Excitement, confidence and enthusiasm are three attributes that you could use to describe Laura Thweatt’s mentality headed into the Boston Marathon.
The talented veteran marathoner is taking on the challenge of the prestigious race with a cheerful spirit, a newfound perspective and a grateful heart. She’s excited for the opportunity to run free and show why she’s one of the best marathoners in the field, and in the world.
“If I learned anything from my last marathon, I was way too in my head,” she said. “Another reason why I said that I’m going to do a marathon that I’ve never done, is because I have nothing to lose. Never done it, just going to get out there and race. It’s all you can do. I’m hoping that it’ll be good for me to zone out and do what I do best, which is just compete.”
The Boston Marathon course is unique and challenging in its own way, with parts of the course such as Heartbreak Hill that can be tough for any runner. Thweatt believes that her style of racing, in addition to the work that she’s put in leading up to the race will serve her well when it’s time to toe the line.
“Boston from what I can tell is very much a race that suits me as far as what I consider my strengths to be,” she said. “There’s no pacers, it’s a challenging course, you’re competing against the other women in the field than the course itself. I think it favors strength runners, I think it favors people that can grind, it favors those that are incredibly tough. And I consider myself to be all of those, especially when it comes to the marathon. I’ve run well in New York, I ran well in Atlanta. Those are the courses that I think just bring out the best in me. So that was a huge reason I wanted to do Boston.
I’ve wanted to do it for a long time, but the stars never aligned for me to do it. And so this was the year where I was like this is it, this is my marathon. This is what’s going to help me find myself again. So yeah, I’m really pumped to do exactly that. So I’m going in confident. I had a great build, I just had fun with it. I did all my favorite things – I ran lot’s of hills, used Boulder to my advantage. Did all the stuff I love to do, all the things that give me confidence. Threw time out the window, threw paces out the window, went off of effort, which is how I plan to run the race. So I’m excited. I’m in a good place and I just feel it in me. Which is kind of fun to feel that there’s something there, and it’s been a long time since I’ve gone into a marathon feeling that.”
Thweatt didn’t have the race that she’d hoped to have at the Chicago Marathon. She used the support of others to not only help boost her confidence, but to also remind her of what works best for her as runner.
“I work with a sports psychologist, and after Chicago, I was really struggling to see myself in that light,” she said. “I just felt that my last few marathons have been really, really tough and really, really hard. And so the thought of doing another one was almost terrifying. I was just doubting myself if I still had it. So that’s what we’ve been working on since October, me working back to that place of confidence, me working back to the place of realizing that yeah, you’ve had some bad ones, but everyone has bad ones. You can’t do this sport and not have those really tough days. It’s what you do with those tough days and how you shape those to set you up for the success. And not losing yourself in a hard day, but seeing how strong and how tough you really are for surviving the hard day, and then coming back from it. So I think it’s really helped put me back in that place.
And then just getting back to enjoying running. I’ve had fun this block, that was my only goal was just to enjoy it, enjoy the process. And I think through that, my confidence has started to come back because I’m slowly feeling like myself again. Because I’m staying true to who I am and I’m not forcing training in a way, or forcing racing in a way that isn’t me. So that confidence has been slowly building back since October.”
Thweatt said it was important for her to finish and survive the Chicago Marathon because it helped her realize that she was okay, everyone still loved her and that nothing around her changed. That perspective gave her a newfound energy and mindset towards the Boston Marathon.
“I’m going into Boston like I have nothing to lose, I’m going to throw myself in it and I’m just going to go for it and see what happens,” she said. “I think that’s the only way you have breakthroughs and it’s the only way you truly discover what you’re capable of. And I’m ready to find those new limits for myself, and I think Boston is the perfect place for me to do that. So I’m really excited. I feel different, and I think that’s just how I know that I’m ready as I can be for this one.”
