For Lake Leelanau St. Mary graduate Emily Burgess, it took everything she had and more to complete the 2025 Boston Marathon after a windy road of overcoming challenges.
“The energy was unlike the energy of any race I’ve ever run. Everyone was so full of adrenaline and excitement and just all positive vibes. As soon as that gun went off, I was surrounded. There was never a moment throughout the entire race that there was not a runner ahead of me to my left to my right behind me standing on both sides of me. It was just people everywhere, and it was so motivating. It kept my adrenaline high,” Burgess said.
Burgess ran her first 5K nearly 15 years ago when she was in fifth grade. Now she can say she is a Boston Marathon finisher. On top of it all, she hit her goal, finishing with a time of 3:01:46 while finishing in 423 out of 12,444 female runners and 369th out of 5,447 females 18 to 39.
Overall, Burgess was 4,995 out of 28,799 runners.
The story of Burgess getting to Boston was filled with challenges, but she persevered.
In September 2023, she qualified for the Boston Marathon to run in 2024. During her 2024 training process, Burgess injured her hip. She could barely walk for the first few weeks.
As she sat around trying to heal, it nagged at her because of how big running is for her daily life. A few weeks went by, and she was still limited and in pain but was able to do basic life movements. Instead of feeling bad for herself, Burgess hopped in the pool and swam for a couple months. Eventually, she was finally able to run short distances by summer 2024. Her original qualifying time was 3:01 hours, running sub-7 minute miles before the injury. After the injury, she struggled to run a 7-minute mile for two miles, let alone 26.2 miles.
Despite having time to heal, Burgess admits that her 16-week training process, which started in December 2024, was rocky at best.
“I didn’t really feel ready. I worked through a lot of microinjuries as I was getting ready for the race, but It went far better than I could’ve even anticipated, and it was just an incredible experience and such a dream. Growing up, I would’ve never anticipated that this was where I would end up as a runner. Running these world majors has become a dream, and it was just such an incredible experience from start to finish the entire weekend. I loved every second of it.” Burgess said.
Throughout the training process, she had several microinjuries, including a rather serious quad injury that occurred in February. She saw a specialist to realign her hips and running gate to prevent further injury.
“I would occasionally have to take a whole week off running, and depending on the injuries, I was able to bike or do a little bit of strength training,” Burgess said.
After injuring her left quad, Burgess had to take 10 days off, with only about 2.5 weeks until race day.
“It was so hard to not run. The nervous part of me was convinced that not running was doing harm to all the training I’ve done. The rational part of me knew that taking time off was gonna be more beneficial than trying to run before I was ready ... I waffled between extraordinarily nervous and extraordinarily excited … I knew I was capable of finishing. I was fearful that something was going to go.”
Burgess knocked the first six miles out of the park in the mostly downhill phase before transitioning into rolling hills until mile 17, where she would see her parents, Nancy and Jacque, along with her boyfriend, Kevin. Past the 17-mile mark is when it gets serious with some of the steepest climbs.
Burgess eventually made her way to the infamous Heartbreak Hill, the last significant climb at mile 22, with only a 5K left.
As she broke through the mental wall, Burgess’s adrenaline kept her going until the last turn onto Boylston Street, when she was surrounded by thousands cheering each other on.
“I was almost euphoric the last 10K ... It was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. My goal is to do all six world majors.
Burgess now lives in New York city and works as a traveling pediatric ICU nurse at Monte Fiori Children’s Hospital in the Bronx.
Burgess ran for St. Mary Cross Country and track & field before graduating in 2016.
Burgess says her St. Mary coaches, Michael Bean and Nick Papes, instilled in her the passion of running and have been a huge inspiration throughout her life.
“They believed in me and leaned on me as a leader in our running program at St. Mary,” Burgess said. “When I was in middle school running cross country we could fit our entire team in maybe 4-5 vehicles. By the time I was graduating high school, we filled the whole school bus, and it was really cool to see the program grow from when I started in sixth grade to when I graduated ... Cross country was always my passion.”
“I just want to say thank you to my family, my parents, my brother, and then my boyfriend and his family and my entire community that I grew up within Lake Leelanau St. Mary. All the support and love that I felt through this journey from my injury to being able to run in 2025. I couldn’t have done it without the love and support and prayers.”
