The Three Sisters Marathon in Danville featured two days of races, with a 5K on Friday, Sept. 5, and half and full marathons on Saturday, Sept. 6. Portions of the city were closed for the course, and organizers added music and food to give the event a festival atmosphere.
The marathon was also a Boston Marathon qualifier. Jonathan Craun, running his first marathon, made the cut with a time of 2:32.
Several local runners joined the race, which started at 7:30 a.m., including two members of All Vet.
Careen Rogers completed the full marathon in 6:12:52.4, and Katie Schnieder ran the half marathon, finishing in 3:25:35.8.
“I don’t think we’ll be in the running for that, but we’re here for the experience,” Rogers said about qualifying for Boston.
Schnieder, who ran a full marathon last fall, said she opted for the half distance this year. “I ran a full marathon last fall and thought it would be nice to run and train for the summer again this year, and so I trained, and I am enjoying the half this year as my fall event,” she said.
Rogers said she had been preparing for months. “I’m gonna do the whole and, just like Katie last year, we did the Marine Corps Marathon and wanted to consider doing a local event. Then this came up. I’ve been training for quite some time for it. I’m so looking forward to it,” she said.
She described her training routine as three runs a week. “A couple short runs during the week and then a long run usually on the weekends,” Rogers said. “It just sort of slowly gets you prepared for the miles that you’ll have to do. I’m not a fast runner, but I certainly can put the miles in.”
Schnieder said her preparation was similar. “The half marathon training is about the same, a couple times during the week,” she said. “We also do weightlifting and other types of exercise and core training to get your body ready for events like this.”
All Vet members also recently took part in the 9/11 stair climb at Martinsville Speedway and partnered with Miles in Martinsville during its summer half marathon.
