Erica Kirkwood was born and raised in the small town of Falfurrias, TX where she earned honors for being an exceptional student athlete. She completed her biomedical sciences bachelor's degree at Texas A&M University-Kingsville with an athletic scholarship to compete on the Javelina Cross Country and Track teams. She met her husband, Jonathan Kirkwood, while attending Loma Linda University in California where she graduated with a masters degree in occupational therapy. They have 2 daughters, Kaleila (age 5) and Adiella (age 3). After a 6 year hiatus from running, Erica put her running shoes back as an outlet in her busy life as a full time working mom. Within a few months of consistent running, her competitive side returned full throttle when she decided to train for a marathon with a goal to qualify for the Boston marathon. In Sept 2019, she crossed the finish line at 3:02:27 and realized how close she was to achieving the Olympic Trial Standard of sub 2:45:00. She put her Boston dream on hold to instead pursue a chance to run alongside the best of the best female marathoners in the country in the 2020 US Olympic Marathon trials. In June 2019 at Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota, Erica achieved this goal with a time of 2:44:48. She represented south Texas in Atlanta, Georgia by running in the US Olympic Marathon Trials in Feb 2020.
Questions Covered:
You just finished running in the US Olympic Marathon Trials last month in February.
(1) What inspired you to get into running in the beginning?
(2) What stands out as a meaningful moment running on an athletic scholarship at Texas A&M University-Kingsville?
(3) When you stopped running for those 6 years, did you ever think you would be running in the US Olympic Marathon Trials?
(4) If you had to narrow down to one person who helped you become your best in training for the US Olympic Marathon Trials, who would you say and what did they do?
(5) Talk about your experience at the US Olympic Marathon Trials.
(6) What were the big lessons you learned from the US Olympic Marathon Trials?
(7) What is your favorite quality about the members of your family?
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