Crossing the finish line of her first 5K, Meridith Ethington had no idea she was falling in love.
The object of her affection wasn’t her training partner, or even someone she met while struggling to find the motivation to train everyday.
“I didn’t necessarily love training. When I first started running, I would go over to the high school track, and I couldn’t even run once around the track without having to stop and walk. But I kept going, and eventually, I could run one mile. And then, you know, it just built after that.” — Meridith Ethington
She was falling for running — a sport the ballet devotee didn’t really know anything about when she laced up her shoes nearly two decades ago at the suggestion of a friend.
It wasn’t love at first run.
It took time for this romance to take hold.
“I didn’t necessarily love training,” she said laughing. “When I first started running, I would go over to the high school track, and I couldn’t even run once around the track without having to stop and walk. But I kept going, and eventually, I could run one mile. And then, you know, it just built after that.”
When she started, it seemed like something fun to do with a friend, and maybe a way to help her lose a little weight after the birth of her daughter. But over the years, her devotion to the sport evolved into something much more substantive. And seven years ago, the sport became her lifeline in navigating one of the most terrifying things a person can face — a cancer diagnosis.
“That first race, I think it was like the Midvale Days 5K,” she said giggling, “or something I’ve never heard of again. But I was super stoked because … I got a water bottle, and I was feeling pretty cool about that.”
She jokes about those early days of running, but admits that even in those workouts and 5K races, she was feeling something more than excitement about an extra water bottle.
“It was just the way I felt all around,” said the graphic designer. “I liked the excitement. I liked the feeling of doing something, at the time, that felt super hard and accomplishing, I don’t know, just something. … I joined in with her just to kind of lose the baby weight that I gained when I had my daughter and that I never got rid of.”
And then she tries to put into words the feeling one has when crossing a finish line.
“But I think part of, not just the race atmosphere, but the mental aspect of it,” she said, growing more serious, “I feel like it was kind of therapeutic for me. … I was just on the cusp of feeling that back then. But through the years now, I mean, it’s been a really long time now as my daughter’s 21. … But it’s so healthy for just a stress relief, emotionally, mentally, physically, I think there’s just so many benefits from running and I’ve, I’ve really just fallen in love with it.”
Under the spell
In 2013, Ethington ran her first half marathon — without the friend who talked her into it.
“It was pouring rain that day,” she said of the Salt Lake Half Marathon. “So I ran without her.”
By then, she’d fallen under the spell of the sport. She joined Facebook running groups and found like-minded training partners. Their goals became hers and over time, it wasn’t just the sport that helped her manage life’s challenges — it was other runners.
“I started getting inspired by people,” she said. “Just seeing what they could accomplish and just being in awe of the camaraderie and support that people gave each other. I was super impressed with runners in the running community.”
She said the acceptance into this club seemed pretty liberal.
“It didn’t matter if you were super slow or super fast, everybody was just cheering you on and giving each other advice or tips or support. You know, just a listening ear.”
A decade later, she ran the Deseret News Half Marathon and said it instantly became “one of my favorite half marathons I’ve ever run.”
The last mile of the Deseret News races follow the Days of ’47 Parade route, and people who’ve been camping out for front-row seats, sometimes for more than a day in sweltering heat, suddenly become every back-of-the-pack runner’s dream come true.
“I know not everybody on the parade route is watching or cheering people on at the end of the race,” she said with a smile. “But you do have so many people out there that are spraying you down with water and cheering you on and having music blasting and they’re dancing. You start dancing with them, and they get really excited. It’s such a fun energy.”
She laughs at the memories she’s made in that last mile of the Deseret News Half Marathon, which is always on July 24, one of the hottest days of the year.
“They make you feel like a rock star,” she grins.
It was in this new community that she began to consider running 26.2 miles herself.
“I never imagined that I was even capable of running a marathon,” she said. “In the running community, I saw what people could do and I saw how people were so supportive. So it really encouraged me.”
In 2014, she became one of those encouraged and accomplished marathon runners. She jokes that she swore off long distances until a few minutes after she crossed the finish line.
“Then I was like, ‘When can I sign up again?’” she laughed.
A lump in her breast
Ethington was training for her second marathon, and even considering that she might try to qualify for the granddaddy of them all — the Boston Marathon — when she felt a lump in her breast.
“I had this sinking feeling in my stomach like, ‘I know what this is,’” she said. Her mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer years earlier, and so she was pretty good about self checks and mammograms. She went to her doctor, who ordered diagnostic tests and confirmed that it was “invasive ductal carcinoma.”
