Hello! Welcome back to The Footprint – and happy Friday.

This week’s edition is a bit different. After a strong performance at April’s Boston Marathon, I caught up with British Olympian Calli Hauger-Thackery, and her husband and coach Nick Hauger.

We covered a lot of ground, so the piece is a bit longer than normal. As ever, let me know what you think: just hit ‘reply,’ or email me.

📬 Edition #18: Calli Hauger-Thackery and Nick Hauger on happiness and discontent in Boston; entrusting people with your goals; and mastering the marathon.

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Bridging The Gap

I. Not Messing Around

On a glorious spring morning in Boston, Calli Hauger-Thackery stepped up a level.

The British distance runner finished sixth in a stacked field at April’s 129th Boston Marathon, crossing the line faster than four former champions over the past decade.

“I’m happy with it,” she told The Footprint in an interview. “But I’m still nowhere near content.”

Hauger-Thackery took barely a minute longer than the personal best she set last September in Berlin, the flattest major marathon, to navigate the notoriously tough New England course.

It was an unprecedentedly quick race, however. She finished five minutes behind winner Sharon Lokedi, of Kenya, who set a course record.

“I just don’t like the gaps,” explained Hauger-Thackery. “I know these are world class women, and Olympic medalists. Sharon was fourth at the Olympics in Paris. I know how tough they are. But I still want to bridge that gap.”

Boston is a race, not a time trial. Its undulating hills and unpredictable conditions have destroyed more than a century of meticulously-planned strategies. And from the early stages, it was clear this year’s race would be fast.

“Those girls were not messing around,” Hauger-Thackery said of the five women who ultimately finished in front of her. At the first few bottle stations, as much of the pack slowed to pick up drinks, the race leaders “sprinted off,” she said. “It’s like a baton – they get it, and they’re off.” 

She worked behind, in the chase pack, determined to be the first of that group to finish, if she didn’t catch at least one of the racers ahead. 

When the hills came, she pushed all the way up, and tried to maintain momentum over the top – ignoring complaints from her quads after 20 miles of racing as she managed to break ahead of the other chasers. “I couldn’t let them gain on the downs.” 

Four miles is nothing, she told herself in the final stages. Turning right on Hereford St, and left onto Boylston St for the last kick, Hauger-Thackery finished in 2:22:38. 

Of the five women ahead, three had already won major marathons. The other two had previously reached the podium of a major.

II. Two Sides Of The Coin

Two years ago, Hauger-Thackery had broken into the top of the sport, and felt as fit as ever – but was “in a bit of a rut,” she said.  

After struggling with several different coaches, she was finding it hard to land a new one. She even reached out to a former coach, who suggested she wasn’t disciplined enough to return to his operation.  

“You can call me a lot of things,” said Hauger-Thackery, “but you can’t say I’m not disciplined.” 

She kept on plugging away, working here and there with Tom Craggs, at England Athletics. After a few weeks, Craggs made a suggestion: what about the guy next to you? 

Hauger-Thackery met her now-husband, Nick Hauger, in Flagstaff, Arizona, in 2022. They married in 2023. A pro athlete sponsored by Hoka at the time, he was coaching, too, but not at this level. 

“Luckily, it has just worked,” she said. “I know what works for me now. I know when to hold back, when to push. But it’s just nice to have someone else who I can work with.” 

Hauger found it pretty daunting, at first. “People’s goals – that’s a really big thing to trust someone else with,” he said. “Whether you’re trying to break four hours in the marathon as runner, or trying to make an Olympic team, it’s all hard, to a degree.”

Momentum started to build. In 2023 Hauger-Thackery came seventh in the half marathon at the World Road Running Championships – three decades after her dad, Carl Thackery, won bronze; ran the second-fastest debut marathon by a British woman, behind Paula Radcliffe; and signed a sponsorship deal with Nike.

“Everything I work towards as a coach has largely come from the athlete experiences I have had myself,” said Hauger, pictured above at December’s California International Marathon, where he finished third. He also ran a personal best at the New York City Half Marathon in March.

Not everyone gets it. How can husband and wife also be coach and athlete?

A few people have suggested they are “flying a little too close to the sun,” according to Hauger, who insists the arrangement is working. “It’s like, how could you not love what we’re doing, and not be jealous of what we’re doing? This is sweet,” he said. “You get two sides of the coin at the same time.”

III. A Blessing And A Curse

Early last year, following her strong debut, it was confirmed Hauger-Thackery would represent Great Britain in the marathon at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Six months of hard training ensued.

The final stretch couldn’t have gone any better, she believed. But news of her mum’s cancer diagnosis, a few weeks before the race, left her spinning.

About 17 miles in, unable to go any further, Hauger-Thackery withdrew. “It turns out if you are mentally exhausted from a lack of sleep, your body does some crazy things in the marathon,” she wrote after the race.

