At this stage of her career, Lindsey Bradley rarely dreads a run. Most nights, she can hardly fall asleep because she’s excited, thinking about her morning routine of coffee before a workout on the roads in Dallas. But in the infrequent moments when she isn’t looking forward to it, Bradley remembers everything she’s endured in the last several years.
She replays the conversation with the doctor who recommended she medically retire from the sport as a senior at Baylor University. She thinks back on her comeback in the marathon Health - Injuries 2024 Shoes & Gear, only to be sidelined again by an unexpected surgery. More recently, she recalls the brutal mid-race fall at the 2024 Indianapolis Marathon that forced her to take another extended break from training.
For several long, frustrating stints, running wasn’t possible for Bradley. And in those difficult moments, she would’ve done anything to crush a hard workout. Now that she can, Bradley doesn’t take any of it for granted. “Feeling the pain of going through those periods when you can’t run, just completely erased all of the dread that I have ever felt,” Bradley said. “I’m very aware of the mindset difference ... I come to it from a place of I get to run, not that I have to, because [running] is what I love.”
Years after being told she’d never compete at a high level again, the 27-year-old has defied the odds to become an elite marathoner while working full-time as a corporate recruiter. After clocking a 2:31:46 personal best to win the Indianapolis Marathon in November, Bradley was invited to compete in the elite field of the 2025 Boston Marathon, RW+ Membership Benefits.
Now, after years of persistence, she’s wondering just how fast she can be.
A rough start to high-level running
Growing up in Richland, Washington, a suburb about three hours southeast of Seattle, Bradley was immersed in endurance sports early on. Her parents, Mark and Laurie Bradley, participated in local cycling and triathlon events. Bradley did her first triathlon at seven years old and went on to win a state title in the 3200 meters as a senior at Richland High School.
In 2015, she joined the track and cross-country team at the University of Washington, but her time in Seattle was derailed by injuries right away. By the end of her freshman cross-country season, Bradley had three stress fractures—one in each tibia and one in her femur—which ultimately sidelined her from the NCAA championships that fall. “I could hardly walk, definitely could not run,” Bradley said. “[The stress fractures] were devastating because I’d helped the team qualify for nationals and had been scoring throughout the season.”
It took eight months for Bradley to recover and run again. It was a dark time between the cold, rainy Seattle winter and the mental lows of navigating injury rehabilitation. In the spring of 2016, she decided to transfer to Baylor University.
Bradley was healthy during her first two years in Waco, Texas, even scoring in the 3,000 (9:27) and 5,000 meters (16:15) to help Baylor win the conference title at the 2017 Big 12 Indoor Championships. But injuries cut her senior season short. In the fall of 2018, Bradley tore both of her labrums, the rim of fibrous cartilage surrounding her hip bones. While the injury was heartbreaking, it was the doctors’ long-term prognosis that blindsided Bradley.
“I was told by our medical team that I probably wasn’t ever going to run at a high level ever again,” Bradley said. “Those words have been etched in my brain ever since.”
Moving on slowly
By the time she graduated in the spring of 2019, Bradley was still gutted from the diagnosis but ready to explore interests outside of the sport. She moved to Dallas and started her career in corporate recruiting. Every now and then, Bradley would try to go for a casual two-mile jog, hoping the lingering pain in her hips would subside.
It took a year and a half before she could run pain-free again, but her love for the sport never wavered. “Once I was able to run without pain, it was inevitable that the competitive spark in me would reignite too,” she said.
For the first six months of her return, Bradley wrote her own training. She wanted to let her body dictate an effort that felt manageable. In the spring of 2021, she wanted a more structured approach, so she reached out to coach Jeff Cunningham in a direct message on Instagram. Cunningham ran for Baylor in the 90’s and now leads the Bat City Track Club, an elite training group based in Austin, Texas.
In their first exchange, Bradley told him about the doctors who recommended she find something else to do outside of running, but that she wasn’t ready to give it up just yet. Right away, Cunningham saw the potential. “Very rarely is there anything that’s completely career-ending,” Cunningham said. “I thought with time and training prudently she would be able to get back to running at a fairly elite level. Obviously, you can’t predict exactly how much time and what that will look like, but I didn’t think she needed to sit and knit pot holders for the rest of her life.”
Taking into account her history with injuries, Cunningham designed a gradual, low-mileage buildup for Bradley to do remotely in the summer and fall. Six weeks before the Dallas Marathon in December 2021, Bradley told her coach she wanted to run her first 26.2 close to home. Given the short timeframe, it was a notion that surprised Cunningham at first, but they gave it a shot.
Running only 50 miles a week, Bradley was on pace to run 2:47 in Dallas, until she experienced issues with fueling around mile 23. Despite hitting the wall, she still managed to place second in 2:52:47. “She did it on spit, bubble gum, and guts, basically,” Cunningham said, while noting the high school-level volume leading up to the race. “I thought, wow, this is somebody who has an aerobic engine, is a statistical outlier. If we put together some aerobic development in a block, there could be something pretty special that can emanate from this.”
