After finishing 15 seconds away from an Olympic spot, Jessica McClain is waiting patiently
From the beginning, Jessica McClain has always been fast. The converted soccer player, who kept getting taken out due to her small frame, made the decision to join an after-school program after her physical education teacher at Kiva Elementary School noticed the scrawny little girl, who was managing to beat all the boys in the mile.
By the time she was in middle school, following a club track career with the Phoenix Bobcats, McClain was already linked up with one of the state’s best distance running coaches and doing 5 a.m. practices at 13 years old.
“It was this sense of freedom,” McClain said. “I would have a 20-minute run on the weekend, but I’d get to run by myself and I thought that was so cool as a middle-schooler. It’s been an outlet for me. Running’s always been my thing.”
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So it was no surprise when McClain, who was then known by her last name Tonn, went on to have one of the most decorated careers as a prep runner in state history with 12 total state titles in cross country and track and field while at Phoenix Xavier College Preparatory.
But it was a surprise for McClain when she recently finished fourth at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials to become the official alternate for Team USA – that’s because McClain had already made the decision to leave the sport a few years earlier and was competing without a coach or sponsorship.
Now, she’s waiting patiently, just in case her name gets called for a trip to Paris this summer.
Early days
The RunJumpThrow program, which is sponsored by the Hershey chocolate company in coordination with United States Track and Field, is where McClain honed her skills as a runner. It’s designed as an entry-level way for kids to get involved with the sport.
She then moved on to Mohave Middle School, and that’s where McClain first got into contact with Jeff Messer. At the time, he was personally coaching Queen Creek’s Kari Hardt, one of the best runners in state history.
When it came to deciding public school or private school, McClain decided to apply to Xavier Prep. But after passing the entrance exam, she actually declined and made plans to attend Scottsdale Saguaro. McClain said she was suffering from imposter syndrome. After much thought though, she ultimately reversed and decided to attend Xavier.
“Xavier is where I would say, at a very high level, it all started for me,” said McClain.
The rest was history as she collected state titles on a yearly basis and ended up being invited to the Foot Locker National Championships a staggering four times, one of the most prestigious meets at the time, under Xavier coach Dan Van Sickle and his newly-hired assistant, Jeff Messer.
McClain continued to excel at Stanford, where she was a seven-time All-American. After Stanford, she ran professionally for Brooks for four years from 2015 to 2019.
Building momentum, then boom
Following her time with Brooks, McClain synced back up with Messer. Things were going well. She was set to debut in the half-marathon at the United Airlines NYC Half Marathon on March 15, 2020. We all know what happened next as everybody’s lives were turned upside down in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think to this day that was the fittest I (was),” McClain said. “I’m a different kind of fit now, but I was running lights out. So that was a blow.”
This came after she already missed out on competing in the 5,000 meters at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials as a second-year professional. An X-ray on the morning of the race revealed a fracture in her shin and she was ruled out.
Momentum was building for a chance for her to try to qualify in the 10,000 meters for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics until the pandemic happened.
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“The whole global pandemic was such a weird thing to navigate,” McClain said. “Life stopped. I couldn’t race. There was no end in sight. I always have to have something as a goal to keep me in it. I didn’t have the fire to find something to strive toward. I just lost motivation and I didn’t know when I would come back.”
So, McClain took a hiatus. Got her first self-described “big-girl” job, a full-time marketing job for Culdesac Tempe – the first-ever car-free neighborhood in the United States. She went the corporate route, and didn’t end up liking that. McClain got married.
Then running came calling again.
The comeback
“I had this itch,” McClain said. “I got an ad for the Mesa Marathon on Instagram. I had just got back from my honeymoon, it was just before January, and I was like, ‘You know what. I’m going to run a marathon before I turn 30.’ So I trained for like six weeks and I ran 2:33.”
That time was good enough to qualify her for the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, but she needed to do it again on a certified course.
It was in Mesa when she realized that competitive fire had returned as she chased down people left and right to finish ninth overall out of all runners.
“Stepping away, taking the pressure off and finding my identity outside of the sport was really healthy because up until then I was always, ‘Jess, the high school runner. Jess, the Stanford runner. Jess, the pro runner,’” McClain said. “Then all of a sudden, I saw this shift in how people would talk about me. It wasn’t just running. It was very refreshing.”
After feeling “completely reinvigorated” following the race in Mesa, she decided to run at the Grandma’s Marathon in Minnesota last June. There, she ran a qualifying time of 2:29.25.
In McClain’s mind, this was it: one last run. So did her family.
