By Kelly Joy — January 31, 2022

Photos by Jeff Cindadr

Courtney enjoys a trail run in Boulder, CO

I wander into Wonder (that alliteration made me happy)! A Boulder haven for tonics and juices, and all the clean stuff you should be consuming, yet rarely do. My eyes adjust to the room, the fact I do not have my specs on, I spot Courtney and her cute shaggy pup Murph Dog (Murphy). Let me just say, before I weave Courtneys’s tale, that she is one of the “shiniest” humans I know (we have been friends for a year or so). Courtney walks into any room and heads turn, she glows from the inside out, and people are instantly attracted to her energy, so it was very wonderful to be able to sit in her aura for an hour or so and talk about her latest amazing achievement. Drumroll please…...

Courtney, in her first EVER road marathon, coming off almost a year of injury and health issues, plus let’s throw in getting married to the man she loves, breaks the mythical 3-hour mark. She did not just break it, she crushed it, in 2:58:35 lovingly cared for and paced by her husband Connor Martin, an incredibly talented athlete in his own right.

Connor and Courtney Martin celebrate smashing 3 hrs at the 2022 CIM Marathon

Courtney is a Boulder Underground athlete, who works with coach Evan Schwartz. Evan along with Courtneys savvy and hard work, successfully supported and coached her through her injury to her goal.

Before we dig further, let me explain that when I write about runners, for me it is not always about the achievement, but how they got there, it is the nuances and obstacles of life that propel us forward. It is the person who fascinates me, rather than the pace they can run, the glory they have obtained is merely the door of which I can open to discover what lies beneath, and creates the athlete that sits before me.

Therefore, how did Courtney go from the girl in South Carolina to the runner she is today? Born, raised Spartanburg, SC, Courtney identified as an athlete, playing basketball, swimming, soccer and XC when soccer season was over. Soccer was her love, which has always produced, strong, fast runners. However, on entering college as a Spanish and Fine Arts major (with a sprinkling of Geology), she dropped soccer, yet occasionally ran with her close friend a couple of times a week to fulfill her love of sport.

Fast forward a few years it is 2009 and Courtney finds herself in Fort Collins with her then boyfriend, and they eventually make the final transition to Boulder in 2011. She expresses that it was when she arrived in Boulder, it felt like she had finally come home. She felt accepted and welcomed by the community, fully embracing the beauty of being able to get outside and to move her body.

“Running is a release, a moment to reconnect with self, and nature.”

Courtney enjoys a run with some of her Boulder Underground teammates

Courtney is now married to said boyfriend, and joins a local running meet up, she is teaching Spanish and Art in a local arts school. Through the “Boulder Running Company,” she is able to connect with likeminded individuals and is thriving in the community. Courtney runs Bolder Boulder, inspired by all the fast, resolute runners who live in this town, because once the running bug has bitten, you don’t want to be cured. It is hard to describe Boulder, when it comes to running, it is a town consumed by outdoor activities, adventure, and healthy living.

Perfect? Right? .

Not always, Courtney’s life had shifted dramatically, after she became an active bystander to the tragic death of a cyclist. Bearing witness to such a life lost, Courtney felt the privilege of not only life but life through movement, adventure, and shared experiences. Running became the main avenue that she could honor herself, but on a deeper level. It became a predominate means of honoring existence and the life lived of a dear person as well. Though bound in tragedy, her network of new friends, running and non, played an integral role in Courtney’s growth as a person, as a runner and encouraged her to join her first organized running group.

Often in life, from great sadness, a shift can occur, from the cracks of despair, a beauty can be set free.

In parallel to the incident, it became evident to Courtney that her marriage needed to come to an end for her own mental health. Making space for herself to have a voice, to be valued in the way she knew she deserved, and in search of a life that she dreamt could exist. This was Courtney’s first moment to unabashedly define herself discovering who she was as an individual. Running did not define her, but it was a strong foundation on which her internal sunshine, her personality and her being grew. She learnt that to forge a path ahead into a new life, everything began with her and her decisions to take care of herself.

Time ticks by, and Courtney meets Connor, the love of her life, plus soon to be husband, and through remote connections, they are linked up with the Boulder Underground running group, and her most recent journey unfolds.

