Victory Lap

The marathon poses a unique challenge for runners who embark on it.

With 26.2 miles of terrain between the start and finish lines, it presents a lengthy and rigorous journey preceded by an even lengthier, and oftentimes more rigorous, window of training.

On any day, a marathon is a difficult race.

On Saturday, May 25, 2019, in Gulf Shores, Alabama, the marathon was more difficult than one can imagine.

Despite a 6 a.m. Central start time, the marathon event of the 2019 NAIA Outdoor Track & Field National Championships could not evade temperatures that began the day in the high 70s and reached as high as 92 degrees. The humidity, surpassing 90% at the start, felt weighty and oppressive.

The field in the women’s marathon featured 51 qualifiers, and 39 student-athletes finished the daunting task.

One of those finishers was Gina Narcisi, a graduate student-athlete running her final intercollegiate race for Roosevelt University.

Narcisi already knew something about challenges before the marathon. A year prior, Narcisi didn’t know if she would ever compete as a collegian again. She missed nearly the entire 2017 cross country season and all of the spring 2018 track campaign due to a broken foot.

“On the second day of preseason [in 2017] I landed weirdly during some drills,” Narcisi said. “After a month or so of writing it off as a bad ankle sprain and not seeing any improvement, I found out that I actually cracked a bone in my foot. It required me to be in a boot for eight weeks and have tons of physical therapy after. It was definitely frustrating at first to not know what was wrong and not see any improvements, and then it became frustrating not to have that senior season I trained all summer for.”

“Breaking her foot was a low point in Gina’s career,” said Head Cross Country and Track and Field Coach Aaron King, a two-time Roosevelt alum and a national cross country qualifier himself. “Gina came into the 2017 cross country season fit and ready to take on her senior season, and a misstep on a mini-hurdle ended her season during the first week of scheduled practices.

“At the time, we thought this was the worst thing to ever happen to her.”

Though the injury cost her that senior campaign, it also caused a mental shift for Narcisi.

“While I was very frustrated for a long time, that time off definitely helped me realize how before I was just going through the motions of things and see just how much I enjoyed running again,” she admitted. “It really motivated me to do what I had to do to be able to have this outlet back.”

“Looking at how she ended the 2018–19 season, the lessons and strength gained with overcoming the injury really took Gina to the next level as she battled through the adversity,” said King.

“I knew I liked being here and being on the team, while factors such as the classes fitting my schedule well and allowing for an easy commute were beneficial,” Narcisi said. “When weighing what was best for me in considering all the factors, this stood at the top.”

Now Narcisi turned her attention to 2018–19, and what could have been a year of just graduate studies turned out to be an athletic campaign for the ages.

“I knew if I was coming back for a fifth year and doing this all again that I would have to seriously give it my all,” Narcisi said. “I had such a mental shift to be the best I could be since I had one last opportunity to do so. I kept setting myself up to do that by training all summer, staying on top of physical therapy, working hard when needed, and doing the little things to stay healthy outside of practices and races. Coach King definitely let me know what I was capable of, but it wasn’t until workouts and races started coming together that I really gained confidence and momentum in what I was doing that I started to believe it.

“The races that I had fun in were the races I found the most success and really surprised myself,” Narcisi continued. “My goal was just to come back and qualify for the marathon, but as the cross season progressed I knew I had a shot at being competitive in the conference and the same thing happened in track. I trusted the training, did what I had to do, and that helped me gather all these little successes each week that propelled me into the bigger ones.”

Narcisi started off the fall with exceptionalism in cross country. From the outset it looked like Narcisi had fresh legs, ready to save her best racing for last. She also looked happy as she sped by spectators, flashing an ear-to-ear smile that would become a photographic trademark of her final go-around.

She built up speed and seemed to pass every test put in front of her each weekend. Entering the CCAC Cross Country Championship in Bettendorf, Iowa, on November 3, Narcisi was primed for a big showing.

The CCAC championship turned out to be her best performance to date, as she finished 13th overall with a PR of 19 minutes, 32.8 seconds in the 5-kilometer race to qualify for her first NAIA cross country championship. Despite the PR, Narcisi had mixed feelings as she had not finished as she had hoped. She still ran well enough to garner just the second national bid for a member of the Roosevelt women’s cross country team, joining her former teammate Alena Pacheco, who achieved the feat in 2015. Narcisi also became just the fourth cross country national qualifier in school history, joining Pacheco, King and Alex Agafonov, with the latter two earning men’s cross country national bids in 2012.

“Qualifying for nationals in cross country was not something we sought to do or I ever really thought I would happen,” Narcisi said. “I didn’t do as well as I anticipated at conference, so when I qualified I was just happy to have another race to end the season on a better note.”

Narcisi saved her best for the toughest competition she would face that fall.

Just a few weeks later, Narcisi crushed her previous best by running an 18:51 race on her biggest stage, against 341 of the nation’s top distance runners.

“Cross nationals was such a fun experience, and I ran my fastest ever because I had no expectations,” she said. “I was just excited to be there representing RU.”

“At cross country nationals, Gina ran the whole race smiling,” King said. “Her smile showed that she truly loves the sport. The smile showed that she was going to enjoy every minute on the big stage. Gina ended up dropping 40 seconds off her best time and posting the best finish at the NAIA cross country national championships by any Laker.”

With Narcisi in her best racing shape as a collegian, King knew the time was ripe for her to strike for a history-making bid. Two weeks after running her best 5K ever at the NAIA championships, Narcisi traveled to Grand Rapids, Michigan, to attempt to become the first Roosevelt student-athlete to qualify for NAIA championships in both cross country and track and field.

By running in the Q Elite Half Marathon, Narcisi could qualify to run the marathon at the NAIA Outdoor Track and Field National Championships if her time was at or under the standard set by the NAIA.

Narcisi left no doubt. She won the Q Elite Half, running a 1:27.19 to beat the runner-up by a minute and hit the A standard for the marathon.

“The first time I qualified for the half was on a freezing, icy day that got off to a rough start,” Narcisi said.

King admitted that the rough beginning was due to a time mix-up that resulted in Narcisi arriving just in time for the start of the 13.1-mile race.

“Gina and I looked at each other with concern, but she got on her racing shoes and headed to the line,” King said. “After the race Gina said, ‘Being late did not give me any time to be nervous.’ An event like that really shows how mentally tough Gina has become.”