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As Dakotah Lindwurm raced towards the end on the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon on February 3, her proud faculty coach cried in entrance of his TV in Montana. Her skilled coach was on-site in Orlando, Florida, watching a livestream on his cellphone whereas driving his bike on the surface of the course, hammering “refresh” on the outcomes web page so furiously that he hit a curb, the cellphone escaped, smashed on the bottom, and broke. Close to the end, her personal father fainted.
Lindwurm had simply completed third in two hours, 25 minutes, and 31 seconds and earned a spot on Workforce USA for the Paris Olympics, together with winner Fiona O’Keeffe and runner-up Emily Sisson. An elated Lindwurm jumped into her boyfriend’s arms and the 2 Minnesotans—named Dakotah and Montana— clenched in a celebratory hug.
Whereas some have been shocked on the final result given the gifted area included six runners with sub-2:24 pre-race private bests, Lindwurm, who was the tenth quickest on paper, with a 2:24:40 private finest, wasn’t shocked.
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“I had the build-up of a lifetime,” she stated. “There was by no means a exercise that I appeared again and stated, ‘Oh, I want that one had gone higher.’ They have been all going so significantly better than that they had ever had. I knew it was unlikely that anyone else’s [training] was going considerably higher than mine.”
She had upped her mileage to 130 miles per week—greater than she had ever run previously.
“I beforehand topped out at 120, however for some purpose, one thing actually clicked at 130,” she stated. “I nearly thrive on it, and I used to be in a position to end most of my marathon-specific efforts at 5:15 [minute-per-mile] tempo, fairly comfortably. The whole lot felt actually, actually easy and I used to be going quicker than I had ever run earlier than.”
In consequence, she was supremely assured. “I instructed my dad many instances to get a passport. I instructed my boyfriend there was no means I wasn’t going to make the staff. I instructed my coach to have a look at Paris flights,” she stated.
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She wasn’t being naïve. Lindwurm had already completed 11 marathons—together with the 2020 U.S. Olympic trials, 4 Grandma’s (together with two wins), three Bostons, and one Chicago the place she set her private finest in 2023.
On the Olympic Trials, her technique was “to hold again and be as quiet as doable; be unseen, be unheard. Simply attempt to stick round till no one else is there,” she stated.
It labored—and, Growth!—the 5–foot-1 Lindwurm leaped onto the world stage radiant, telegenic, and energetic—with shiny blue eyes, a glowing smile, a blonde bun, in a pink and gold Puma package.
However the true story, unknown to the general public, was a sequence of life occasions that, frankly, may have extinguished enormous objectives and any ounce of optimism.
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A Powerful Starting
As an solely youngster rising up in St. Francis, Minnesota, a modest city north of the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan space, Lindwurm’s dad and mom divorced when she was 10. They shared custody, and when Dakotah wasn’t together with her father, Shawn, an auto physique technician, she was residing together with her mom, Connie, whose well being was quickly decimated by autoimmune illnesses. The extraordinary flaring ache of her mom’s lupus, Raynaud’s syndrome, and rheumatoid arthritis made it exhausting for her to stroll, no much less work, so when Dakotah was in center faculty, she and her mother have been briefly homeless. They usually spent nights couch-surfing or sleeping in Connie’s automobile. Dakotah didn’t complain. However when her father lastly discovered, he rented a townhouse with separate rooms, supported everybody, and stabilized Dakotah’s life.
In highschool, Dakotah performed ice hockey—she was a goalie—and ran observe. She by no means made it to a state championship in both sport, however obtained two gives to play faculty hockey. She wasn’t . As a substitute, she selected Northern State College, a small NCAA Division II faculty in South Dakota. There, she walked onto the cross nation and observe groups, and majored in biology schooling with a dream of sooner or later instructing highschool science.
When she was a freshman, her faculty coach, Kevin Bjerke, stated he noticed “hints of her grit.” The next summer time, Bjerke inspired his runners to discover a 5K or 10K race to coach for in the summertime.
Whereas looking out on-line, Lindwurm stumbled upon the Eugene Curnow Marathon, a technical point-to-point path marathon from Duluth to Carlton in northern Minnesota. She was intrigued, although she had by no means actually run farther than 10 miles. Bjerke stated a fast and exhausting, “No means,” frightened that she would get harm or burned out. “Why destroy your cross nation season and indoor and out of doors observe season?” he stated. “It’s an excessive amount of.”
Bjerke didn’t assume she was able to pound out 26 miles.
“She positively would have adhered to my needs,” Bjerke stated. “She was essentially the most coachable athlete ever, and truthfully, ate up any coaching I threw at her, her complete faculty profession. However on this level, she was persistent.”
She wore him down. Lastly, he stated, “You’ll be able to run it, however you’ll be able to’t race it.”
