Eureka High School graduate and Pacific resident Megan Cunningham, 25, made it 16 miles before conditions forced her to drop out of the U.S. Olympic Marathon trials Feb. 29 in Atlanta.
“It was a great experience, though, and I’m looking forward to 2024,” she said.
Cunningham said she had to withdraw because windy conditions caused intense pain to a shoulder injury from college. She said the wind was more than 30 mph.
Cunningham started the race at 12:20 p.m. and dropped out at 2:11 p.m. She ran for an hour, 51 minutes and nine seconds, with an average speed of 6:57 per mile.
Cunningham ran the Chicago Marathon in 2:41.00 in October 2019 to qualify for the trials.
Cunningham first started running at Geggie Elementary School and continued running at LaSalle Springs Middle School and Eureka High School.
She earned a walk-on spot with the University of Missouri’s cross country team.
On July 15, 2015, Cunningham was in a car accident with her parents and doctors questioned if she would ever walk again. She redshirted her second season at Mizzou and attended every practice.
“Anyone who knows me knows that I’m very stubborn and no one was going to tell me that I wasn’t going to run again,” Cunningham said. “They were just letting me believe whatever I needed to believe to get through it.”
She started running nine months after the accident.
Cunningham graduated from Mizzou in 2018 and started attending Eastern Virginia Medical School. She took time off from school to train for the trials, but said she plans to return to medical school.