Race swag with bibb, shirt, and of course medal. This is the story of Colette, her goals, the challenges she overcame, and Coach Lee’s support of the 2026 Milwaukee Marathon.

Introduction

Most runners probably never realize that when they contact a running coach to discuss the coach’s services that the coach is simultaneously interviewing the runner attempting to determine if this will be a mutually beneficial arraignment. This post is about a call I received in mid-December last year from a potential running client named Colette. It’s also about her journey to run the Milwaukee Marathon (April 11, 2026), her goal to qualify for the Boston Marathon, and the circumstances she overcame.

Colette outlined her ambitious goal to qualify for the 2027 Boston Marathon. Simultaneously, I was assessing whether or not her goal was realistic or would this be a relationship consisting of tension, dissatisfaction, and huge disappointment. So, what did Colette and I discuss for the next 15 minutes or so that ultimately led to her achieving her dream of qualifying for the 2027 Boston Marathon?

The Interview

Colette was referred to me in Mid-December (2025). We talked on the phone, and I let her outline her goals. She was thinking about hiring a running coach for her next marathon in Milwaukee on April 11. She outlined her recent running background that included two marathons the most recent being in Chicago where she ran her personal best of 3:44. She let me know that her goal was to ultimately qualify to run the Boston Marathon. She understood that she would have to improve over 10 minutes on her personal lifetime best marathon. She had hoped that she might be able to run a BQ (Boston Qualifier) in Milwaukee but also realized that this may be a bit ambitious.

I had many similar mutual interview situations in my career as an architect. In coaching and especially in architecture, one bad experience with the wrong client can ruin a career and business. I relied on my experience and intuition during previous interview situations and did not try to “sell” my services but rather asked insightful questions that helped me to conclude that Colette would in fact be an excellent client regardless of when or if she qualified for Boston.

The key factors favoring Colette included her overall running career dating back to her high school days as a 400M specialist. She was a fast runner in high school. She was also a very good runner as an adult in shorter race distances such at the 5K often finishing among the overall leaders in some races. This as well as her continued passion to run reminded me of myself. Her past marathon experiences while respectable, were not at the same competitive level as her shorter races. She had been self-coaching herself in the marathons and hoping for the best.

Colette survived her first huge hill workout at Kensington with Coach Lee.

After explaining to her how my coaching services worked and what to expect I sent her a proposal for her review and acceptance. She accepted shortly thereafter and we were literally off to the races from there!

The Shock Treatment

Since completing the Chicago Marathon only a few months prior, Colette had continued to run. Her runs were not only at near marathon pace but also including many long-distance training runs. During our interview as she explained how she simply kept running the days following Chicago. I told her to stop! Take some time off and recover or you will never survive your next training cycle! I suggested she take almost the entire Christmas break off from running. Spend time with family, do everything one needs to do during Christmas week, and more importantly, recover!

This advice came as a shock to her; she was fearful of losing her fitness during even a modest break in training. Then the other shoe dropped. I suggested that when she did return to training, she needed to slow her pace from being in the 8+ minute range to closer to a 10-minute average pace! I could almost see the confused look on her face from a distance. This advice was offered during our initial phone interview, and I was risking not being hired. Yet, I knew for a solid fact, this advice was in the best interest of Colette’s success for her next marathon.

Training Plan

The official training began in late December with some rest and very easy paced running. Not the usual template of a marathon training cycle. Colette did have faith in me and what I recommended for her to run each of her training runs. It’s important to note, it’s not about simply running long miles every day but it’s about how to run those miles. When and how much to run so called “easy” and when to include some intensive running sessions. It’s also not solely about running. Runners need to perform movements, stretches, and build muscle during their cycles. But how much does the runner need to do. Every runner is different and every runner’s schedule is different.

Members of The Running Architect Team all grins, before they start their long run in Kensington on a chilly Saturday morning.

A runner’s training cycle is typically built around weekly runs and strength routines. Most runners perform their long runs on the weekends. Colette’s schedule was different. Her occupation and responsibilities as a mother of three young kids made her schedule unique. Almost every week there was a “tweak” to her running schedule so she could address more important matters in her life. But we each were determined to see how to work around various challenges while continuing to watch her miles increase during the first months.

Hills, Hills, and More Hills

Then came the point in the cycle where training starts to become more race specific. This involved researching the marathon route, specifically looking at the elevation charts. A large hill in the early miles was glaring. Normally this can be easily accommodated in the training of runners in my immediate area, but Colette was training about an hour north of my area where it was substantially flat. Oh, she claimed her routes included some hills but she was surprised to eventually take on the hills in nearby Kensington Metro Park! Those “hills” she thought she had been running near her home were more like speed bumps compared to some of the 70-100 foot climbs runners experience in Kensington.

