Liana Bernard poses for a photo after the Santa Barbara Half Marathon in November. She will run in the U.S. Marathon Trials in Houston, Texas on Jan. 14. (Photo: Mila Gaffney)
For Liana Bernard and many of the other women who will lineup at the U.S. Olympic marathon trials on Jan. 14 in Houston, Texas the hay is already in the barn.
Only three will qualify to represent the country in London next summer, but the trials are a culmination and reward for the thousands of punishing miles and the years of dreaming “Just maybe …”
Marathon is a test of athletic prowess, sure. But it is also a gauge of willpower. On the starting line at Houston, willpower will be off the charts.
Bernard, who was raised in the town of Kula on the island of Maui, is the daughter of a Japanese mother and a father from Connecticut. Her journey is one that many other women at the trials can surely relate to. The elements are all there: Promising young runner with a dream. Frustrated athlete slowed to a halt by life’s challenges. Persevering soul who finds meaning, and freedom, through running.
“It’s always been in me,” Bernard said of her running. “My dad was a runner. My parents always told me that I ran away from home when I was 2. I almost got past the (front) gate.”
Bernard, who has no shoe sponsor or lucrative endorsement contract, is the 77th fastest qualifier by marathon time out of the 225 women who have earned the right to race in Houston.
On the mountainside west of the pineapple plantations, Bernard watched the Olympics on TV as a child and naturally decided “I want to be in the Olympics.” She ran cross country for Maui High and placed 17th at the state meet her senior year.
Bernard thought she would probably attend Maui Community College but a family friend applied for acceptance and Southern Oregon University, and she decided to give it a try too.
Bernard had only been to North American continent three times before she arrived in Ashland, Ore. and walked on to the cross country team.
“I loved Ashland. I’m a small town person and grew up in the country,” she said. “But the weather was hard for me. I remember running one day with the team and the rain felt like needles piercing my skin. And it also got really hot in August.”
She also saw her first snow.
Aside from the culture shock and the experience of changing seasons, Bernard discovered how difficult training is at the collegiate level.
“I was not one of the fastest girls (on the team) any more,” she said. “That took a toll. It was hard.”
But Bernard, all of 4-foot-10 and less than 100 pounds, stuck with it, got better, overcame an illness during her senior year and managed to make NAIA All-American in the 10,000 meters.
She hung around southern Oregon and got a summer internship selling educational books and software. She tried to keep up her running but her diet suffered and she gained 25 pounds. Her job gave her an opportunity to travel, which she loved. She lived with host families in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Michigan as the years scrolled past.
In 2005 she moved to Medford, Ore. And in 2006 she got married. It was a troublesome marriage that ended three years later. Bernard refers to her marriage as “my trial and my challenge.”
She doesn’t elaborate on the problems that ended her marriage publicly, but is thankful that she had running to get her through it.
“God gave me running as an outlet, to take my mind off it,” she said. “Running was always something I had to feel good about.”
Today, Bernard works for Living Opportunities, a non-profit that supports clients with special needs, developmentally delays or physical challenges.
Bernard ran her first marathon in 2009.
“A friend told me about (her experience) and so I decided to do Portland (Marathon),” she said. “It took me forever to register. I was nervous. I started running six days a week but it was rough. I was all by myself.”
Bernard enjoyed her first marathon, carried along by the music and an enthusiastic crowd. She began to feel cramps in her calves around 17-18 miles and stopped for about five seconds on Portland’s St. John’s Bridge. Then she started going again. She finished in 3 hours, 9 minutes.
That result gave her confidence and a new goal – qualify for the U.S. Olympic trials. She found a coach, her first since her days at Southern Oregon, through a friend after the Portland race.
“I’m learning not to limit myself,” she said. “We’re capable of so much more. I’m honestly believing I can make the Olympic team.”
Bernard said those words in February, after hitting the qualifier with her 2:42:27 at the Rock N Roll Marathon in Phoenix.
In September, she returned to Maui and ran 1:20:45 for third (overall) in the half marathon, setting an American women’s record for the event.
Earlier this month she ran in the USATF Club Cross Country Championships in Seattle and placed 105th, a result that she was pleased with.
“Regardless of how I do at the trials, whether I PR or not, what matters to me is that I give my best and that I actually made it and am going to allow myself to enjoy every second of being there,” Bernard wrote last week. “I’ve earned it and have paid my dues (with) the continual hard training, along with all the other talented ladies out there.”
Eeking out a living, without a sponsor, Bernard’s drive for running success is a function of her willpower and her belief.
“I am definitely believing in myself,” Bernard said earlier this year. “I want to be realistic to how fast I can get in one year. There might be a jump, but I’m really shooting for 2016. I’ll be 35.”
