Sacramento, Calif. — On Sunday, December 3, 2023, four FHU runners competed in the 2023 NAIA Marathon Championship. Senior
Madison Grant finished the 26.2 mile race in fourth place in the women's division with a time of 3:03:54. Sophomore
Megan Lampley finished in fifteenth place in 3:23:06. For the men, senior
Nathan Mangrum finished in twentieth place in 2:40:56, and senior
Evan Kimes finished in 46th place in 3:08:36.
For Grant, the marathon came just sixteen days after competing in the NAIA cross country national championships in Vancouver, Washington. Regarding her fourth place marathon finish, Grant stated, "I couldn't've imagined a better last race for my time at Freed. I didn't quite know what to expect, given I was running off of 6K fitness [referring to the cross country race distance of 6,000 meters], but I'm very happy with my time and satisfied with how the race panned out. Getting to run the CIM [California International Marathon] with my teammates was such a great experience!"
The finish times of Grant, Lampley, and Mangrum qualify them for the Boston Marathon and other major world marathons. Grant and Kimes will graduate on December 15, so this race marks their final race in an FHU uniform.
After the race, Mangrum offered his opinion of his experience: "It's always an honor to get to represent FHU at the national level. I'm very thankful for Coach Spradlin and the rest of the group that went. The race went well for the most part. It wasn't the exact result that I was hoping for, but I can't complain about a new school record and hitting the BQ [Boston Marathon qualifying time]. This was definitely a new challenge, and the marathon distance was a lot harder than I anticipated, so I was having to make adjustments to the race strategy as I was going."
Kimes expressed similar sentiments: "It was a great experience, last race for me. I'm thankful for the opportunities I've had during my time at Freed. The race was much more difficult than I expected, but finishing was rewarding."
The 2023 marathon championship marks the first time that the NAIA has held the marathon in its current format. The race was held in conjunction with the California International Marathon (CIM), a large marathon that had its fortieth running this year. Over 9,200 runners ran in this year's CIM.
At the start of the race, the first corral, or the group in front at the start line, were national and international elite runners, many of whom were attempting to qualify for the US Olympic Marathon Trials to be held in February in Orlando to determine the three men and three women who will represent the USA in the marathon at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Behind the elite runners at the start line, in the second corral, were the 100 NAIA runners who qualified for the race. To qualify, runners had to average at least 40 miles of running per week for the sixteen weeks leading up to the cross country conference championship weekend, when entries for the marathon were due. They also had to complete two two-hour runs, submitting the distance and pace of the two-hour run to the NAIA selection committee. Runners were ranked according to the average pace of their two two-hour runs. The NAIA had arranged with the CIM to have 100 runners in the race.
Following the NAIA runners at the start line, the rest of the 9,000+ runners were corralled according to projected finish times. As all CIM runners finished the race, the results of the NAIA runners were compiled in a separate category to determine the collegiate male and female champions.
The Mid-South Conference was well represented in the final standings. The women's champion runs for Cumberland, and with the other two Cumberland women, along with Grant and Lampley, the MSC put five women in the top 23 spots. The Cumberland women finished in second place in the women's team competition. Three runners were required to compete as a team, so FHU did not have a team score. On the men's side, Campbellsville finished in second in the men's team category, losing in a tiebreaker to Point Park. Mangrum and two Campbellsville men gave the MSC three men in the top twenty individual finishers.
In past years, the marathon was held as an event at the NAIA Outdoor Track and Field National Championships. For logistical and safety reasons, that ended after the 2022 national championships, and the new format of running it in conjunction with the CIM was put in place.
The marathon is no longer an event for outdoor track and field. It is currently a special event, and, if all goes according to plan, will become an NAIA emerging sport (as women's flag football currently is) and then become a full-fledged NAIA sport.
FHU has had a somewhat truncated history with the NAIA marathon championships. In 2019, Tyler Alverson qualified for and competed in the marathon at the outdoor track and field championships in Gulf Shores, Alabama, finishing in sixteenth place. He qualified again in 2020, just before the outbreak of the Covid pandemic. However, along with all other NAIA spring sports, the track and field championships were canceled in 2020.
Two years later, Grant, Mangrum, and
Matthew Ray qualified for the NAIA 2022 track marathon championships, but because of concerns for athlete safety due to the high heat and humidity of Gulf Shores in late May, the decision was made to race a half-marathon instead of a full marathon. Freed's three runners did well in the half, with Mangrum finishing in tenth place. With the 2023 CIM, FHU runners were back to being able to compete in a national championship at the full marathon distance.
As for his thoughts on the performances of his runners, Coach Spradlin had this to say: "All four of them were well prepared, and I had confidence that they could do well. They're all smart runners, and they really worked hard this semester to prepare for this. Lots and lots of miles. The 'trial of miles and miles of trials' as John Parker puts it. But being the first marathon for each of them, you just never know what could go wrong out there. It's asking a lot of the body and mind to race a marathon, not just run it, which is hard enough, but to race it. And they did. Each of them did great, and I'm proud of each of them. I knew Madison was capable of a big finish, but with cross championships just two weeks ago, and two west coast trips in two weeks, I was hoping that her body would hold up. And she ended up doing what she tends to do, which is to get out there and tear it up. Coming in fourth at nationals is a wonderful way for her to finish up her incredible running career here at Freed. And for her and Megan to negative split the race was just phenomenal [to run the second half of the race faster than the first half]. Megan is only a sophomore, so I'm excited to see what she can do in the next couple of years. Nathan ran a strong race. Really looked good out there for most of the race, real steady. He struggled in the last 5K yet still had a good finish time and finish place. Evan did well, too, finishing out his FHU running career with a cross country PR about six weeks ago and then competing in a national championship marathon. For me, it's a blessing to be part of something like this, to encourage and help prepare them to undertake something that tests them physically and mentally in such an enormous way. And for each of them to meet the challenge and succeed, it's simply a privilege to be their coach."
