This story discusses suicide. If your depressive symptoms are not improving or you are having thoughts of suicide, please contact your medical provider or the National Suicide Prevention Hotline (988), call 911, or go to your local emergency room.
Until 2012, Ari Hendrix wasn’t a runner and certainly didn’t imagine herself lining up at the Olympic Marathon Trials. But that’s where she’s headed on February 3, and she now holds the title of the third-fastest American-born Black woman marathoner of all time. Of the 173 women who qualified for the Trials this year, Hendrix is one of three American-born Black women set for the starting line. Hendrix qualified at the 2022 California International Marathon (CIM) with a time of 2:35:39. (The other two are Erika Kemp, with the fastest time of 2:33:57, and Peyton Thomas, 2:35:50.)
When she started running, “I certainly didn’t see myself reflected in any of the things that I was seeing in the running community,” she tells Runner’s World. “I felt a little bit, like, in my own world with it.” That changed when she broke three hours at the Ventura Marathon in 2018, and running historian Gary Corbitt told her about The List of American-born Black women who had done so—and that she had earned a spot on it.
Hendrix, now 35 years old, is aiming to be at the top of The List. “That would be an amazing achievement, not just for me as a runner or as an athlete, but something that my nieces and family can look at and really appreciate,” she says.
Becoming a Runner
In high school and college, Hendrix was a basketball player. But growing up in Ventura, California, her father always told her she’d be a track star and would time her sprinting down the street. She remembers him being supportive and watching her basketball and flag football games when she was young. However, in middle school Hendrix says there was a shift in her father’s personality, he was like a new person.
“He was angry a lot and kind of distanced himself from us,” she says. Her parents eventually were divorced, and she lost contact with her father when she was a sophomore in high school.
When Hendrix was a senior at Minot State University in Minot, North Dakota, she found out her father died by suicide. Because he always thought she would be a runner, she decided to How to Coach Yourself to Peak Performance to honor him. She finished the 2012 Bismarck Marathon in 3:57. Hendrix caught the marathon bug and then qualified for the 2014 Boston Marathon Black Women Changemakers of the Marathon.
Hendrix has faced her share of challenges along the way, including struggles with her own mental health. While on a run several years ago, she experienced a panic attack for the first time. However, she sought help and began medications to treat her depression and anxiety.
In 2020, Hendrix was injured, living in a new city (Detroit), and isolated. “I wanted to commit suicide,” she says. Hendrix, however, told her family how she was feeling, and they found her the help she needed, which included adjusting her medication.
Since then, she says she’s certainly had her ups and downs and still deals with panic attacks from time to time, but is working on her approach to stress and daily challenges. For Hendrix healing includes checking in with herself daily, and having the support of her family and fiancée.
Representation and Showing Up
Overall, fewer than 15 Black American women appear to have ever run in the Olympic Marathon Trials, according to Corbitt’s website. That number includes 2020 Trials winner Aliphine Tuliamuk Sales & Deals.
From Hendrix’s perspective, representation has improved in the sport, especially in the last five years. “I think we’ve seen a lot more diverse communities coming and being in the running community, because I think that we’re all starting to see people who look like us and are being a part of it.” She points to runners like Tommie Runz and Erica Stanley-Dottin, who bring more African Americans into the running community through sharing their stories on social media and through events, as well as brands and races that highlight diverse runners.
At the Trials in Orlando, Hendrix will also be showing up as a gay woman. “Representing the LGBTQ+ community is really important to me,” both inside and outside of running, she says.
While representation may be improving, Hendrix has faced the unexpected challenge of being misgendered at races. Hendrix won the Santa Monica Classic 5K in 2018, but officials let the woman behind her break the tape. Hendrix recalls when she approached race officials, it took them some time to verify that she did win and give her the award.
In 2022, Hendrix finished fifth at the River Run 10K in Toledo, Ohio. However, the runner who finished behind her told race officials that she was a man. “There was a whole debate… so they took me off the results entirely,” she says. “Someone at the table made a comment about how I should have longer hair—it would be less confusing. That one I really walked away from hurt.”
Officials can avoid this problem by verifying bib numbers and registrations and checking facts before they make changes to results, Hendrix says.
“I wear my hat backwards, and sunglasses, and I automatically am assumed to be a male,” Hendrix says. She says she is also more muscular than some women, but that shouldn’t matter—and she’s not going to change her appearance.
The Road to Orlando
Lining up at the Trials will itself be a goal fulfilled. Four years ago Hendrix tried to qualify at Houston for the Trials but missed it by almost eight minutes.
In the six months leading up to the Trials, she ran the Santa to the Sea Half Marathon in Oxnard, California. She won it in an official time of 1:18:12. Her pace was where she wanted it to be eight weeks out from the Trials. “Getting the win was exciting,” she says.
Hendrix has been supported by running apparel company Oiselle as one of five “Underbirds,” Olympic Trials qualifiers chosen for a six-month contract that includes travel, housing, and stipends. She says she appreciates Oiselle’s supportiveness beyond what the contract provides. During a photo shoot for Oiselle, they invited Hendrix’s fiancée to be part of it and took photos of them as a couple, making breakfast. “It made me really appreciate them on that level, because it means that they support me not just as a runner, but, like, my life outside of it,” she says.
At the Trials, Hendrix’s goal is to run 2:32. But she’s also looking forward to having her coach, Peter Bromka, her fiancée, and her family there with her. Hendrix hopes her presence at the Trials and her nontraditional route there send a message. “If you have big aspirations and dreams, go for them, don't let anybody tell you—and don't let yourself tell you—that you can't do something,” she says. “You can come from a non-conventional running background and still be very successful,” Hendrix says.
