After winning gold in both Half Marathon and 8-kilometer cross country race in July in Finland, 40-year-old Lund ready to conquer next challenge Sunday as a medal hopeful for United States in 6-kilometer event in Bathurst, Australia
By Mary Albl of DyeStat
The only hard thing in April Lund’s life is when she can’t run. And then when things happen to people and she can’t help them. Take, for instance, earlier this February when she and her husband both came down with COVID-19.
“What was hard was when I had to take my husband to the hospital,” she said.
Amid that everyday chaos, the 40-year-old Lund, is in the final preparations for perhaps the biggest race of her life.
WORLD ATHLETICS CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS LIVE WEBCAST INFO
After winning the Masters women’s 6-kilometer race Jan. 21 at the USATF Cross Country Championships in Virginia, she’ll toe the line Sunday at the World Masters Athletics Short Course Cross Country Championships in Bathurst, Australia.
It marks the first time in the history of the event that the Masters athletes will compete at the global cross country event as part of the schedule at the same site with the Senior and Under-20 races, as well as the mixed 4×2-kilometer relay. All other races for the remaining age groups, including the Masters mixed relay, will be during Saturday’s schedule, with the Masters individual 4- and 6-kilometer competitions held Sunday.
Lund arrives in Australia with an opportunity to reach the podium and medal for the United States after winning titles in multiple events in July at the World Masters Championships in Finland.
“I have yet to compete at something big that there wasn’t some kind of crisis in my life,” she said. “A crisis doesn’t even affect me.”
For Lund, the everyday “hard” is what she’s only known.
Growing up in Mount Vernon, Illinois, Lund got her first job when she was 4. Walking back and forth from her grandmother to her mom’s house, she would pass the local bakery. Determined, she went in several times, picked up a broom and went to work. Even when she got shooed away, she went back. She didn’t want money, just food to bring home to her family.
“When you grow up with nothing and have a hard life, you look at life differently,” Lund said.
Lund’s running journey didn’t start out glamorous either. Wanting to follow in her sister’s footsteps, she started running in the seventh grade, but stopped because the other girls were mean to her.
CLICK HERE to Read the Full Original Article at RunnerSpace News…