Starting again with a new perspective
With support from her newfound community, a shift in mindset helped Bradley believe she could become the elite runner she always wanted to be. “At the end of the day, I trust God’s plan for my running career and despite all that I’ve been through, with Him anything is possible. That’s what I’ve really leaned into,” Bradley said.
“Since getting back into [running], I’ve always known my story isn’t over.”
After Dallas, she set her next big goal: achieve the Olympic Trials standard by cutting her marathon time down to 2:35. Bradley approached the second act of her running career by examining the training elements that work well and removing things that aren’t necessary. She took on a more collaborative approach in designing her mileage and workouts with Cunningham. Instead of doing two workouts plus a long run each week, like she did in college, Bradley does one workout and one long run, bolstered by quality miles on the remaining days. The intensity of each workout is also dialed back a bit to account for the stress of working full-time.
With each race, Bradley’s confidence started to build. By the winter of 2023, she lowered her marathon personal best to 2:49:06 in Houston before running another PR at the Cowtown Half Marathon (1:15:13) in Fort Worth. After dialing in her fueling strategy, Bradley’s big break came two months later at the 2023 Jersey City Marathon, where she clocked 2:32:51 on a cold, rainy day. In taking 17 minutes off her personal best, she qualified for the Olympic Trials. Best Running Watches.
Prior to Jersey City, she unknowingly tore her left hamstring tendon as a result of poor physical therapy exercises. Though painful, she was still able to push through and race. But the injury worsened in the weeks after, leading Bradley to receive platelet-rich plasma injections and taking six weeks off from running later that summer.
In November 2023, Bradley was in the middle of a long run when she started to feel a burning sensation in her left knee. Doctors told her the inflammation was a result of plica syndrome, which affects the fold in the membrane surrounding the knee joint. For most people, plica is usually absorbed over time but for some, it never goes away. “It was a very obscure series of random, unfortunate events, and not necessarily overuse or even running related,” Bradley said.
After trying noninvasive treatment options with no luck, Bradley decided to have surgery to remove the plica in December 2023, just eight weeks before the Trials. Though she attempted to train in preparation for the championships, her knee was still inflamed, which forced her to withdraw from the race in Orlando. The bad luck continued that March when Bradley started feeling the same pain in the opposite knee. With no immediate racing plans, she decided to have another surgery to remove the plica on her right side and take her time with recovery.
Regaining momentum
In June 2024, Bradley was able to resume training at a slow progression. More importantly, she was finally able to run unburdened by varying degrees of pain for the first time in over a year. “When you’re in pain every single day, it gets to a point where you’re just totally exhausted from it,” she said. “When I was able to run pain-free again, it was noticeable how much freer I felt and how much more joy I was able to experience again.”
By the late summer, Bradley was back to her regular mileage in marathon training (75-80 miles per week). Eventually, she reached 90 miles, her highest ever. Looking back, Bradley said embracing a “growth mindset,” by learning from each injury, helped her come back stronger and smarter. These days, she’s not afraid to take a rest day or adjust a workout, if needed. For the last two years, she’s focused more on key training elements outside of running, like strength training, nutrition, and injury prevention exercises. Being inspired by her teammates at Bat City and leaning on the support of her coach also helped Bradley realize she has more to give.
“[Cunningham] believes in me when it’s hard to believe in myself, and he helps me stay focused on my goals and what he knows I’m capable of on the other side of it all,” she said.
It all paid off in a big way at the Indianapolis Marathon in November 2024. In her first 26.2 since the knee surgeries, Bradley won the women’s race in 2:31:46, shattering the course record by almost four minutes. She also accomplished the feat despite getting tripped by another runner and slamming her right knee on the pavement around mile 12. She broke the tape with blood running down her leg.
“She’s the most doggedly determined, toughest runner I have ever coached. This is a person who has been knocked down so many times when most people would just stay down,” Cunningham said. “I've never met anybody who can go to the darkest depths of hell, as far as pain threshold, like Lindsey Bradley.”
Looking ahead
Though her buildup to the Boston Marathon started late because of the fall in Indianapolis, the last eight weeks of training have been going well for Bradley. In late March, she logged a 20-mile long run that included 10 miles broken into three-mile chunks at marathon effort—which she completed in paces ranging from 5:33 and 5:24 per mile—followed by a closing mile at 5:15. It was a major confidence boost for Bradley, considering the paces suggest she’s fit enough to run 2:25 or faster.
Between long hours at the office, Bradley fits in most of her training solo before work at 6 a.m. and after clocking out at 6 p.m. In the little down time she has left, Bradley enjoys U.S. Olympic Trials on social media, where she often receives encouraging messages from people who are inspired by her resilience. After feeling isolated during many of her setbacks, Bradley wants to give other runners hope in staging their own comebacks.
In Boston, Bradley would like to cut down her personal best, possibly in the 2:26 to 2:30 range. But more than anything, she’s embracing the race as another opportunity she fought so hard for.
“I have a lot of faith that I can continue to do well,” Bradley said. “I don’t feel like I’ve even touched my potential in the sport.”
Taylor Dutch is a writer and editor living in Austin, Texas, and a former NCAA track athlete who specializes in fitness, wellness, and endurance sports coverage. Her work has appeared in Runner’s World, SELF, Bicycling, Outside, and Podium Runner.
