Prior to Saturday, Lauren Hagans had never run a marathon.
Then came Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota, which turned out to be a major success for Hagans. She won the event, running a lifetime best of 2:25.55. Her time was also a qualifying time for the 2024 Olympic Marathon Trials in Orlando.
‘I am very happy,” she said in a post-race interview with the Duluth News Tribune. “I’m surprised, but I’m not super shocked just because my team told me if it’s a great day and you’re in it, you could win, but I didn’t actually expect to win. It’s my first marathon, so I thought I would run 2:27-2:28. It got hard, but I was able to maintain the pace and I think I ran 2:25. So I’m really, really happy.”
Hagans trains with NAZ Elite in Flagstaff. Prior to making the move to road racing, Hagans specialized in the 5000m, 10000m and the 1500m. She’s a member of the Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame.
Dakotah Lindwurm finished as the runner-up in the race with her time of 2:26:56 after leading for the first 20 miles of the race.