“I think most of my family, they had no idea what I was going to run coming into this thing,” McClain said. “I think some of them even thought, ‘Oh, this could be Jess’ farewell tour.’ And that’s how I looked at this for a while. I want to run a Trials, that would be such a great way to end my career.”
So she started on a training schedule, all while working a full-time job and with no coach or sponsorship backing her, with her eyes set on February 2024 in Orlando. The final hurrah.
All of it, running full-time and working full-time, is a lot for McClain. She’s managing it well. There was a time at the beginning of the comeback in November 2022 when it all became a bit too much. But she has since dialed it in.
“I just shaped up,” McClain said. “Really honed in on fueling, recovery, bodywork.”
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As the race approached, McClain tapped into a form of sports psychology to help prepare her. A certain workout in the last portion of her training schedule showed her that her fitness level was high, giving her a boost of confidence.
“People say visualization is so important,” McClain said. “And I don’t think I’ve ever really tapped into that until for some reason this race. I’ve never seen the Orlando course, I didn’t look at YouTube videos. But I just envisioned myself being in it.”
At first, the race started a lot faster than McClain had anticipated.
She decided to back off from the pace and not let others dictate her moves.
“The race shook out differently early on than I thought it would,” McClain said. “But I don't think I ever doubted myself.”
With six miles to go and sitting in 12th, McClain knew she was in a good spot. Competitors were falling back to her without having to put in much effort. One by one, she picked off athletes.
She even skipped the last aid station because she felt so good. With two miles left, she had moved from 12th to eighth. McClain then gave it everything she had.
She passed the seventh-place runner. Then sixth. Then fifth. As she approached the finish line, a stream of tears began to fall from her face.
“I think the emotions kicked in 400 meters from the finish,” McClain said. “It was a culmination of the crowds – I’ve never been in a race where they’re that big – the race line, these grandstands going up, it was so cool. And then seeing the clock and the time, was also overwhelming because I did not expect to run that time in those conditions. I wasn’t checking splits on the back half of the race. It was all about keeping my eyes up on the lead pack. The finish was emotional.”
McClain finished in 2:25.46, only 15 seconds off the third-place finisher, Dakotah Lindwurm – shaving off four minutes from her personal best in the process.
The mix of emotions
The race was the definition of bittersweet: a career day while coming painstakingly close to making the Olympic team. For her former coach, it was a mix of emotions as he watched his pupil put together one of the best races out of anybody in the field.
“It was a combination of joy and absolute surprise,” Messer said. “I was ecstatic for her. I know how hard she works in running and how much embraces the challenge that comes with running at a high level. But there was also an absence of surprise because she executed race strategy about as close to perfectly as a human can when it comes to running a marathon. And that did not surprise me because this is a highly intelligent individual who has tremendous racing acumen. Ultimately, she was within 15 seconds of Paris. Just an incredible tribute to her racing skill, her competitive toughness, her exquisite preparation, all that came together and manifested in an excellent race, one that she will be proud of for the rest of her life.”
If she doesn’t end up going to Paris, she’ll try to run a fall marathon to capitalize on her fitness.
But she’s preparing as if she were on Team USA.
“My full intention is to keep going at this level, be ready on standby for Paris,” McClain said. “I’ll be training as if I’m going to get through it.”
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Despite missing the team, the performance has drawn the interest of the running world.
No coach. No sponsor. A hiatus from the sport. A four-minute personal best. Just missing the Olympics by 15 seconds. People are intrigued by McClain.
McClain recently signed a sponsorship deal with her old team, Brooks.
It shows that those who are standing in the same spot McClain was all those years ago what is possible.
“It’s really inspiring,” Xavier Prep senior and Santa Clara University commit Julia Russo said. “I think for all the girls on the team, watching her, it’s really inspiring and motivating to show up, keep pushing, keep working.”
That’s exactly what McClain is aiming to do.
“To represent Arizona and Xavier at the college and the professional level is awesome,” McClain said. “And now to be a part of the history of the sport in the state with names that I looked up to forever – Sarah Slattery, Steph Bruce (Xavier alum and NAZ Elite runner whose last name was Rothstein in high school). A ton of women have come through here and have done amazing things in their life on and off the track, or cross country course, or the roads. I hope to remain a part of that legacy. There’s always a new generation coming up under you, so whatever you can do to pave a path that’s full of less friction and offer support and information so younger women in the sport can avoid the mistakes that you’ve made.”
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: After finishing 15 seconds from Olympics, Jessica McClain is waiting
