"Jess's Why" - Chapter Five

A young veteran in the sport, Jessie Petersen has seen many things her running career: several collegiate cross country seasons, an assistant coaching stint after college, a sub-75 minute half marathon, and a marathon debut at the 2016 Olympic Trials.

“The marathon is the only PR I’m not satisfied with…”

Photo: Molly Malone

Unfinished Business? Perhaps - but her passion seems to run deeper than just settling a score from a 3-year-old PR. There’s a reason why she returned to this distance with a team this time around. Her love of team and camaraderie coupled with her desire to help others seems to draw her to this opportunity. She said it herself: one of the reasons why she loved competing in cross country because you feel like you’ve done it for other people. You are running FOR other people.

The girl gang, to Jess, feels very similar to her time at Syracuse. There’s a common goal, there’s friendship, there’s tension as well. She calls it sister workouts, which implies a level of caring for each other that exceeds the little points of discontent. In this model, Jess may be the big sister who has the experience to lead by example and bring everyone up. Whether Jess is leading the 5th rep of mile repeats or tagging us on Instagram when she runs a 7 mile tempo on a treadmill in Vietnam, she does so for the team.

“I hope we all cross the finish line holding hands. That’d be so great”

However, Jess’s knows that this may not be the case. There may be some carnage along the way and the day may look different for many people. She knows that, at 20 miles, it may be an “everybody for themselves” moment. Having earned her way to the Trials before, her emphasis on this training block is simple:

“I kind of don’t want to think about the number too much and just want to train hard and see what happens. It’s going to be fun.

Listen to her whole interview below: