BOSTON, Mass. – Last Monday, during the 129th running of the Boston Marathon, a familiar face was in the crowd of runners competing. D'Youville University women's lacrosse head coach, Kate Manzella, made the trip out east to compete in the field of 28,384 runners. Manzella finished with a time of 3:18.00, placing her 9,513th overall, 2,000th out of 12,210 for the women overall, and 125th out of 1,807 women in her division.
 
This was Manzella's third time competing in the Boston Marathon and 16th marathon overall. The other two previous times of competing in the Boston Marathon came in 2014 and 2017.
 
"I haven't run it (Boston Marathon) since the very beginning of my time at DYU because training in the winter while in season is a lot to do at once," Manzella said when talking about the Boston Marathon.  "Boston is the type of race that brings you back though, the energy and challenge of the course. I wanted something to focus on this spring because I enjoy training the end goal of marathon day.  I had a qualifying time from my Wineglass Marathon in October of 2023 and thought it was time to go back to Boston."
 
Manzella is no stranger to the big stage of competing, at least when it comes to coaching. During Manzella's tenure as the women's lacrosse head coach, she has coached the Saints to three-straight East Coast Conference Championship Tournament appearances including last season where the team was the No. 3 seed, the highest seed in program history when entering the postseason. During those seasons, Manzella has had to put the work in on the field and have messages to her teams as they competed on the biggest stage. Manzella is a coach that takes her messages to the teams when competing in races like these.
 
"There are a couple messages I've been telling myself recently and have passed along to the team in hopes of them applying it to lacrosse and other aspects of their life especially as they progress through college and get older," said Manzella. "First is, just because something is hard, doesn't mean that it's bad or that you can't enjoy it.  Training for a marathon (and running a marathon) is extremely challenging, just as training all season/competing in games, pushing yourself physically is challenging.  Embrace the challenge, enjoy the journey that it takes you on as opposed to shying away from it because it's hard. You are always capable of doing more than you think. Second is, you are here because you can be, a very small percentage of people run marathons and a small percentage of high school athletes continue in college. You worked to get there and can do it, so embrace it and enjoy it."
 
Training and competing in a marathon are no small feats, as only a small percentage compete on the big stages like the Boston Marathon or smaller ones within one's community. If they were easier, more people would be running and competing in them. There are certain challenges that come with the training and competition part of it. Manzella has a message for those that are faced with challenges:
 
"Whatever challenge you are facing, take it day by day, week by week, don't look at the big obstacle that is in your way and think I can't do this. You take it one step at a time and continue to work, push through the hard days because they won't last forever. Try to not overwhelm yourself with big thoughts. I tell my athletes all the time, we will figure it out, don't look at two months down the road and stress over it. We'll take it step by step and get through it. Focus on the small things you can control, and the big things will sort themselves out.  When training for a marathon, I focus on all the details, like sleeping well, eating well, recovering, strengthening and of course the actual miles. When you do the little things right, the big picture tends to work out how you want."
 
Doing something of this magnitude, there has to be a great support system in place, and Manzella has that.
 
"I definitely want to thank my family, especially my son and daughter, who listen to me talk about running more than they probably want," Manzella said. "I have so much support from friends, family, people in our department who take an interest and encourage me.  All of that helps every step of the way and especially on marathon day."