Her only option was chemotherapy, which she began in mid-August. She ran the 2015 Deseret News Marathon just days after learning the diagnosis and before starting her treatments without telling her running community; she’s not really sure why she didn’t tell them, only that it shifted her perspective in that race.
“I remember just thinking I don’t know what my outcome is going to be,” she said. “I don’t know what my story is going to hold. I mean, I know that breast cancer is curable, but I don’t, I don’t know where I’m at right now.
“So, I have that, like in the back of my mind,” she said. “It just gave me a different perspective as I’m running. ‘You’re running your race. Just get through it, get it done. And I was just so aware of all my surroundings and just all the people around me. We’re all doing this super hard thing and we’re doing it together.”
Eventually, she confided in more people, and the running community responded with support that humbled but didn’t exactly surprise her.
“They just rallied around me,” she said. “One of the races everyone wore pink, and even the guys were finding things to wear that were pink for me. And they’re cheering me on.”
People she didn’t even know announced they were running for her. She was moved in a way that is difficult to describe.
“It was … it is a family, you know?” she said. “We say runners are family members that we get to choose.”
She said her mother showed her how to fight for her life with optimism and hope.
Long before she battled breast cancer, her mother worked her way out of poverty, dealt with lupus and endured a liver transplant.
“Through it all, she has always been so positive, like, ‘I’m just grateful for every day that I’m here’,” Ethington said. “So I think that really kind of molded me growing up.”
It was a reminder of something she’s known all her life.
A winning attitude
“We can’t control all the things that happen to us,” she said. “But to a certain extent, we can kind of control how we’re going to react, our attitude.”
Ethington is now seven years cancer free, and she’s celebrating the best way she knows how — pacing the Deseret News Half Marathon on Monday’s Pioneer Day.
She first paced a half marathon in 2018, and she found it a beautiful way to give the kind of support that helps you push through discomfort and doubt. It was her way of giving back some of the love she’s felt over the years.
Running gave her a level of comfort that nothing else did when she was fighting for her life.
“When everything felt so out of control and I felt like I was losing who I was, because you look in the mirror and you don’t even recognize yourself in the mirror anymore,” she said. “And running allowed me to hold onto a part of myself when I felt like I was losing everything else.”
So much of running is “pushing through the uncomfortable, pushing through the difficult. …I really feel like my runner’s mindset helped me.”
It didn’t just help her on bad days. It helped her understand that the worst moments don’t define us.
“You’re going to have days where it’s going to be really, really hard,” she said. “And I think it’s important to allow yourself to recognize the emotions that you’re feeling, like recognize that you’re feeling angry, recognize that you’re feeling sad, recognize that you feel a loss or whatever you’re experiencing. I think it is super important to recognize those emotions. Sit in them for a minute, but don’t stay there.”
This year’s Deseret News races
Deseret News Marathon race director Corbin Talley said that in addition to stories like Ethington’s, of ordinary people finding ways to achieve extraordinary accomplishments, there is an intriguing group of elite runners in all of the races this year.
Both of last year’s winners (men’s and women’s) return — Jon Kotter and Ashley Paulson, who is going for a three-peat and who recently won her second Badwater Ultramarathon, as well.
Challengers on the men’s side would be Nate Clayson and Michael Otteson. Clayson was second in the Marathon last year, while Otteson is moving up from the 10K last year, Talley said.
Last year’s women’s runnerup — Jennifer Smith — is also going to be competing this year.
The men’s half marathon will have some new contenders — Kevin Lynch and Preston Johnson, both of whom promise to make this year’s race exciting.
The women’s half marathon features Billie Hatch, a recent graduate from Weber State, who had a stellar career, Sylvia Bedford and Kristin Johnson.
The 10K is extremely competitive on both sides. Olympian Jared Ward is back to defend his title. “Our top 10 could be as competitive as ever with some recent college graduate: Habs Cheney from UVU, BYU All-American Joey Nokes, and some big names like Sean O’Connor, Jason Lynch, Jacob Heslington and Jaydn Asay,” Talley said. “There are also a tremendous amount of talented high school runners that we’re excited to watch as well,”
Talley said the women’s 10K should be a battle between Hanna Branch, MaKenna Myler, Savannah Berry and Madey Dickson.
“Hanna recently raced at the USATF 10K championships in Eugene,” he said. “MaKenna is a favorite from the past two years here at Deseret News. There may be some other surprise contenders on the list as well. Overall, we’re extremely excited for the competitiveness and depth of each of the races. There is some outstanding talent here in Utah.”
