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Jess Gillman still has a problem calling herself a runner. We all know that anyone who goes out for a run is a runner, and Gillman, who is preparing to run the Boston Marathon on April 18, not only reaches that criteria, but exceeds it.
As a soccer and basketball player growing up, Gillman, 33, is no stranger to sport, but never considered running until she was an adult working full-time in marketing for a running apparel company. “I still had that competitive drive. I didn’t know where I could find outlets to get that athletic energy out,” she says.
On a whim with some coercing from co-workers, Gillman was talked into running the Ogden Half Marathon with absolutely no training. “Anytime someone challenges me in any type of athletic type of challenge, I immediately am like, ‘OK, I can do this,’” says Gillman. “It’s mind over matter.”
She admits it was a miserable experience.
But the rest, as…
