During Emma Kertesz’s junior year of high school she realized she probably wasn’t going to get a scholarship to a DI university to play soccer. So at the suggestion of her track coach, who was also the cross country coach, she ran cross her senior year instead of playing soccer.

She ran to all-American status over 10,000-meters, in 2012, while competing for the University of Toledo. Then chose to forego her last year of eligibility, like a badass, to *go pro* and join the Hansons-Brooks Original Distance Project.

Since then, she’s run at two Olympic Marathon Trials—2016 and 2020—and has a marathon PR of 2:40:56.

Most recently Emma was the 10th American in the *elite field* (Shalane Flanagan, who started in a different wave, technically knocked Emma to 11th) at the 2021 TCS New York City Marathon. We’re so excited about it and have so many questions. These are those questions.