It wasn’t until the final blocks of the California International Marathon in December, when she heard her husband, Michael, screaming from a corner—You’re going to do it!—that Molly Friel fully believed she was about to qualify for the 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials.

After all, she had a few things working against her. She had been training through some high hamstring pain, which had curtailed a few of her workouts.

And she’s 50—quite a few years beyond what’s considered a marathoner’s prime.

With her run, Friel, who lives in Fresno, California, becomes the second-oldest woman ever to qualify for the marathon trials. (The oldest, Sister Marion Irvine, was 54 when she earned a spot at the 1984 Olympic Trials, but back then the qualifying standard was more than six minutes slower than the 2:45 it is today.)

How remarkable is Friel’s achievement? A few stats show it: She finished in 2:43:57, well under the time she needed. She averaged 6:15 pace for the 26.2 miles. And she did those miles evenly—slowing only 9 seconds on the back half after a first-half split of 1:21:54.

“She’s got grit, you know?” said Ian Torrence, Friel’s coach for the past five years. “She knows how to push through the pain.”

Ask Friel how she did it, and she’s blunt about what works—and doesn’t work—for her.

  • Her training is based on a lot of miles. Mostly in single sessions, but she sometimes doubles back for an extra 3 miles in the afternoon. Her mileage ranged from 90—100 per week throughout her buildup to CIM, but Torrence says every third or fourth week, he cut her back to 60 or 70 miles. Her longest long run was 24 miles.
     
  • She doesn’t feel old, but she feels old-school. “I’m horrible at stretching,” Friel said. “I can’t really stand to stretch.” Sometimes she finds herself doing the 1980s high school gym class standby, touch your toes, reach to the left, reach to the right. No cross-training, either.  “I did some TRX two weeks ago and could barely move for like a week,” she said.
     
  • Hard days aren’t set in stone on the calendar. Torrence said when her hamstring was bothering her, and he’d give her an extra easy day between quality sessions. “Just moving things around and being flexible [about timing] goes a long way to adding to your lifespan as a runner,” he said.
     
  • Her nutrition is suspect. If her husband isn’t around, she’ll eat cereal for dinner. “I eat a lot of crap,” she said. “I like junk food. I like candy. I like cookies.”
     
  • She has human training partners—and canines as well. One of her three dogs, Flynn, can run up to 14 miles at a time. Another, Buster, is good for about five. The third, Pogi, stays home. “The easy runs are supposed to be easy; they should be enjoyable,” Torrence said. “The only way you’re going to get through a marathon cycle like that is to enjoy your running. For Molly, that’s running with her pups.”
     
  • She skips the rat race. Friel works 20 hours per week as a legal secretary. She doesn’t get up at the crack of dawn to train unless she has to. She’s never been to the Boston Marathon—she has no interest in the travel and bus to the start that’s required. 
     
  • She still gets nervous for races. “I get pretty worked up,” she said. “That hasn’t changed. I’ve been like that since I was 20.” The night before a race, she finds herself thinking, Why are you doing this to yourself again?
     
  • The joy is in the preparation. All those miles, all those workouts? She digs it. “I love the training,” she said. “I love the process more than the end result.”
     
  • She trusts her coach. Said Torrence: “It’s really cool for a coach to put together a plan, and have the athlete follow the plan and work with you on the plan—and not against you. Molly is one of my less complicated athletes. She knows how to take care of herself. I just point the bus in the right direction, and she drives it.”

On race day, Torrence’s instructions were nothing special. Stick with the 2:45 pace group, which was full of women trying to qualify for the trials. Run an even pace—she did. When she saw her time, she said, she was “ecstatic.”

Come Monday, however, at the law office, it was back to the usual. Her boss has only the vaguest sense of what her running entails—and the history she had just made. “Didn’t you have a race this weekend?” he asked her.

“Oh yeah, I had a race in Sacramento,” Friel said. 

“Oh, you must have run along the American River Trail,” he replied.

“Well, no, it ran from Auburn down to the Capitol.”

“Are you sure that’s 26 miles?” her boss asked.

“Well, actually, it’s 26.2,” Friel said.

“Are you sure?” the lawyer pushed back.

“Yeah,” Friel said. “Yeah. I’m sure.”

Lettermark
Sarah Lorge Butler

Sarah Lorge Butler is a writer and editor living in Eugene, Oregon, and her stories about the sport, its trends, and fascinating individuals have appeared in Runner’s World since 2005. She is the author of two popular fitness books, Run Your Butt Off! and Walk Your Butt Off!