Yesterday Zwift announced the six members of the Zwift Academy Run Team 2022.
According to Zwift’s press release, “Over 12,000 runners signed up for Zwift Academy Run. All those that completed the program’s 8 structured workouts and 2 progress runs, graduated with a chance to make the final team selection process. The final six members are runners from a variety of different backgrounds, each with an interesting story to tell.”
From across the globe, here are the members of Zwift Academy Run 2022:
- Kristin Mclane, USA: Kristin runs a computer software company. She is a former professional road cyclist, has run a number of half marathons but this will be Kristin’s first marathon. She is hoping for a time of 3 hours and 45 minutes.
- Maria Kerres, Germany: Maria is qualifying to become a tax officer. This is her first marathon and she is hoping to run under 2 hours 35 minutes.
- Stacy Frogley, Australia: Stacy is a history teacher in Australia. She hopes to beat her current best marathon time while also qualifying for the Boston marathon.
- Kevin Lohner, USA: Kevin lives in California and works with rockets. His goal for ZA is to run his fastest possible race and to learn from the coaches and team to keep improving for many years to come.
- Andrew Humphries, UK: Andrew is a lawyer, he ran through school but stopped due to a couple niggling injuries, returned to running after meeting his wife. Starting with Parkruns, Andrew has run a few marathons with a current PB of 2.41, he is hoping to run sub 2.30 in Berlin.
- Sunny Lee Yu Kein, Malaysia: Sunny works in a logistics business, finding running at 39 but has since become an integral part of his life. His goal for ZA is to qualify for Boston and run a sub-3 hour marathon.
Berlin Marathon Prep
Team members will receive coaching and mentorship in preparation for running the Berlin Marathon from coaches Terrence Mahon and Jen Rhines.
The full team will meet for the first time at a team camp in California in July. Team members have a wide range of goals, with some trying to run under 2 hours 30 minutes while others are looking to break 4 hours with their first marathon.
Team Sponsors
The team is backed by Zwift, but also a variety of additional sponsors:
I’d be really curious to know what went into selecting these individuals. It’s got to be tough to narrow it down from all of the finishers!
Indeed, i’m curious too.
I am In no way questioning their abilities, but they do appear to be a somewhat privileged group.
Was academics and an impressive career, part of the selection process?
First marathon…at 2:35?! That seems a bit ambitious considering that would’ve been the women’s WR 45 years ago. If you want to talk about the record once the marathon became an official Olympic sport, it’s still less than 15 minutes off the WR at that time.
Who knows though…maybe this runner really is that talented and I’m being too harsh.
The 2:35 goal got my attention too. While this may be her first marathon, she is a strong runner. From what I could find she ran and won a half marathon in October with a sub 1:16 time. She also recently ran a 10k under 34 minutes. Based on those times, I would say ~2:40 for full marathon. Now if she is stepping up her training to run the marathon, then maybe 2:35 is in the cards. Either way, I would bet on her putting down a really respectable time.
Thanks for doing the research Dave. I guess I should’ve taken a deeper look myself!
Best of luck to her. I hope she pulls it off!