Perhaps only the second toughest hill in Kensington Metro Park. Most runners will only run this once in any given workout. Colette nailed several repeats of this nearly 100ft climb.

So, we scheduled a mid-week training run at Kensington. I drove her along the road and paths to preview the route and explain how to run these long and tall hills. Then, I left her at the start and I drove to the top of her first hill where I waited to meet her. I waited, and then waited some more. Eventually I got a call from her. Ooops, “I missed that turn coach!” Yes, that first big hill up the road past the round-about was missed. But no fears. She came back and ran it again, and again, and one more time. She never got lost again.

Then following a bit of a recovery stretch and water break I pointed her to one of the toughest hills in the park. The hill some call “The Dirty Bastard”. Colette stayed on course this time and once again there I was waiting at the top to congratulate her. I was also there to direct her to jog back down the hill and repeat the run back up too!

Colette took on these tough hill challenges like a champ, while very challenging, she appreciated the value of this training and gained confidence in her upcoming marathon that was fast approaching.

While running hill reps have definite benefit there is nothing like mimicking taking on a hill like including big hills and climbing them hard during a runner’s long run. To do this we met with my regular Saturday morning running group at Kensington. I was able and very grateful to connect Colette with David, a very experienced and excellent runner with the 501 Running Club. David was coincidentally planning to run about 16 miles of mostly long big hills that morning! Perfecto! David was an excellent tour guide who did not disappoint. Colette returned several other Saturday mornings to include the hills of Kensington in her long runs. She was logging an excellent record of awesome training run and ready to take on the final phase of training, her taper.

Tragedy Strikes

With a little more than a few weeks to her marathon date, Colette revealed to me that her mother had been ill the past two years with a cancer. She said she and her mother were very close and her mother had been her inspiration throughout her training. However, her mother was now coming home from the hospital and about to receive hospice care. Colette held out hope that she could run her marathon, reach her goal, and return to make her mother proud.

Colette continued to train and thankfully the extent of time needed for training during the taper period was not as great as recent weeks. The travel plans to Milwaukee were still in flux and the potential of not making the trip to Milwaukee to run the marathon was a definite possibility.

Then, the Tuesday ahead of the marathon date, Colette was at her mother’s side along with other members of her family as her mother peacefully passed on.

Typically, during race week there is a lot of communications between coach and runner. Final reminders, checklists, and more. But circumstances were different this week. As a coach I felt like I was on the other side of the moon not wanting to interfere with her personal life. Colette informed me of her mother’s passing a few days following. She also let me know that based upon her family’s guidance and support that she had decided to travel to Milwaukee to run her marathon.

All of the final prep, race strategy, and organizing seemed to be meaningless. During the final days of prep before a marathon coaches stress the importance of resting and the avoidance of any stress. I can’t imagine anything more stressful than losing a family member. I worried about Colette’s readiness for her marathon. Either she was going to “nail” her race or she was simply going to be experiencing her own grief in her own private way for 26.2+ miles.

Race Morning

Before we knew it, it was race morning. How would Colette respond not only to her training but of course to the loss of her mother only days before. It didn’t take long to find out.

All coaches will tell you that we all run vicariously through our runners, especially on their big race day. We are as excited for them as they are to be running. It’s probably a good thing that we are typically not with our runners on race morning because we would likely telegraph our nervousness to our runners and they definitely do not need to be any more nervous. Fortunately, the Milwaukee Marathon had an excellent tracking system on their website, and I was ready to run along Colette the entire way albeit in another time zone many miles away from her race.

Race Strategy

Colette needed to run 3:35 or better to qualify for next year’s Boston Marathon. However, recent history and method of selection by the Boston Athletic Association means that just because a runner meets the qualifying standard, does not mean they ran fast enough to actually be allowed to enter. The BAA accepts only the fastest qualifiers in each sex and age group category. So, with this understanding paired with Colette’s recent marathon finishing times qualifying remained a big challenge. On the other hand, I had great faith in Colette on the basis of her training and prep. The plan was aimed for her to run 3:30 or slightly better in Milwaukee. This still represents over a 14-minute improvement from her PR set in Chicago last October. Normally a significant challenge for most runners but, Colette’s history of speed in the shorter races made this a realistic goal.

