Menlo School grad Amanda Foster won't be stopped

She accomplished both this past Sunday. With friends and family physically and emotionally supporting Foster, she ran a self-mapped 26.2 miles around Atherton, Stanford and Menlo Park, clocking in with a time of 3 hours, 15.52 seconds.

“She mapped out a course locally, around her (Menlo Park) neighborhood, near Stanford,” said Jorge Chen, Menlo School cross country, and track and field coach, who helped Foster with her training. “Twenty-six-point-two miles on the dot and she called on her cross country teammates, who helped her with her pacing.”

It was the first marathon the cross country runner had ever run, but long runs are not foreign to Foster, who decided she wanted to run a marathon after being inspired by her marathon-running fifth-grade teacher.

“I’ve always liked long runs. Those have always been by my favorite runs,” said Foster, 18. “But it was definitely new (distance training). I was hitting mileage I had never gone to before. My mileage was 70 (for a week), which is pretty high.”

What started as a senior-class project became a passion project for Foster. She decided in early March that she wanted to qualify for the Boston Marathon and set about training. While she was also planning on running with the Knights’ track team — as a miler and two-mile participant — Foster let Chen know up front that her focus would be on marathon training.

Just a few weeks later, the coronavirus shut down school and with that, after-school sports.

At this point, Foster already had set her resolve to accomplish her goal. Between online classes, she kept up her long-distance training, all while targeting official marathon races she could enter to post a qualifying time.

But the Santa Cruz Marathon in May was canceled because of the pandemic. A Colorado race she had her eye on followed suit in June and her final hope, a race in Seattle, was also scuttled by COVID-19 in July.

With her departure to Vanderbilt University looming this weekend, Foster knew there was no way to qualify for the 2021 Boston Marathon before heading to Nashville to start college.

But there was nothing stopping her from running 26.2 miles and timing herself.

“I put in the work. I was going to run it, no matter what,” Foster said. “I put in so much time and effort. [Running a marathon] was my goal that kept me going through COVID and losing my senior year (of track).

“My training was actually great. It got me through a lot of quarantine. It gave me some purpose to the day. I could focus my energy on running.”

Race day

Having developed running routes as she progressed as a runner over the years, she already had a good base level when it came to drawing up a marathon map.

“I’ve done a lot of runs around my house and a lot of mileage in Atherton, Menlo Park and Stanford,” Foster said. “All the loops started and ended at my house, which was convenient.”

She ran two, 7-mile loops for 14 miles around Atherton. That was followed by an 8-mile run on a Stanford leg, putting her at 22 miles. The final 4.2 miles was run on the streets of Menlo Park.

“To Amanda’s credit, this is her first [marathon],” Chen said. “Usually, people don’t even finish their first attempt.”

Foster started her run at 6:30 a.m. Sunday, but she was hardly alone, as a number of teammates came along for the run to serve as pacers — giving Foster company and encouragement over the next 26.2 miles.

“Going into the race day, I knew the hardest part was already over,” Foster said. “I had already put in countless hours of hard training and I just wanted to enjoy (the run).”

Kamran Murray, a senior at Menlo, took those first few steps alongside Foster and stayed by her side for the next 14 miles. Foster credited Murray for helping her research training methods and helped guide her through the process of preparing for a marathon.

“He helped me a lot,” Foster said. “I told Kamran, ‘Just take me out conservatively.’ But each mile I got faster.”

Katie Aufricht and Cameron Boom took over for miles 13 to 19; Kyra Pretre had miles 19 to 25 and Marisa Castagna helped Foster home, running the final 4.2 miles.

Also along for the ride, literally, was Foster’s best friend — Menlo golfer Gianna Inguagiato who will play at Washington University in St. Louis — who rode a bike during Foster’s entire run.

“The pacers, being my teammates, meant so much to me,” Foster said. “It was just an incredible experience. It was more special than if I did a marathon on my own.”

Foster had determined she needed to average an 8-minute mile to hit the 3:30 qualifying time. Her first mile was 8:15 — the only mile of the run she was over the 8-minute mark. She quickly dropped more than half a minute on her second mile and she was off to the races.

She maintained an average pace of roughly a 7:30-mile for the next 19 miles and she was feeling good.

“I had never run further than 20 miles before the marathon,” Foster said. “Once I hit halfway, I knew I felt good and I knew I had more to give.”

And Foster did not simply limp home. In fact, she finished with a flourish. Over her final 4.2 miles, Foster ran sub 7-minute miles, including a 6:47 for Mile 26.

“Definitely toward the end, it was pretty painful. I’m used to the pain from cross country,” Foster said. “The last four miles, I really went for it.

“I like to finish strong.”

Won’t stop now

Despite posting a qualify time for the Boston Marathon, it doesn’t count. Runners can only qualify out of other officially recognized marathons. But that did not take away from the satisfaction Foster felt at the end.

“I really expected it to be harder than it was. A big part of it was, I had my best friend (Inguagiato) who was biking with me the entire time. I just had so much support,” Foster said. “I would argue it was more enjoyable (with family and friends helping). It was my last race at home, it was on my home turf. … It was a good closure to high school running.”

And despite not officially qualifying for the 2021 Boston Marathon, the dream isn’t over. While she won’t be running for the Vanderbilt cross country team, she will continue running for her own enjoyment, knowing that the Boston Marathon will be there in future years.

“I don’t know (what will happen) with COVID and going to college. My time is definitely going to be different. I don’t know when (officially-sanctioned) marathons will start up again. But now that I know what it takes, I’ll continue to train,” Foster said. “I definitely will be doing another marathon. My goal is still to get to Boston. I know I can. My time in pretty comfortably under 3:30.

“I’ve always liked long running. … I just like the feeling of getting in the zone on long runs.”