2021 and Courtney is running, and she is running well, but health concerns keep popping up, thyroid, gut, and hip issues, plague her training. To the point in April 2022, when she is diagnosed with a labral tear in the hip and told, she may never be able to run again, or would need surgery. I ask her how this truly made her feel?

“I would wake up in the night sobbing, and have panic attacks on occasion, running was an integral part of my identity, it was the way I related to the world from when I was a kid, the quickest way for me to feel alive. It is a gift to feel the wind on my skin and propel myself through nature. My free therapy and coping mechanism were taken away. I realized that running had always been a privilege.”

Courtney starts the hard work, like during the break down in her marriage when she had to learn to love and care for herself mentally, she now had to give that same grace to her body. It was like coming back to base level. With rounds of physical therapy, dry needling, strength training and listening to her body.

“I had to reframe selfcare.”

By May 2022 Courtney is able to start a run/walk program and is terrified she will feel pain. It was a slow progression, but she stuck to the rules. Then unexpectedly Connor registers them for the Californian International Marathon (CIM), GULP, let the games begin.

Letting go of all her ego for running, she had to reestablish a relationship with training, which was selfcare, careful training and listening to her body. As she settles, Courtney gets married (to Connor) , has a beautiful honeymoon, and comes home with COVID in August 2022. The wheels are about to come off the training block, and her other hip sustains a labral tear. Back to square one, now under Evan as her coach and her PT, they encouraged her to take it day by day, to let go of all expectations. Training changes and becomes targeted, cautious, with days off as she needed. Courtney listened to and respected her body and never ran more than fifty miles a week with her longest run being sixteen miles. What helped was Evans coaching, using progressive overloading during her runs, hilly tempos, and he never pushed her past her capabilities, plus she always listened to her body. Her strength increased and going into CIM she felt supported, confident, and secure. Plus having Connor pace her was the calming element she needed to truly push for her goal, a sub three-hour marathon.

Not that her marathon was not fraught with danger, the bus got lost to the start line, they were in the portapotties as they sang the national anthem. One mile in she got a stitch, ditched her fleece, and ran the race of her life. Courtney admits her body felt great, it felt easier than she thought it would, I mean she even had to hit up the bathroom towards the end and still grabs a sub three. At mile 22 Connor, the person who had been by her side through the entire roller coaster of the last year, drops from pacing and tells her to run her heart out, and this is exactly what she does. On crossing the line, Courtney reveals, “I just felt so empowered, it was the epitome of that moment in my life when I decided to stand up for and lean into myself as a person. I am the one who did this.”

As, I start to wrap up the interview, and ready myself to step out of her glow and just be regular old me again, but hopefully with a little bit of Courtney star dust still shimmering on my shoulder. I remember that running is not a time, or a pace, albeit they can be a quantifying measure of success. What we want to relish is the person, the soul beneath, the strength, tenacity, kindness that propels an individual to run. Whether we run from demons, heartbreak and pain, or we run towards light, happiness and joy. This is what running is, it is the silent space you create as you move to be at one with your emotions and body, regardless of pace. It is a moment to breathe, to bask in nature, to be together, or to be alone, to feel pain in a controlled space, and that is beauty Courtney brings to the table when she runs, and to all who are ever fortunate enough to share her light and strength.

Courtney checks her splits during the 2022 CIM Marathon

Runner Facts

· Age 36

· Lives – Boulder, CO

· Job – Spanish and Art Teacher

· What drives you – “The excitement of getting to live each day. It’s a gift.”

· What excites you in this sport? – “As I age there are still opportunities in running, which I am excited to explore. As an older runner you forget the ego, realizing that you’re lucky enough to be competing, and that helps you to be compassionate with yourself… and leave it all out there.”

· Who inspires you? - “Brian Schmidt, such a smart runner, who has a beautiful running form. Plus, Connor, who is genuinely the most wonderful, kind, and caring person. I still cannot believe I have such a humble loving human in my life. ”

· What do you want to work on? – “To get mentally stronger.”

· Favorite Running Sneakers? – Saucony Endorphin Speed 2

· Tell me something no one knows about you? – “Excellent parallel parker, Geology nerd, I can pop my shoulder out of joint, I am very flexible, have a great Duck call.” 😊 – I would like to say this is the most secret talents anyone has shared.

“Running showed me who I wanted to be and gave me a safe space to find myself.” - Courtney Martin