Marathons and Mechanisms

Hello world, here's a little blip about who I am and why my blog might be interesting to follow. I have a unique story that is only beginning to unfold in the world of elite distance running. There are only good things to come. Here goes nothing:

I'm Emily Gordon, a Senior at UCLA Studying Biochemistry with a minor in Biomedical research. I will be finishing up a final quarter at UCLA this Fall 2014 before I venture off to an olympic development distance running program! After two years as a 400m hurdler on my collegiate teams, I decided I was done with the stress and struggles I was experiencing on the track. So I dove head first into my science major and fell in love with research. I have completed over a year and a half in a plant development microbiology lab and love (almost) every minute of the creative and exciting process of research. I would like to continue into biochemical food/nutrition science with a Masters or PhD program in the future. I guess I can revise my interests to include food because not only do I love the science of the macronutrients, but I also love preparing and eating them too! Anyways, I picked up triathlon as a hobby for a year as a study break before signing up for a marathon on a whim with my club teammates. I surprised myself with a 2:51.44 time at the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco and decided to give road racing a go. 4 months later, I got my Olympic Trials Qualifier for the 2016 Olympics Marathon with a time of 2:39.58. I then shortly after signed onto the Saucony Hurricane Racing team! Unfortunately an injury sidelined my running, but not my drive to begin the steps in advancing my running career. I am currently searching and deciding on an olympic development program team to begin with in January 2015 in preparation for the Olympic Trials and beyond. I am excited to share my seemingly Cinderella-like story with the world and to inspire everyone to try something completely new. Who knows, you may find a new talent that you didn't know you had, or even better, a new passion. My new passion is to run run run and also do some biochemistry on the side. I am excited what the future has in store and hopefully entertain you with the bumps and bruises along the way.