By Gabbie Fales
Though Ann Ojile, ’91, had always considered herself an athlete, the former Maryville tennis player had no prior running experience when she decided to check off an item from her bucket list: running a marathon. In 1997, she visited a local running shop, found training books, made friends with the shop owner, Bill, and left with an invitation to join his running group on Tuesday nights.
Ojile trained hard and built up to run her first marathon. The community of runners she became a part of, and their commitment, fueled her. “Running, like many things, includes people of different shapes, sizes, ages, backgrounds, speeds and desires, and we’re all choosing to do it,” Ojile said. “It’s easy to sleep in on a Saturday morning, but instead you get up at the crack of dawn to get your miles in before all of the responsibilities for the day kick in.”
She ran her first marathon — in 40-degree weather with pouring down rain — with the simple goal of finishing it. The second, she wanted to beat the time of her first. Though it wasn’t originally on her radar, Ojile decided after completing eight marathons that she wanted to qualify for the big one: the Boston Marathon.
In the spring of 2010, Ojile was headed to Boston. Her tenth race would be run at the mecca of marathons; it was a day she would never forget. “‘Boston Strong’ is the perfect saying to represent the city,” Ojile said. “The people of Boston love their city. From the minute I landed in the airport, they made me feel like a rock star. They didn’t care how I got there, or what my race time was. They love the marathon and they love the runners.”
Ojile has now completed 27 marathons — five of them in Boston. Prior to her most recent race, back in Boston on April 15, 2019, she had planned on it being herlast. But it turns out the feeling of running the Boston Marathon doesn’t get old. As she completed the last two turns of the race — right on Hereford, left on Boylston — she was overwhelmed yet again by the cheering crowd and the feeling of accomplishment. Now she’s thinking, maybe “just one more.”