In the morning before the Boston Marathon, Alex Aeschliman said she felt nervous and tired. The nerves would subside, but exhaustion followed her through the course to the very end.
In the weeks leading up to the race, Aeschliman battled a case of posterior tibial tendonitis and within the first three miles of the race she was hurting. Surprisingly, it wasn’t her ankle that bothered her, but her left quad:an ache in her IT band that persisted through the finish.
“By mile, probably 15 or so, I started to feel kind of dead,” Aeschliman said. “I was like, ‘I’m ready for this to be over. Where’s the finish line?’”
Energized by the deafening roar of cheers from the crowds, Aeschliman maintained a 6 minute and 45 second mile pace through the notoriously grueling Newton Hills of miles 16-21. She said at several points on the course the cheers were so loud that her Apple Watch notified her of potentially harmful environmental noise levels.
When she reached the finish line, she had depleted the gas in her tank. Despite her injury, she finished with a time of 2:55, just four minutes off her personal record (PR) time.
“I’ve seen videos of people crossing the finish line of the Boston marathon and getting very emotional and crying,” Aeschliman said. “I wanted to have that, but I was just thinking, ‘oh my God, there’s the finish line. I need to get across.’”
Going into the Boston Marathon, Aeschliman planned on running the Eugene Marathon just a week later. She said that after finishing Boston, she felt pretty worn out, but she was confident that a week of rest would get her to the Eugene finish line.
“I like a challenge,” Aeschliman said. “I really wanted to see, ‘can I do this? What are my limits? Is this my limit? Do I have the mental grit to go out there and run this race?’”
She only ran once in the week leading up to marathon two: a three mile “shakeout” jog at a 10:30 pace.
“I honestly could not go any faster than that,” Aeschliman said. Normally, her easy run pace hovers around eight minutes per mile.
On race day, she was able to pick up the pace and finished with a time of 3:14: another Boston Marathon qualifying race in the books. She said there were times on course that her injury nagged at her, but for the most part she felt good. Running for completion rather than time, she was able to relax a bit.
“It was a big difference mentally from Boston. I was actually able to enjoy the course,” Aeschliman said. “I could really look around, read all the signs and get energy from the spectators. I felt like I was actually able to smile at the people around me.”
In her first interview with The Daily Emerald, Aeschliman admitted that she had not told her parents she would be running the Eugene Marathon. On the eve of race day they still didn’t know. Aeschliman texted her dad at 6 a.m. before the marathon asking if he was up, and when he didn’t respond she decided she would just wait until she finished to let him know what she was up to.
“My mom said, ‘I don’t know whether to wring your neck or to give you a hug,’” Aeschliman said. She said her parents worry that she pushes herself too hard, hence keeping them in the dark about her double marathon week.
Moving forward, Aeschliman plans to dial back on her mileage. During her Boston Marathon training block, she was running 70-80 mile weeks with no rest days. She said she thinks she overtrained, and the exertion led to injury.
As she trains for the Portland Marathon in October, Aeschliman plans to incorporate a rest day and stagger her mileage to reduce the stress on her body. For the next few months, she will focus on recovery, but as she enters her new training block she will be chasing some pretty big goals: a PR, a sub 2:50 race and ultimately, to win. Last year at the Portland Marathon, she came in second place.
Aeschliman has been offered a bib for the 2026 Boston Marathon, but she said she wants to try out a different race. Next spring, she would like to run the Vancouver Marathon, but she plans on returning to Boston within the next few years.
“My favorite part about Boston is there’s such a feeling of celebration and solidarity among the runners before and after the race,” Aeschliman said. “I would love to do it again, and I want redemption. I want to feel good on that course.”
As for running two marathons in one week, she said it was a fun challenge, but not one that she will be attempting regularly. For now, she is focused on one race at a time, her eyes fixed on the finish line.
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