“So in fact, she goes and wins the factor,” Bjerke stated. Thrice in a row.
On her first strive, somebody at an assist station instructed her that she was only some minutes behind the feminine chief. So Lindwurm made it a race. “As soon as I gained one,” she stated, “I used to be like, ‘I gotta go once more!’”
At all times decided to maintain enhancing, Dakotah returned every of the next summers and elevated her margin of victory every time.
Believing in Herself
One other turning level, Bjerke stated, was when Lindwurm certified for the Drake Relays within the 10,000 meters as a sophomore. Then at Drake, she ran a two-minute PR (35:38.72) to qualify for her first NCAA Division II out of doors observe nationwide championships.
She proved to herself, “‘Holy cow! I can do that!’” Bjerke stated. “That’s once I actually seen a shift. I discovered: she’s gonna go for folks’s throats each time she goes out.”
Lindwurm was adapting effectively to the gradual improve in coaching quantity, and the farther she ran, the higher she gave the impression to be.
“I may outrun the boys in lengthy runs,” she stated. “I may push the tempo even in opposition to our greatest man runners. I may do like 6-minute to six:15 miles for 16 miles and never end being exhausted.”
However working was by no means the profession plan.
That’s, till the ultimate months of school within the winter of 2017, when she helped Bjerke give a campus tour to a potential athlete. The scholar’s dad and mom requested Lindwurm about her personal working future. She instructed them what she assumed they needed to listen to and casually stated, “We’ll see. I’ll in all probability run a marathon in some unspecified time in the future.”
Bjerke’s response? “You may positively qualify for the U.S. Olympic Trials.”
The 2020 Olympics in Tokyo have been greater than two and a half years away and Atlanta hadn’t but been introduced because the host metropolis for the race. The minimal ladies’s qualifying customary was 2:45:00 (or 6:17 per mile), however Bjerke knew that was slower than lots of her lengthy coaching runs.
Simply as she had been with the path marathon in 2014, Lindwurm wasn’t intimidated. She was intrigued.
“What do you imply?” she requested. The subsequent day, she went to Bjerke’s workplace with a pen and paper and stated, “Inform me every thing I must find out about this.”
Lindwurm was intent on making it occur and was prepared to extend her coaching and take her working to the subsequent stage. To search out coaching companions she started emailing Chris Lundstrom, the coach of the Minnesota Distance Elite staff and a 3 -time U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier who positioned sixth within the 2007 Pan American Video games in Rio de Janeiro. He didn’t know a lot about her—apart from she had been a two-time Division II All-American in faculty—however he invited her to hitch a exercise in Minneapolis the subsequent time she was on the town.
When she first arrived, Lundstrom recalled, “She appeared extraordinarily assured.” Lindwurm reviews now that she was terrified and intimidated, however in the course of the warmup, she went to the entrance and picked up the tempo. “She was on the market pushing the tempo on day one,” he stated. “Subsequent factor I knew, I used to be like, ‘I’d be glad to teach you.’”
“She’s like, ‘I’m coming! I’m going to complete my pupil instructing and I’ll be there!’” Lundstrom stated. “She was positively all-in from the get-go.”
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Turning Professional
After ending faculty and becoming a member of the Minnesota Distance Elite, she ran her first main post-collegiate professional-level race on the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon in Duluth in the summertime of 2018. She completed thirteenth in a decent 1:16:16 (5:49 per mile) debut on the distance and, on the premise of that race, Lundstrom formally added her to the staff. The cardio piece was “clearly not holding her again,” Lundstrom recalled, “however she didn’t have a whole lot of velocity or muscular energy.”
In December 2018, Lindwurm ran her first highway marathon, the California Worldwide Marathon in Sacramento, which doubled because the U.S. marathon championships She was match and curious to see how she’d be capable to compete with a few of the prime ladies within the nation on a quick internet downhill course notable for producing private finest instances and Olympic Trials qualifiers.
It didn’t go effectively. Lindwurm dropped out at mile 18 and was discouraged. She phoned her mother and stated, “I believe that is it. I don’t assume I used to be made for this.’”
Her mother, who knew about persistence, disagreed.
“She was like: ‘You’re gonna get on one other beginning line,’” Lindwurm recalled. “’You’re going to strive once more. This was such a studying alternative. If you happen to strive once more, who is aware of?’”
Six months later, Lindwurm ran Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth and never solely completed fourth in 2:34:02, however she hit the usual for the 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials. She was effectively below the two:45 “B” customary but additionally below the two:37:00 “A” customary, which might permit her to get her lodging lined in Atlanta. Her mom, regardless of her debilitating diseases, was ready on the end.
