Marathon runner still pushes toward the finish line

The first leg of Ann (Stechschulte) Alyanak’s (HHS’01) return did not go as planned, but she still had enough road left in front of her to ensure a strong finish.

Alyanak, a mother of three, had taken a break from competing in marathons during the last few years while she and her husband, Ed, raised their two youngest kids. “I did some 5K races and some local road races from 2013 to 2017,” Alyanak says. “After having our daughter, Emily, I didn’t want to get injured (doing 26.2 miles).”

Alyanak’s reacquaintance with the marathon distance came at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio in September. Her time of 2:56:58 left her wanting to improve. “I ran Air Force last fall, and it was not my best race by any means,” she says. “Then I had some hamstring issues in late fall before things turned around in December.”

Training was going well, and the 2002 10,000-meter Big Ten champion who qualified for the Olympic marathon trials in 2008 and 2012 set her sights on doing it again at age 39. The Illinois Marathon provided that opportunity in April. Alyanak finished third with a time of 2:43:00, which qualified her for the 2020 Olympic Trials. “I think it was about proving to myself that I can still do it,” Alyanak says. “It was just a case of going out and getting it done. I know I can’t run anywhere near what I did 10 years ago. But it is pure enjoyment and personal satisfaction.”

The 2020 Olympic marathon trials are scheduled for February 2020 in Atlanta. Alyanak plans to gradually work her way up to full marathon training mode. “The philosophy is the same on training, but the quantity is lower,” Alyanak says. “You have to be smarter and have more recovery time. I do 80 percent of what I did 10 years ago.”

Alyanak’s previous Atlanta competition experience came a decade ago when she ran the 2008 Peachtree Road Race, a 10K event. Her brother and his family live in the suburbs north of the city, so Alyanak, an Ohio native, has a cheer squad when she heads to Georgia. “The trials could be a hilly course if they want it to be,” Alyanak says. “They usually try to make the trials course similar to the Olympic course.”

The 2020 Olympics are in Tokyo, Japan. Alyanak’s mental makeup she needed to make the trials a third time partially comes from Purdue. “I use a lot of that information I learned at Purdue, especially from the sports psychology courses,” Alyanak says.