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Tiff's Story - "The Credit Goes to My Father"...

Sunday, 10 December 2023 00:10

By: The Duluth Runner - Posted on December 9, 2023

This is the seventy-seventh edition of The Duluth Runner Interview Series, where I get in touch with (mainly) local runners and athletes to share a bit of their story while inspiring others to pursue an active lifestyle.

Intro

Tiffany started experimenting with running when she was 16, but didn’t make any real improvements until triathlon entered her life in 2010 and the rest was history.
In 2016, 2017, and 2023, she competed on Team USA in triathlon as an age group USA triathlete team member at the Olympic Distance World Championships in Cozumel Mexico, Rotterdam Netherlands and Pontevedra Spain where she placed 2nd overall in the world. Over the course of her athletic years, she has qualified for and competed at Worlds in the Triathlon 70.3 distance, pulled off a few wins in running races from the 50k ultra marathon distance down to the 5K, as well as mountain bike races and cross county ski races.

She even dabbled in body building winning overall in the bikini division in 2009 at the NPC Gopher State Classic and NPC Upper Midwest and competed at Junior Nationals in Chicago, but one of her biggest athletic accomplishments was reaching her goal of a sub-3-hour marathon which she pulled off twice in 2022 after 7 years of trying....

“When it comes to running, the credit goes to my father. As a runner himself, he was the inspiration. He never won a thing or reached his goal of a sub 2 half marathon, but none of that mattered. He was always a super star in my book, a real elite. Seeing him prepare for months, toe that line, and cross the finish line lit a fire in me and created a belief that I could do it too.

I ran the Garry Bjorklund, my first half marathon with my father when I was 17 or 18 and have been running ever since, however, my start wasn’t pretty. It probably didn’t help that my father believed that a proper half marathon taper meant doing absolutely nothing for two weeks before race day. I’m sure the two-custard stuffed long johns I ate on the way to the start of that race didn’t do me any favors. That race involved my father having to carry my water waist pack for me and pulling me to the finish hand-in-hand because I thought I was going to die. A wonderful memory for him, and an awful (but now hilarious) one for me! Back then I would never have believed that I would someday run a 1:24 half marathon.”   READ MORE