Students participate, reflect on Runner’s World half-marathon

The Runner’s World half-marathon was held in Bethlehem on Sunday, Oct. 21 2018. Several Lehigh students participated in the marathon after months of training. (Courtesy of Annika Jahn)

After months of training, several Lehigh students ran in the Runner’s World half-marathon held in Bethlehem on Oct. 21, which provided an opportunity for students who are passionate about running to compete.

One runner, Kristin Silvi, ’19,  has run in multiple half-marathons.

“This was my fourth half-marathon,” Silvi said. “I did two, which were the Allentown St. Luke’s which (are) held usually in the spring.”

Silvi also ran when she was studying abroad in Australia.

She has been running since her senior year of high school, so she was familiar with the Runner’s World race.

“I’ve known about it (in) my time here since I was (part of the) Running Club freshmen year (and) a few people did it back then,” Silvi said. “I decided this year I would do it.”

Since Silvi had run in half-marathons before, she already had a training schedule prepared. To achieve her goal of running this race, she said she trained for about two months in advance, running five to six miles a day per week and then one long run.

Silvi shared her training schedule with Griffin Mooney,’19, who also competed.

“(This was) my first half marathon race, but in high school, I was on the cross-country and track team so our long runs on (the weekends) would be 13 or 14 miles, so I had run that distance before,” Mooney said.

Mooney began training at the beginning of the school year. He trained for about a month and a half, starting slowly by running three or four miles a day. He then switched to running closer to five or six miles a day and even more on weekends.

Mooney used the race as an opportunity to get back into running. He wanted a reason to stay motivated to run frequently.

“A lot of times I would run for a week and then it would rain one day or something and then I’d just stop,” Mooney said, “It was a good excuse for me to consistently train and push myself to commit to (running).”

For Silvi, an avid runner, the training was not a reason why she decided to participate.

Part of the reason Silvi ran this race was her appreciation for the location of the course itself. She loved how the track took runners through parts of historic Bethlehem and Moravian College, as well as through parts of Lehigh’s campus.

“This course, in particular, ends up in Steel Stacks, which I think is neat,” Silvi said. “This (race) is unique to Lehigh and unique to Bethlehem which is kind of nice.”

The close proximity of the race was another factor that encouraged students to run. Annika Jahn, ’19, said the fact that the race was nearby played a major role in her decision to participate.

“This summer I decided (that) I wanted to do a half marathon,” Jahn said. “So I just looked at (races) in the Bethlehem area because I knew I’d be at school at the time. It was perfect.”