Building for the Fall: D3 Alumni Marathon Series: Elliot Kadrofske

“It’s okay to go all in on something. Well-rounded is great, but ‘pointy’ is a cool extreme too. There’s a short time in life when you can try to be great at something. Many people never even get the chance.” 

-Molly Huddle

Elliot Kadrofske (St. Olaf College 2020) is on the stationary bike again. Stagnant air above perpetuates a pool of sweat below. No windows to be seen. Elliot, training full throttle for the Chicago Marathon, is one of the only people I know who at this point still considers, let alone embraces, cross training. Once the mileage guru of the team going “just a little further” than anyone else each day, he catastrophically tweaked his hip on a New Year’s Eve 2020 double and could not run a step for the better part of a year. What has lingered since would kill most anybody’s dreams of further competition. For Elliot, it only seems to have heightened his resolve to recover, adjust training, and still get better: he now runs 4-5 days a week and cross trains the rest. Today on the bike he’s 50 minutes in with 25 to go, before his ten hour shift at a bakery. Survivor plays on his delicately balanced phone on the bike handlebars; eventually he couldn’t take music alone and has reverted back to his quest of watching every season. “Currently on 43 (of 49). Almost there.” 

My college training partner and one of my closest friends, Elliot continues to be a thorn in my competitive side and a huge positive force for why I run whatever times I do. Chicago will be massively exciting, as it will be our first time squaring up head-to-head at the distance. Historically, he had strength and I had speed: one of the joys of my chumpy D3 career was putting Elliot out to pasture the final lap of a race, and I’m sure one of the joys of his career was, more often than that, gapping me far too wide for that to be able to happen. We lived together in Minneapolis for a time after graduating, and then our lives went separate ways. I moved far away; he stayed and found a home with Collegeville Track Club, a Minneapolis based USATF group. Chock-full of midwest D3 alumni and the most dour race prognostications said in the thickest Minnesota accents, it’s the perfect fit for an adopted Minnesotan sub-elite. “Everyone knew who Elliot was in college,” says Lucas Schnirring, a member of the club originally from rival D3 school Gustavus Adolphus College. “I mean, how can you miss that blonde hair and those glasses?” It’s clear Elliot is a pillar of Minneapolis running. He manages to grind this new training out to his standards even with his sporadic hip pain, long hours worked as a chef, and a committed relationship:

“I want to be as great as I can, the key part of that being ‘as I can.’ I can’t do 100 mile weeks now, maybe ever again, and that’s totally fine. I feel like people struggle with getting in solid work on the bike, and I’ve never had that issue. It’s ‘I get to run’, not ‘I have to run.’ A few days a week on the bike lets me appreciate running more; there are no runs I dread anymore.”

Elliot will certainly be the first to say he’s mellowed out a bit since college. In the height of Covid-19 in April 2020 after our college careers were suddenly over, several prematurely minted St. Olaf XC alumni met online on a Sunday for a remote get-together. Eventually it came to attention that Elliot was at 99 miles on the week, despite already doubling that day, and the chirps began:

“Very sad, Elliot. Couldn't make it the last mile?”

“I’m not running a third time today, guys.”

“What’s the matter, you can’t even hit 100 miles before our nonexistent conference race?” 

“I hit 100 beers this week, does that count?”

“Ladies and gentlemen, we got him” 

A few minutes later, he was out the door. “Bottom five run of my life,” he later reflected. 

Most of the time, I do find Elliot to be particularly intelligent with self-introspection and analyzing his next moves. Chicago is his next marathon choice for the second year in a row. Last October in the (legitimately windy) streets, he paced a group that included notable pros Lindsey Flanagan, Gabi Rooker, and Rory Linkletter as a pacer for the first 17 miles. His Strava for the activity reports a blissful first half in 1:11:16 and an agonizing second one, finishing in 2:25:17. Ever the analyst, he surmises his legs lacked the strength he once had to be able to properly close out the race. During a rare reunion workout we did together in Minneapolis earlier this August, Elliot mused that he could cover this perceived strength deficit this time around by fluctuating his mileage and cross-training intensities more with a week up and week down schedule: 70-80 miles + 1 XT day one week, and 40-50 miles + 3-4 XT days the next. Sometimes his lasered commitment to the process may have had negative repercussions on his body, but most of the time, it hasn’t. At this point in running, there are good, spirited reasons to continue, and reasons that won’t keep you going long. Elliot has a good reason to keep training because he decided so. That running still enriches his life even in the face of injury, and, beyond figuring out how to optimize training under his circumstances, there are a myriad of other positive forces to keep him coming back. “What’s the end game?” I asked in the car after a muggy Collegeville run a few days later. “Is there a point where you’ll be content with what you’ve accomplished?” 

Elliot, despite being as competitive as I know he is, completely and rightly deflected his answer:

“Running is so much more than elevating the heart rate and staying fit. An OTQ is at the back of my mind, but that’s still such a long shot. While that's one draw, I think what keeps me craving these miles, as opposed to other forms of cardio, is the other little things that running is.”

Later he writes: “It's time outside, it's time away from my phone, and it's a mental health boost (probably not inconsequentially related to being away from my phone). It's a way to connect with others via Strava, it's a daily sense of order, and it's a source of newfound friends at every race or run club meetup. 

The utter solitude that one can achieve while running is unmatched. Being able to zone out and just deeply connect with the sound of one's breaths and footsteps is a satisfaction I haven't been able to find with other forms of cardio. Pair that with the feeling of spending time in the great outdoors and you've got yourself a couple obvious reasons to love running. It's also such an incredible source for connection, communication, and friendships. Conversations never flow more easily for me than on a run. Something about those brain chemicals just foster such a natural, free-flowing, and talkative nature in me. That's why running with friends at weekly run club, or catching up with old high school or college teammates is such an incredibly cathartic, dopamine-inducing experience. One I desire to keep coming back to again and again. So while I'm still putting in so many miles post college to push myself physically and mentally, set PRs, and stay fit, I think there are many other sports that could provide a similar outlet. Of those outlets, it’s simply running and staying competitive that make me happiest. And so much of that happiness stems from this post-collegiate mindset I’ve developed the last few years. My sense of dedication stays strong as it’s ever been. But also, I’ve learned I don’t need to be as serious about running. I can still maintain a deeply dedicated mindset while still having a healthier, happier and less serious relationship with the sport I love.”

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Elliot Kadrofske is running the Chicago Marathon on Sunday, October 12. His “Aggressive goal going in is 5:24 pace which would be sub-2:22 and put me in range of top 50 overall and top 10 amateurs and top American woman. Definitely a sort of top-end goal, but I feel like I’ve got a shot at something in that range.”