Along the way, she saw the clock at the halfway point (1:09:26), but she didn’t know what place she was in. She followed Treacy’s advice and avoided looking at her watch. I was in that float zone where you’re just kind of really present and focused on where your body’s at.”

She adds, “I was zoned into how my body felt, paying attention to my pacers who were doing all the hard work, running all the tangents. But I felt good for a lot of it and was able to close as well as I did.” And then towards the end I was definitely getting tired. There was a 2-mile stretch where I was going through a rough patch. “I was surprised that I felt good for most of the race. “That day it felt like everything lined up perfectly,” she says.

In just her second marathon finish in three tries, Sisson, now 31, slashed 43 seconds off Keira D’Amato’s AR with her 2:18:29 and finished an impressive 2nd in the Chicago Marathon. Whether it happens or not, I don’t know.” It was more like, ‘OK, he can see that I have this potential.’ I’m aware that even if you have the potential to do something, there’s so many variables and factors that come into play. He’s not the type of coach who will say something like that just to boost your confidence. When Ray says something like that, he means it. The heady prediction didn’t faze her: “There really wasn’t a lot of pressure with it. Even going back a decade ago, when she was winning NCAA 5000 titles for Treacy’s Providence team, he told her, “I think you’ll break the American Record someday.” LONG BEFORE ANYONE ELSE realized it, Ray Treacy knew that Emily Sisson would make a great marathoner. (© 2022 BANK OF AMERICA CHICAGO MARATHON/KEVIN MORRIS) “It felt like everything lined up perfectly,” Emily Sisson says of her 2:18:29 in Chicago.

Download emily sisson