Galina Free’s first Boston Marathon run in 3 hours

Many readers will know of whom I speak when I describe the mysterious lady often spotted running through town. The tall, slender figure would materialize from the hill above and glide by seemingly without effort, only to disappear. On my daily bike ride with a group of neighbors we would often cross paths with the “lady who runs” as she traced her path through La Conner. One day I asked if she ran competitively. She answered that she was still developing as a runner and was a member of the Bellingham Distance Project, a postcollegiate women’s and men’s competitive training and racing team based in Bellingham.

In future encounters, she told me that her name was Galina and that she was training to run the Skagit Flats Marathon in September of 2021, hoping to qualify for the Boston Marathon in April 2022. Galina finished the Skagit race fifth overall and was the first woman to cross the line. That qualified her for Boston with time to spare.

Galina’s sport growing up was cross country skiing, not running. She tried jogging one winter and discovered that she enjoyed it to decompress, think and relax. During the pandemic, she found a training program online and used it to train for a marathon. She injured herself. Galina located a coach in Flagstaff, Arizona to train her remotely, starting in April 2021, and five months later, she ran the Skagit Flats Marathon. She spent four months training for Boston.

Discovering that she would be running in the female 45 to 49 age group, I realized that Galina is no kid. Her coach put her on a vigorous training regimen that had her running 60 and 70 miles per week. The weather last winter was a challenge also. Her water bottle even froze, and there were days that the snow made running unsafe, so she ran back and forth on a short section of the street that had been cleared of snow to get in her miles. One Sunday, tired of snow and cold, windy weather, she booked a hotel to use a treadmill to run 15 miles.

Her training was not without injuries, and she was grateful to receive immediate and effective support from a great team of local physical therapists at Balance Point Physical Therapy.

We saw Galina on our ride the morning she was to fly to Boston, and we were glad to be able to wish her luck. She confessed she was “really nervous.” I told her that six old biker dudes would be cheering her on during the race.

Galina had given me her bib number and the link to be able to track her during the race on my phone. ABC TV carried the race in real time, so I was up when the race started, but her group didn’t start until 10:25 a.m. Boston time. Her finish time and place were posted as she crossed the finish line. We are proud that she finished 12th out of 1,630 in her age group with a time of three hours and three minutes. All of La Conner should be proud to have a new celebrity in our midst.

Next is the New York Marathon, Nov. 6, 2022, where Galina will be running to fundraise for Every Mother Counts. More about that in a later story. Stay tuned.

When asked,” What was the best part of the experience?” Her immediate response was, “The cheering crowds on the street. They made me feel like a rock star.”