Holly Merritt

Holly Merritt ran a race every week on Delmarva in 2023. Read on to find out how she kept going through injury, even having a couple of races designed for her to to continue her quest for all 52 weeks.

For how long have you been a runner? 
I’ve liked running here and there since I was in elementary school. I really started running seriously about 12-13 years ago when I had a professor at Wor-Wic who loved to run and was so enthusiastic about it all the time, so I thought I would try it, too. I recently ran into her and told her how she inspired me to start running again and told her about my running accomplishments and goals. I hope to inspire someone the way that she did me someday. 

You had a stellar year of running, with 52 races in 52 weeks completed, and all of them local to Delmarva. How did that come about?  
I saw a post on Facebook from Trent Swanson with Algonquin Ultras at the end of October/beginning of November 2022 asking who would like to run 52 races in 52 weeks. I thought it was a joke (Trent is full of jokes) but I replied to the post saying that I would like to do it. It wasn’t a joke, so I submitted my running resume and a little while later I received a calendar in the mail congratulating me for being the ‘chosen one’. It did take a lot of thinking before I knew I was ready to want to do it though. 

When you couldn’t find a local race, two were created for you. Which were those? 
We did the Yellow Fire Hydrant 10k on Feb. 25. It was put together in less than a week and went extremely well. The second race that was created was the Jolly Holly 5k-ish on Dec. 23 and I think that was put together in about a week and a half and was also an amazing race. It was amazing how quickly these races were put together, sign-ups were created, an entire 5k course was created, and bibs, shirts, stickers and placement awards were all organized in such a short amount of time to help me reach my goal. 

I’m aware you had a few injuries throughout the year. How were you able to keep going? Did you ever think of quitting the challenge?
I did have a stress reaction in my hip that started hurting me at the beginning of August. I kept running on it for a while but eventually had to see Dr. Kate James and Dr. Jonathan Murphy and got an MRI. I was told to not do any sort of running or walking for 8 weeks but I decided to be very careful, walk a few races and know that I may need to stop before I can finish the year. I was never ready to quit, although I was realistic in that if my injury turned into a stress fracture or got worse, I would have had to stop.

By the numbers: did your race times change through this? Did your average 5k time change from January to December? What was your longest distance for the challenge?  
My times for almost all distances changed drastically this year. My first 5k on January 1st had an 8:06 average pace and I thought I’d never be able to go faster than that. At one point in the summer, I was pr’ing my 5k time every week. On July 22, I got my fastest 5k so far at a 7:11 pace. After my injury, I ran my last 5k at a 7:36 pace. After running for years, I never saw myself as a fast runner or a racer.  It’s amazing what you can do if you really put your mind to it and focus on something.

My longest distance for this challenge was 50k. I did a 50k on Jan.28 and then on Feb. 4, I did the Algonquin 50k. There were no other Eastern Shore races on Jan. 28 and I had already signed up for Algonquin, so in order to keep to the goal of 52 races in 52 weeks, I had to try. Those were the most stressful 2 weeks of the year because I was afraid I would get injured running that distance twice in 7 days.

How many miles of races did you run? Any idea for the whole year? 
I ran approximately 315 miles of races last year.  I think that is about 100 miles or so less than half the miles I ran total last year. 

There’s a saying, “The person who starts the marathon is not the same as the one who finishes.” How could this be applied to your 52 in 52 challenge? 
This saying is extremely accurate when thinking of my experience running 52 races in 52 weeks. I went into this knowing that I would do everything I could to finish the year. I learned a lot about making and keeping commitments. I also learned how extremely strong willed I can be. There were plenty of obstacles that I could have let stop me but at no time was I ready to quit. 

Tell us about your non-running life! 
While running is my favorite hobby, I do have a few other things I like to do in my spare time. My second favorite hobby is playing pool. I have been playing for 3 years now and am currently on 4 different APA teams.  

This year I have taken up biking. I bought a mountain bike and will start mountain biking, but have just been riding on the road so far. Biking is a nice change of pace from running but I’ll always be a runner first. 

I also like visiting my sister and her family in New Jersey.  As much as I loved running all over the Eastern Shore last year, it will be nice to be able to get away for an entire weekend here and there to spend time with my sister and my nieces. 

Since I finished my 52 races in 52 weeks, people have been asking what my 2024 running goal is.  For 2024, my running goal is to run more trail races and ultramarathons. My next biggest challenge will be a 100-mile race at the end of April.