Carmen Graves

Carmen Graves returns to Road to the Trials to detail her exciting summer. Carmen locked down a new sponsor (Oiselle), made a emotionanal decision to enter a meet and hurt her foot in the process, limited her training, and ran a PR in the 3000m steeplechase at USA's. An eventful three months, that's for sure! You can follow Carmen at www.instagram.com/carmenpelar and read her writing on her website https://carmenpelar.com/. Sponsors: Thank you to Lagoon for sponsoring this episode and for their truly amazing pillows! In addition, come join the 8x8x8 Challenge! We are inviting you to run 8 miles each day and be in bed 8 hours each night, for 8 consecutive days. The challenge will begin on 8/8 and run through the morning of 8/16. Everyone that finishes and documents their journey will get prizes from Lagoon and you can save 10% on purchases just by registering at https://lagoonsleep.com/pages/8x8x8-challenge. Vacation Races is a running and travel company that helps people explore and enjoy the most scenic places on earth. They host half marathons, ultramarathons and trail running festivals at national parks around the country and multi-day running adventures all over the world! Use our codes to save serious money at www.vacationraces.com on these incredible adventures: rambling15 - New customers can use this code for 15% off any half marathon or ultra marathon that is not currently sold out (excludes Trailfest events and Global Adventures). rambling200 - New customers can use this code for $200 off any Global Adventures trip that is not currently sold out (code is only good for Global Adventures events and cannot be used toward half marathons, ultra marathons or Trailfest events) --- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Road to the Trials has returned for season three and we are fired up! We will be bringing you a yearlong, behind the scenes, look at the training and racing of some of America's best runners as they prepare for the Olympic Marathon Trials on February 3, 2024. In this amazing season we will be following Nell Rojas, CJ Albertson, Sara Vaughn, Dani Moreno, Nico Montañez, Carmen Graves, Ramiro “Curly” Guillen, and Jereny Rivera. In this episode we are joined by Stefanie Flippin and Peter Bromka. Stefanie is a professional ultra runner and doctor who co-owns her own practice. She was also featured in season one of Road to the Trials! Peter is one of the best running-focused writers in the country and has chronicled his own quest for an OTQ over the past five years. In this episode the three of us dive into the eight runners that we will follow this season while Stefanie and Peter share what they learned from their own journeys and their thoughts on the year ahead.  Follow season three's runners: Nell Rojas: https://www.instagram.com/nell_rojas_running/ Sara Vaughn: https://www.instagram.com/smevaughn/ Dani Moreno: https://www.instagram.com/dan_yell_a/ Carmen Graves: https://www.instagram.com/carmenpelar/ Jereny Rivera: https://www.instagram.com/lolspacemonkey/ CJ Albertson: https://www.instagram.com/cjalbertson Nico Montañez: https://www.instagram.com/montanez.nico Ramiro "Curly" Guillen: https://www.instagram.com/deejaycurly/ Sponsors: Thank you to Lagoon for sponsoring this episode and for their truly amazing pillows! Take their two minute quiz and learn which pillow is perfect for you and the way you sleep at https://lagoonsleep.com/rambling and save 15% by using code RAMBLING at checkout. --- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Carmen went to Roanoke College with the intention to play soccer as that was the sport she was recruited for. She eventually joined the track team after being asked by the coach. As a naturally talented athlete, Carmen was able to pick up new events quickly. While she was a pure track runner, her fall soccer conditioning helped her get into fitness for the track season. Slowly but surely her coaches kept adding to her training and she found her speciality was in the 800.

Carmen quickly rose to the national level in the 800 with qualifying for the 800 her Sophomore year. Unfortunately, she finished the dreaded 9th, meaning she was the first one out of the final. This proved to be her motivation as she never missed another 800m final after that.

Her senior year, she wanted to break school records and eventually tried the Steeplechase. Her coach saw her naturally ability shine through but was put on the back burner as the focus was still the 800.

After college, Carmen pursued running as she wanted to keep the dream alive. She so quick success in both the 5k and Steeple. She brought her 5k PR down to 16:09 and her Steeple to 9:49.

Her love/hate relationship with running has taken out and brought her back into the sport many times. The latest is when the Pandemic hit, she decided to give running another shot. She ended up qualifying for the Trials this year. A similar story to college, she was the first one out of the final. As looks to the big meets coming up, Carmen has a great outlook on running and a nice shiny new PR of a 9:41 Steeple.

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