Time Stamps:

• 3:46: Aspirations to qualify for the Olympics.
• 4:45: When she decided to go all-in on the marathon.
• 5:40: When she shifted to marathon training.
• 7:08: What her training structure looked like heading into the Trials.
• 8:21: How she managed heat training.
• 10:31: How she stayed composed.
• 12:15: What was going through her mind during the race.
• 14:06: Her thoughts in the later stages of the race.
• 16:49: Fueling during the race.
• 18:15: Breaking down the gel chafing situation.
• 20:25: Her social media following.
• 22:28: How she balanced school work with training as a student at Stanford.
• 25:18: Why she decided to join Puma Elite.
• 27:13: How she celebrated.

The following interview excerpt has been edited lightly for clarity. You can listen to the full interview with Fiona O'Keeffe on the CITIUS MAG Podcast – available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your shows.

CITIUS MAG: What was the turning point to switch to the marathon? What caused you and Coach Alistair and Amy Cragg to speed the timeline up a little bit?

Fiona O'Keeffe: We were certainly leaving the door open. I was just a little bit hesitant to commit to it. I really did want to take 2023 to focus on the track and focus on the 10K. I thought I had a good shot at making that team. Things didn't quite work out with the way track season played out. After not getting to compete at USAs, I was like, ‘OK, I want to try to line up and make a team as soon as I can. I'm all in on the marathon.’

CITIUS MAG: You looked like a total pro out there. You were the one who stepped on the gas and pressed from the front. Was that something that you were working on in practice?

Fiona O'Keeffe: I ended up doing a good amount of the marathon-specific work by myself, which was pretty helpful in the end, because it was like, ‘OK, I'm the one doing this. I know I can hold myself to that flame if I need to.’ I wouldn't say I was the most calm on the inside as I was making that move, but I guess I did have some good confidence in holding myself to that pace and that effort for a while.

CITIUS MAG: What was your mindset heading into the Trials?

Fiona O'Keeffe: I had goals going in, certainly. I definitely wanted to make the team, but at the same time, I didn't have a lot of external pressure on me coming in… At the end of the day, it’s just another race and I know how to race. And it's a very long race, so I can't be super amped up the whole time. 

CITIUS MAG: What was the indicator during the race that triggered the green light that it was time to go?

Fiona O'Keeffe: We did start out honest, but then it slowed down significantly for a few miles and I started getting antsy. I felt good, but if it's relatively slow for a while, that might mean that somebody does something crazy, like maybe someone's going to take off with four miles to go running 5:05s. I didn't really want that to happen if there was a group of six of us at that point. I was feeling good and feeling like I could hold a faster pace for a long way to the finish. I was not expecting to be the one driving it the whole time. I thought someone else would come up and take the lead from me or something. But once I was out there, I was like, ‘OK, I guess I've committed to this. I better keep it going.’

CITIUS MAG: When you were up in the front leading, were you running on fear? You were the one making the race at that point.

Fiona O'Keeffe: It was definitely a mixture of things. I'd say at first it was just excitement, like, ‘I'm feeling good, I'm just going to go and see what happens.’ But then there were some doubts running through my mind. Like, ‘Is nobody else taking this? What is going on?’ The spectators were amazing, but some of them started yelling with miles and miles to go like, ‘You’re going to make the team.’ I don’t know what’s going to happen three miles from now! This could all go very wrong. So definitely a little bit of fear, a lot of excitement out there and then just trying to take it back to focusing on the effort itself. I just need to focus on running hard, make it to the next mile, make it to the next bottle stop, all that. 

CITIUS MAG: Why did you decide to join Puma Elite? What were your conversations like when you were first discussing long term goals with Alistair and Amy Cragg? Did it come full circle on Saturday?

Fiona O'Keeffe: My old college coach was also out in North Carolina, Coach Milt, and he had said really good things about the training situation there. I thought it would be nice to have someone out there who I was familiar with and could lean on for advice and that kind of thing. But then starting to talk with Alistair, I was really excited about his ambition and excitement for the team. He wanted to create a situation where we would be contending for World teams, Olympic teams, and eventually contending on those bigger stages as well. At first, hearing those goals sounded a little bit scary. Exciting, but scary. So it's really cool to start seeing some of it actually come together.