Marisa Howard can't quite remember how she made the biggest move of her career in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase final at the U.S. Olympic Trials on June 27 in Eugene, Oregon.
She's probably just guessing.
“I don't even remember making a conscious decision to move,” she said recently.
But looking back, Howard said she remembers the finish line and the clock. “I was in great shape,” she said. “I knew I could run in the 9:10 range, but it was just a matter of putting it together on the day.”
So maybe instinct takes over sometimes, especially in this case when Howard surged into the lead on the bell lap of the 3-kilometer steeplechase final at the Olympic Trials.
And perhaps the 31-year-old Howard, who won silver for the United States in the 3-kilometer steeplechase at the 2019 Pan American Games, qualified for the Paris Olympics after finishing the race of his life in a personal best of 9 minutes, 7.14 seconds, a time that is currently the eighth-best in the world.
Her performance was 15 seconds faster than her previous personal best of 9 minutes 22.69 seconds.
“My husband and I coach high school athletes, and we talk a lot about getting into a flow state during races,” Howard says. “You don't even think about it. You just react, and you let your body do what it needs to do. And I think that's what happened on that last lap.”
For Howard, a Boise, Idaho, resident and mother of a young child, the finish was a vindication for her after being largely unsponsored since 2017. Her first pro contract, with women's clothing brand Oiselle, began in 2015 and ended two years later.
The result also validated the efforts she has made on her own, without the long-term, consistent support of a professional brand. Under the tutelage of Boise State coach Pat McCully, who has coached her since 2016, Howard has kept things simple and on track. She trains in Boise, occasionally climbing to the 7,582-foot Bogus Basin for extra altitude. As a result of these efforts, Howard has made multiple U.S. teams, though none as big as the Olympic team.
She averaged about 50 miles per week during her training, plus some cross-training. Though she was recruited by Tracksmith just before the U.S. Olympic Trials, Howard realized long ago that a pro contract wasn't going to define her.
“I am more than a runner,” she says. “I think being a mother has taught me that besides being a mother, I find my identity in Christ. In my mind, I am a Christian first, a wife second, a mother second, and a runner.”
During her training in Boise and her time as a coach at Rocky Mountain High School in Meridian, Idaho, alongside her husband, Jeff Howard, also a teacher, she came to understand some core competencies in life: You can only control what you can control.
“My husband and I coach high school athletes, and we talk a lot about getting into a flow state during a race. You don't even think about it. You just react. And you let your body do what it needs to do. And I think that's what happened on that last lap.”
Just a few weeks before the Olympic Trials, she disappeared from social media shortly after finishing fourth in the 3km steeplechase at the Portland Track Festival.
“It may sound cliché, but I read my Bible more, prayed more, and focused on what I could control, not what other people were doing. I knew I was putting in the physical effort.”
That focus, she said, helped her perform well when the biggest race of her life came around.
“I think I stayed focused and made a lot of the right decisions,” she said, “and obviously it paid off.”
The most notable of these was his move immediately after the bell, when Howard rose to the lead, then fought off a challenge to move up to fourth, before finding a way to finish third.
“I think that decided the race for me,” she said. “I think that last lap really focused me and started to drag the race out a little bit. The four of us started to get away. So I think it was the best decision I could have made in that moment. I don't even remember if I made that decision. I just reacted.”
Howard leaves for Paris on July 28, and from there she said her goal is simple.
“Win or lose, I get to glorify the Lord on the biggest stage,” she said.
When is the Paris 2024 Olympics?
The Olympics will begin on July 26 and end on August 11. Track and field events will begin on August 1.
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