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“She simply had a lot perception in me,” Lindwurm says. “I believe that’s the place I get this craziness inside the place I really feel like I can do something or obtain something, as a result of she by no means gave me the phrase ‘by no means.’ She all the time noticed the very best in me and she or he’d all the time be telling me, ‘I don’t know what you’re going to do on this planet—in the event you’re going to run, be a super-successful physician that cures most cancers, or run an enormous enterprise—however you’re going to do one thing actually superb.’ I really feel like she knew that I might be actually nice at this if I attempted. She wasn’t going to let me simply quit after one shot.”
Lindwurm continued progressing below Lundstrom and her instances saved dropping. Simply 10 months after her failure to complete in Sacramento, she entered the 2019 Twin-Cities Marathon and took the lead within the ladies’s race. She held it till about mile 23, in the end settling for second place in a brand new private finest of two:32:49, a time that put her among the many prime 30 qualifiers on the beginning line of the U.S. Olympic Trials in Atlanta.
Atlanta was her first style of the big-time, as the sector included a number of sub-2:25 runners, together with Jordan Hasay, Sara Corridor, Laura Thweatt, Emily Sisson, and Kellyn Taylor. She additionally needed to cope with Julia Kohnen, who had overtaken Lindwurm within the Twin-Cities race and went on to win by 80 seconds.
On a cool, windy day on a really hilly course, Lindwurm greater than held her personal. She completed thirty sixth (out of practically 400 ladies) in 2:39:08 and was the highest finisher amongst a number of more-experienced runners from Minnesota Distance Elite.
As soon as once more, Lindwurm’s mom summoned the energy to fulfill her on the end—for the final time. Three months later, Connie Bullen died of metastatic lung most cancers at age 49.
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Rising to the Problem
Contemplating how far Lindwurm has come as a marathoner over the previous 4 years, it’s clear that Connie’s prophecy lives on.
Now 29, and an expert runner for Puma since early 2022, Lindwurm’s progress has been constant all through this Olympic cycle. She gained Grandma’s Marathon in 2021—slightly greater than a 12 months after her mother handed away—in a brand new private finest of two:29:04. After top-15 finishes within the Boston Marathon within the fall of 2021 and the spring of 2022, she gained Grandma’s once more, this time in a breakthrough 2:25:01 efficiency.
In 2023, she was second at Grandma’s however she ran even quicker within the Chicago Marathon that fall, reducing her private finest to 2:24:40—the seventh-fastest time by an American lady that 12 months. That gave her the increase to enter the Olympic Trials figuring out she may vie for a spot in Paris.
Lindwurm may actually do one thing particular on August 11 in France. After February’s Olympic Trials, Puma flew her to Europe for the primary time in her life so she may scout the Olympic marathon course, which is notoriously hilly within the center 10 miles.
“I’m really-excited about it,” Lindwurm stated. She thinks the race may unfold like on the Tokyo Video games, the place American Molly Seidel pulled off a bronze-medal efficiency on an exceptionally scorching day that obliterated the sector.
“Once I take a look at the sector, a few of these ladies can run 10-plus minutes quicker than I can, however they probably gained’t on one of these course,” she stated. “It’s going to be a great day for an underdog.”
So on Could 1, Lindwurm took a depart of absence from her paralegal job to coach full time. In early June, she was in New York Metropolis to run the Mini 10K, a historic race solely for girls.
“I appear to have my finest marathons once I spend slightly time on velocity early within the construct,” she defined, and the Mini made “excellent sense as a result of I’m compelled to coach for 10K velocity, which is one among my weaknesses. It match [into] the puzzle rather well.”
In the long run, she positioned eighth in a brand new private better of 31:58, thanks partially to an enormous first-half 5K PR with a 15:45 break up. “I really feel like my velocity is unquestionably there,” she stated in Central Park afterwards. “We dropped some 5-minute miles which I not often do, so it felt good.”
From there, Lindwurm flew again to Minnesota to ramp again as much as 130 miles per week and grind by way of robust hill exercises to imitate the Paris terrain. Most days, Lindwurm has been working twice a day for about two hours complete, three at most.
She is aware of that in Paris, given the course’s topography and summer time warmth, the massive names with blazing PRs should dig deeper than ever earlier than. It can take a cool head, a metal backbone, and robust legs to do effectively within the closing race of the Olympics. Don’t rely her out.
“I really feel like I’m only a actually, actually exhausting employee,” she stated. “I believe it comes from my entire household—simply essentially the most superb examples. Watching my dad my entire life, get up daily and irrespective of if he’s doing his job or one thing round the home, even dishes—he does every thing one hundred pc. He by no means slacks or does something midway. That instance has been completely ingrained in me. Even when I wasn’t a runner—if I used to be a instructor, I’d be doing that to the very best of my capacity.”
