Santry’s ’21 teammates cheer her on at the finish line of the marathon. Photo courtesy of Hamilton College Athletics.
On Saturday, Sep. 12, a member of the women’s rowing team, Pauline Santry ’21, ran a marathon in the area surrounding Hamilton’s campus. Santry decided in May to participate in the 124th Boston Marathon when it had been postponed from April to September but was still scheduled to take place in person as usual. It later became a “virtual marathon,” which the registered runners could complete in any location between Sep. 5 and Sep. 14.
Santry explained, “My dad and I were out on a run one day and he just randomly mentioned he was thinking about running the Boston Marathon. He has run it two times before, and thought this would kind of be his last chance to do it… When he mentioned he was going to do it, I knew I wanted to do it too. I needed something to train for, and especially after my spring rowing season was canceled, I needed something to look forward to.” Santry was part of the women’s varsity 8 that received a bid to the NCAA Division III Women’s Rowing Championships in the spring of 2019 and finished in sixth place. In the team’s shorter fall 2019 season, they finished 1st out of 10 in the Head of the Genesee on Oct. 5 and 4th out of 27 at the Head of the Charles on Oct. 20. Their spring races were planned to take place after a spring break training trip, all of which ended up being canceled.
Santry trained for the marathon throughout the summer: “I followed a plan that involved three runs a week, with the long run on Saturdays, and two days of cross-training. I built up the mileage slowly — my first ‘long run’ was six miles and I eventually reached a 21-mile run right before coming back to campus.” She also described some of the mental and physical challenges of training for such a long race. “I had some relatively shorter runs where I failed and had to stop and walk for a bit, and I thought, ‘wow, I am never going to be able to run a marathon if I can’t even run six miles.’ But then a week later, I would crush a 14-mile run. There are so many external factors that can affect your training one day, so it’s all about trusting your long-term training.” She hopes to run the Boston Marathon again one day on the traditional course and is certain she will pick up running again after graduating this upcoming spring and ending her collegiate rowing career.
Santry’s teammates and friends were there to support her while she ran the 26.2-mile route she created, which started at the top of the hill, went into the town of Clinton, and looped around the larger Kirkland area. Santry said, “Two of them biked behind me and my dad the entire time, and a bunch of others drove around to different points on my course to cheer me on with signs and music. They just kept appearing around every corner, it was so awesome and so motivating.” Only a couple days after running the marathon, Santry started to train with the rowing team again, which involves erging outside and some running as well. For the rest of her senior year, she is looking forward to “spending more time with my teammates, taking advantage of the good weather while we have it, and enjoying my last season of rowing.”