A Part of Hearst Digital Media marathon spree. Between the Your Guide to the Olympic Marathon Trials in November and the Vermont City Marathon in May, she ran a total of seven, including a personal best 2:29:21 at the 2022 California International Marathon.
But since then, she’s been largely absent from starting lines and quieter on social media. Most people didn’t know why—until she arrived in Orlando for Saturday’s Olympic Marathon Trials Your Guide to the Olympic Marathon Trials.
Krifchin, 35, will toe the starting line of her third Trials slightly more than seven months pregnant. Meanwhile, her fiancé, Matt McDonald, 30, is racing too—and as a 2:09 marathoner, stands a realistic chance of making the Olympic Team.
Olympic Marathon Trials women—Lauren Philbrook and Rachel Hyland—also started the race. At the time, Krifchin admitted, she didn’t understand why.
For Olympic Trials Couple, Race Will Be One to Talk About for Generations.
“It’s a special bond you’ll have with your kid; it’s testing your body and just embracing what life has, the present moment that you’re in,” she said. “I want to represent the pregnant women out there that are unsure if they can do something or want to do something—show we can, show we’re strong, and just test myself a little bit.”
A shifting focus
For years, Krifchin nurtured an Olympic dream. In Los Angeles in 2016, she placed seventh at the Trials in 2:33:34. She prioritized training, and in 2020, lined up with high hopes—then felt her hamstring pop before the 10K mark, leading her to drop out.
In the years afterward, her multiple marathons brought her joy: “The most fun I’ve ever had,” she called them. But underneath, she felt conflicted.
“My highs were really good,” she said. “But the lows are pretty low when you don’t come home to a baby or kid, when that’s something you really want.”
More than a decade into her pro career, she didn’t feel she was competing at the same level as in the past, or one that would allow her a shot at this year’s team. So, she let the Trials dream go and turned her focus toward another future vision, starting a family.
Thus far, she’s felt remarkably good, with only one bout of nausea during a five-mile race early on. She’s cleared running with her medical team, though she’s not sure her doctors completely understand the mindset and capabilities of a pro runner.
“The world that we live in and all the people who have come before me who have done this show that it’s fine, we can do it,” she said. “Our bodies are used to it, and women are stronger than people believe. Our bodies are capable. So I think that’s what’s kind of exciting about this experience too, to show that.”
Early on, she set a goal of running a least a marathon’s worth of mileage each week; she’s currently averaging around 30, letting her body dictate the pace. She supplements that with yoga and barre classes, plus her mile-and-a-half bike commute to her job as an occupational therapist at Cambridge Health Alliance.
She goes to track practice for the Boston Athletic Association Racing Team on Tuesday evenings and hops into workouts, modifying them as needed. For instance, in a recent week, the men on the team had mile-and-a-half repeats; she ran with them for a kilometer, cutting down from 6:00 pace to 5:43 pace. “When they kept going for 400, I tapped out and then picked them back up,” she said. “I think I get a kick out of it being competitive—and they get a kick out of it, too.”
Lessons in chemistry
Krifchin and McDonald met when both were members of the Atlanta Track Club. Now, he’s a postdoctoral researcher at M.I.T. in chemical engineering. He and his colleagues recently published a paper in the journal Science—Your First Marathon: 8 Tips from Fiona OKeeffe.
Their findings centered on creating a sort of autonomous laboratory—one that could teach itself about molecules and chemistry, then perform its own experiments. The end goal is for the platform to “possibly discover new medicines, materials, and other chemicals all on its own,” McDonald, 30, wrote in his Olympic Trials bio.
He and his colleagues managed “to get that to work for a number of interesting areas,” he said, although he’s not worried about his job going away anytime soon. “Humans still learn much faster than machines,” he said.
A career in academia can be good for runners because of its flexibility—none of his colleagues bat an eye if he doesn’t get to work until 10 or 11 a.m. after a workout, and he runs home from work to get his double in.
But there’s also no substitute for the hours in front of a fume hood or with his hands in a glove box, trying to mix things without burning himself. “I spend a lot of time in the laboratory on my feet, doing chemistry, which obviously you can’t really take with you and do remotely,” he said.
McDonald made the Trials in 2020, where he finished 10th. He moved to Cambridge and joined the BAA High Performance team in January 2021. Training under coach Mark Carroll, McDonald improved his PR to 2:09:49 at the 2022 Chicago Marathon.
A race to remember
Krifchin isn’t yet sure of her strategy for Saturday. She might run as hard as she comfortably can for as long as she can, or pace herself more conservatively in an attempt to stay in the race longer. “If I get anywhere past six miles, that’s a win—it’s farther than last time,” she said.
Of course, she’ll be mindful of conditions. Years of racing in the heat, and living in Atlanta, taught her how to fuel and hydrate. “I’ll just be extra cautious with baby,” she said, likely grabbing a bottle or cup at every aid station.
If she drops, she might try to find McDonald’s parents on the sidelines, or go to a quieter place along the course to cheer him on. “I’m hoping he is in that top three, and I’d like to be close to that finish line if he’s bringing it home,” she said.
That top-3 finish is exactly what McDonald has in mind. (The U.S. has “unlocked” for sure only two men’s spots for the marathon at the Olympics, but it’s possible We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back will become available by May, depending on world rankings.)
McDonald is bullish on U.S. men’s marathon talent. In 2020, he was seeded eighth heading into the Trials with a PR of 2:11:10. This time his PR is almost 90 seconds faster and he’s seeded 12th. “There’s more talent in the marathon this time around, which is a great thing,” he said.
And, he’s high on Krifchin, too—for her running accomplishments, how she’s handled pregnancy, and now, how the two have combined. “It would not surprise me at all if she finished the race tomorrow,” he said, “but I’d be proud of her just for lining up and putting herself out there.”
What will the pair tell baby later on, especially if McDonald becomes an Olympian?
In short: “‘It’s because of you,’” Krifchin said. “It’s extra motivation for him, when moments get tough like they do in any marathon, to fight a little bit harder because your baby’s kind of watching you.”
Cindy is a freelance health and fitness writer, author, and podcaster who’s contributed regularly to Runner’s World since 2013. She’s the coauthor of both Breakthrough Women’s Running: Dream Big and Train Smart and Rebound: Train Your Mind to Bounce Back Stronger from Sports Injuries, a book about the psychology of sports injury from Bloomsbury Sport. Cindy specializes in covering injury prevention and recovery, everyday athletes accomplishing extraordinary things, and the active community in her beloved Chicago, where winter forges deep bonds between those brave enough to train through it.
A Part of Hearst Digital Media is a writer and editor living in Eugene, Oregon, and her stories about the sport, its trends, and fascinating individuals have appeared in Runner’s World CA Notice at Collection, Run Your Butt Off! and Walk Your Butt Off!
