At 32, elite Boston marathoner and coach Katie Kellner is just beginning to hit her stride

The 3-time Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier has always approached racing with one goal: have fun. Now, Kellner has a lot to smile about.

Katie Kellner placed 31st in the 2022 Boston Marathon. (Courtesy of Katie Kellner)

April 12, 2024

It’s tough to imagine Katie Kellner working as a biostatistician, probably because it’s almost incomprehensible that she could remain still for so many hours.

The Boston-based elite runner is gearing up for her second Boston Marathon, just six weeks after competing in the Olympic Marathon Trials. At peak training, Kellner runs about 110 miles during the week. Normally that looks like two major workout sessions and a cool 12-16 miles on her “easy” days.

But there was never really a time when Kellner wasn’t moving full-speed ahead.

“When she used to get excited as a kid, she would just run around the house. There was this circle she would do around a few rooms that were all connected,” Kellner’s father, Steve, said. “In general, she wasn’t much of a walker. She was always a runner.”

Even still, as a shy seventh grader Kellner’s parents had to nudge her to join the cross country team. After she hid the after-school activity form from them the year before – despite being a self-proclaimed “rule-follower” – they were adamant that she try a sport.

When Steve asked his daughter about how tryouts went after the first practice of the year, Kellner responded, “fine,” with a shrug of her shoulders.

Steve and his wife, Anne, would come to learn that their oldest child had done much better than she let on, however. Kellner finished as the top girl on the team, setting the tone for what would be a highly accomplished career as an elite runner and coach over the next 20 years.

“She was pretty gifted at the running right from the start,” Steve said. “And it was something she showed a lot of passion and enjoyment for from the start.”

The 32-year-old would admit too, that her career — something she never planned on pursuing even while running cross country at Cornell University – is rooted in a true love of the sport.

“When I was a kid and I first started running, my dad would always tell me ahead of every race that it didn’t matter if I won, it was a successful day if I had fun,” Kellner said. “That’s what running has always been to me. It’s never been this pressure to run certain times or get certain places. It’s always been about having fun.”

Steve vaguely remembers instilling that mindset in Kellner young, but never knew how deeply the advice resonated. To this day, he says his daughter retains the same calm and confident affect each time she crosses the finish line – win or lose.

Kellner before the 2022 Boston Marathon with her sister Caroline (left), her mother, Anne (center right), and her father, Steve (right). *(courtesy of Katie Kellner)*

Throughout her 11 years in the professional field, Kellner’s had many more successful races than not. After graduating from Cornell in 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in human biology & health, she jumped right into the world of elite running.

The 3x Marathon Olympic Trials qualifier wrapped her most recent appearance on the world stage last month, placing 37th overall with a time of 2:36:07. Her qualifying performance at the Berlin Marathon in September, where she finished as the fourth-fastest woman, was another accolade to add to her long list of accomplishments.

“She always just enjoyed competing,” Steve said. “She’s always managed to just have a lot of fun with it and I think that’s lent a lot to her dedication to the sport and her career coaching.”

Kellner’s coaching company, Forward Focus Running, launched in 2018 while she was running professionally and obtaining her Master’s in Public Health from Boston University. When the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown struck Boston exactly two weeks before the marathoner was set to begin her first post-grad job as a biostatistician, fate continued to push Kellner towards pursuing running full-time.

After returning home to West Windsor, N.J. the pandemic continued to put a strain on her remote public health job. However, at the same time, the inverse was happening to her side business.

“As the pandemic went on, I was getting all these requests for clients because more people were running,” Kellner said. “I was having to turn them down because I was doing this job I wasn’t really enjoying doing. It kinda crossed my mind like, ‘Maybe I can do coaching full time,’ and I ended up quitting the biostatistics job and going all-in.”

Now, Kellner personally trains about 60 clients and has had to hire additional coaches to take on more runners.

“It all worked out,” she said, laughing.

Kellner’s longevity as a professional athlete and coach – a world that can be all-consuming for some – is undoubtedly attributed to her adaptability and affection for her sport. Even after her first marathon in 2016 (at the Olympic Trials, no less), Kellner could’ve never seen herself still competing at this level.

“You can do this for a while. I feel like that’s a question maybe 40-year-old Katie should tell 32-year-old Katie,” she said, reflecting on what she wish she could tell her post-grad self.

“It’s crazy to look back at it now, eight years beyond, that and I’m still doing this. Even doing this at a higher level than I was at 24. And I was nowhere near done at 24. So, just to relieve some of that anxiety of like ‘You can keep doing this. You might be doing this in a different way – you might not be on such a structured team.’ But there’s so many ways to keep doing this sport and competing at a high level for a long time.”

Kellner tries to guide the runners she coaches – who range from first-time 5K’ers to pros – by drawing upon the same advice her father imparted on her nearly two decades ago. Ahead of this year’s Boston Marathon, Kellner is encouraging her athletes to bring it back to the basics.

“Having fun is very controllable. You can’t control if you win first place. You can’t control how other people train. To some extent you can’t control if you get hurt or if the weather’s bad and you can’t run a certain time,” Kellner said. “There’s so many things in time and place goals that are out of your control. But having fun very much is in your control and I think a lot of times when you’re having fun you tend to run well and do a good job. That’s a common thing I tell a lot of my athletes.”

When Kellner steps up to the start line on Monday morning, she’ll have the same goal she always does: to just enjoy the ride. And after crossing over the finish just over two hours later to find her family, she’ll celebrate the race with a burger (and a side of satisfaction).