On April 17, Underwood resident Riva Muehlbauer raced in the 127th Boston Marathon. This year’s 26.2 mile race hit close to home for Muehlbauer, her family and many other participants. Ten years ago, two bombs were detonated near the finish line. Muehlbauer’s brother, Taija Corso, had just finished his race and was near the explosions when it happened.
Though he was unharmed, Corso didn’t participate in another marathon for nearly a decade. That was until he called his sister and the two set out to qualify for the worlds longest running marathons.
The Boston Athletics Association doesn’t let just any runner into the marathon. Runners must qualify a different number of ways to even be considered for an invitation. There are certain qualifying races and times that must be met by the runner. Muehlbauer qualified through her first place finish in the womens division in the 2022 Vernonia Marathon with a time of 2 hours, 53 minutes, and 43 seconds. This wasn’t the first time she had qualified for the marathon, as, in 2016 she made the cut, but a stress fracture in her hip kept her out of the race.
“I ended up going and I just watched, so that was pretty disappointing,” said Muehlbauer. “And before last year, I hadn’t run a marathon in like seven years; I usually do Ultra running.”
Gorge resident Riva Muehlbauer races in the 127th Boston Marathon.
Contributed photo
Ultra running or ultramarathons range from your standard 26.2 miles up to a whooping 3,100 miles, although Muehlbauer says the longest race she has completed was 100 miles. So, she had to adapt her training routine.
Rather than running longer distances at a slower pace, she prepared with “tempo runs.” Once a week, she would run five to 10 miles at a faster speed. Muehlbauer also did speed workouts on the track to get her body used to a quicker cadence.
“It’s definitely a challenge because I hadn’t done it in so long,” she said. “But it was fun to do something different.”
Muehlbauer says sometimes she recruits her family to train with her. Her husband, Mike — who is the head wrestling and baseball coach at Columbia High School — will occasionally join her.
“We’re a big sports family over here,” said Muehlbauer. “Once in a while I run with Mike and Sawyer has been running with me lately. He’s my sophomore.”
When race day finally arrived, she was ready and the results spoke for themselves. Muehlbauer placed 10th in her age division with a time of 2 hours, 52 minutes and 26 seconds. She kept a very consistent pace despite the less than ideal weather conditions.
“For the last mile it was a complete downpour,” she said. “Everybody was soaked.”
Not long after she returned home, Muehlbauer began planning for her next run in August where she will compete in the Waldo 100K.
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