and things like that. And I just, it just plays out better for 10k’s where it’s 25 laps around the track, or marathons where it’s 26 miles, just hitting each pace and clicking them off. So I just feel more comfortable doing that.”
Training in Michigan, where the Hansons-Brooks group is located, is a bit different than training in Florida. That hasn’t been an issue for Blaney, as she’s continued on an upward trend in her running career since her days at UCF. Her ability to quickly adapt and adjust has helped her throughout her career.
“Yeah, so I feel like I am a pretty flexible athlete,” she said. “I always follow basically what my coaches told me to do. I definitely jumped to running six days a week to seven days a week here and up my mileage gradually, which is kind of what I did in college anyways. So I feel like my trajectory is just always kind of gone up. And just PR’d every year – at UCF I PR’d every year. I was like, wow, this is awesome. But then I didn’t know I could run professionally until my last year. And then I was like, you know, there are teams out there, let me see what I can do, and who I can reach out to. And then I ended up moving to Michigan, which training has been a bit easier here as far as weather. Winter is a little bit different. It has its own qualities that make it hard. But I mean, I used to get up at 5-6 a.m. in Florida every day, just to get the runs in. Here, we practice at 8 a.m. and so I’m getting more sleep and things like that.”
Blaney’s remarkable performance at Boston also earned her the qualifier for the Marathon Olympic Trials in Orlando in February of 2024. Being from Central Florida, the possibility of making the team in the city that she accomplished so much in is not lost on Blaney, and it’s something that she’s given thought to.
“Of course, every athlete pictures it,” she said. “I feel like a couple of people were a little bit upset that it was going to be in Orlando. But for me, that is so exciting because I do have that home feel. It will be family and college there. UCF is one of the biggest Universities ever, so if there’s even just a few Knight fans that were around when I was running or not, it’s just going to be so great to see all the connections there. I think I would be speechless. I don’t think I would know what to do when I crossed the line, especially doing it in Orlando. I just think it would be just insane.”