The plan was for her to run not any faster than 25 minutes for the first 5K (about 8:30 pace). From there she needed to settle into about an 8:00 minute pace for the next 20 miles. Then simply run stronger at a sub 8:00 pace for final 3.2 miles.

She started with hitting the 5K mark at 26+ minutes. Absolutely perfect! She was also running in 10th place in her age group category. From there she settled into a very consistent 7:58 pace! She could not have executed the plan any more accurately. The tracking system had her projected to finish at 3:28:50 at the 20 mile mark. She had also moved from 10th position in her age group up to 3rd now too!

Imagine running a 14-minute PR, qualifying for the Boston Marathon, and still having energy to celebrate!

I was screaming at my phone for her to simply run steady and finish strong as I continued to track her progress all morning. She did continue strong for the next mile or so but then her legs started to feel a bit heavy with a mile to go. She saw her brother at the side of the route at mile 25 and he ran along side her for the next mile. Colette ran a very courageous 3:30:03 marathon, finished 3rd in her age group, and met the Boston Qualifying time by nearly 5 minutes! She was a very happy marathoner!

Colette’s Race Report

The following is Colette’s race report to The Running Architect Team the day after her marathon:

Good morning, all - yesterday was bittersweet and full of emotions. It was my race day at the Milwaukee Marathon! After contemplating not running due to the passing of my mom on Tuesday, my family encouraged me to follow through with the race. I decided to race in honor of my mom 🤍 She inspired me through her battle with cancer over the past couple years, and she fought hard all the way to the end. The least I could do was go and run my hardest for her 🤍

I am so, so beyond excited to say that I accomplished my goal of qualifying for Boston!! I finished with a chip time of 3:30:03, with my Boston qualifying time being 3:35. I am planning to apply and hopefully get in for 2027. I realize that I may or may not get accepted, but the fact that I reached my goal and know that I am capable of doing so is so rewarding!

Halfway through 26.2 miles and she is literally flying along looking very strong and holding a steady 7:58 pace!

Now for race specifics: the weather was near perfect - temps between upper 30s that transitioned to upper 40s, full sun, and minimal wind. Perfect! I was so grateful to have the weather cooperate! I started my first 3 miles at a very conservative pace, around 8:30-8:40, then settled in to around 8 min miles for miles 4-15.

I was feeling strong and steady. I had an occasional mile where I was slightly faster than 8 min/mile, but tried to remain as consistent as possible. The hills were a slight challenge, but overall, didn’t seem too bad - the biggest hill was around mile 3-4, which at that point I was still fresh and running conservatively. I was able to maintain my pace up all hills on the course, and I absolutely give credit to all of the hill work I did at Kensington! It absolutely made a difference!

At mile 20, I had caught up with the 3:30 pace group that started a few minutes before me, which was very encouraging. I ran with them for a couple miles, then tried to break off into a slightly faster pace for the last 4 miles, going for consistent sub-8 min/miles. I was starting to feel fatigued at this point, but pushed through the next few miles until I hit a wall at mile 24 - my legs were not cooperating, but I refused to let up. My pace for the last few miles was considerably slower, around 8:10-8:30, as I pushed through.

At mile 25, my brother was a welcome sight, as this was my hardest mile - he ran next to me and encouraged me all the way to the last 200 meters, where I veered off to the finish line. As I crossed, I looked up and saw the time of 3:32, which elated me!!! I only realized after I met up with my brother shortly afterwards, that my actual chip time was 3:30:03! I DID IT!!! Also, I finished 3rd in my age group, which was an added bonus! 🤩

Colette even followed her Coaches direction to smile and look to the heavens as she successfully crosses the finish line!

I followed Coach Lee’s marathon plan as closely as I could throughout the race - sticking to the paces he suggested, and I am so grateful to have had his advice! Following his advice and his entire training plan throughout really made the difference, and helped me take more than 14 minutes off my finish time from my previous PR of 3:44:09.

Coach Lee’s fueling strategy worked perfectly as well, not only for race day fueling, but also the week leading up to race day. I am so, so grateful for Coach Lee and his guidance throughout my marathon training - I am beyond excited to have achieved my goal and am looking forward to the next challenge! Thank you, Coach Lee!

Post Script

I am very happy for Colette especially with the extreme struggles she had to endure. I am also very happy to report that Colette will be continuing to work with me for at least the balance of this running year and hopefully as she takes on the challenge of running the Boston Marathon whether it’s next year or the following year. She is destined to run it very well.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. It’s a bit long but then so is the marathon. Please share it with your friends especially your running friends. Be sure to check back for the next story.

Coach Lee