“I try not to think about it,” she said, almost ten months down the line. “Obviously it will come into play sometimes in my mind. But I’m a forward thinker, and I just want to move on now, and focus more to LA [2028 Olympics] and the big picture.

“I think that’s the way I have to deal with it. I’m very much, like, anything bad that’s happened in my life, I’m very good at burrowing it. It’s like a blessing and a curse to do that. But I’m very good and just putting it behind me and moving on.”

Even in the rearview mirror, setbacks have a habit of lingering. Hauger-Thackery used this one as fuel for the journey. “It’s definitely driven me as well, made me more hungry to prove to myself that I can still achieve big things,” she said.

Less than two months after Paris, she finished seventh in Berlin; barely two months after that, she won the California International Marathon in Sacramento.

“I know that [Olympic training] block was world class. It’s just so unfortunate I never got to show that in Paris. It really is. That’s the heartbreaking part,” said Hauger-Thackery. “But it never went anywhere.”

IV. What It Requires

Boston was not Hauger-Thackery’s first race of the year. She competed in the New York City Half Marathon and the TEN 10,000m track meet in California in March, coming third in both.

Speaking to reporters after finishing Boston, she was quick to credit shorter events with helping her marathon performance. “The fast stuff helps my confidence so much,” she said, “just knowing that I can do that stuff at the end.”

Hauger agrees. “Not only physiologically does it give such a boost to her, but psychologically, as well,” he said. “We get to take away so much from each one of those experiences, and say, okay, this is so far out of what the marathon requires. But at the same time, where it’s moving – especially what we saw in Boston – it is what it requires.”

Hauger-Thackery, who raced the 5,000m at the Commonwealth Games and European Athletics Championships three years ago, is unprepared to stick to one distance, or surface.

The 5,000m was “my first baby,” she said. “I definitely can’t wait to get back on the track. It’s just a different kind of stimulus. We’ll see. I feel like, while I still can, I really do want to focus in and redo those PBs. I’m ready to do that, so I’m excited to see where that takes me, as well.”

She is due to race the Fast 5000 on the outskirts of Paris tomorrow, and a 10,000m in Oslo next week, with the world standard (30:20) in her sights.

“As she has said so many times, we don’t know when this ends,” said Hauger. “We can cross our fingers, and know to a degree that it’s going to last a long time, but if you can look back and think ‘I took advantage of every opportunity that came my way’, then that’s a career well lived.”

V. The Marathon Chose Me

Every marathon is intimidating. But some are more daunting than others. 

A race like Boston, with punishing climbs and historic benchmarks, “won’t scare me again,” said Hauger-Thackery. “The more you callus to those races, the better you’ll be in future.”

She points to Kenya’s Hellen Obiri, who won both the Boston and New York City marathons in 2023; won Boston and came second in New York last year; and narrowly missed out on a Boston three-peat in April, when Lokedi took the win. 

Obiri “crushes the New Yorks and the Bostons, because she’s done several now and her body knows it, knows how to do it,” said Hauger-Thackery, who already has another marathon penciled in on the calendar. 

UK Athletics has lined her up for the marathon at September’s World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. She wants to see how this summer’s track events go before making a decision. 

Pain in Paris last summer underlined for Hauger-Thackery the mental challenge set up by the marathon. “It’s not like a 5K or 10K, where you can just get through 15 or 30 minutes of running,” she said. “It’s a lot longer, and it’s a lot more time in your head.” 

It’s not as if the scale of this mental test lessens the physical toll of each mile. “Your body has to be on top form,” she said. “That comes with being on top of your mental game, as well. That is the thing you’ve got to master in the marathon. If you don’t, and you’re not on it, you’re going to suffer. It’s going to expose you.” 

Hauger-Thackery does not resent this challenge. “That’s why I love the marathon,” she said. “It is a crazy thing. It is a crazy event. I do always say the marathon chose me, but at the same time I’m not sad about it. I’m really enjoying it.  

“When it goes right, it’s the best thing in the world. And obviously it can break your heart, as well.”

AROUND AND ABOUT

⏱️ Chicago chase | After breaking the US men’s half marathon record, Conner Mantz will head to Chicago in October in a bid to break the same record in the marathon

🎬️ Film fundraiser | As US Olympian Nikki Hiltz raced to Paris last year, a camera crew documented the journey. Throughout Pride Month in June, they are raising funds to finish the movie

🔎 Kenya’s curse | Jonathan W. Rosen explores the nuances of a nation’s pursuit of greatness in distance running, in a sobering dispatch from Kenya for the Economist

🛑 Stepping back | Peter Bromka, in his Writing On Running newsletter, wrote this essay about six months not running

🤥 Fake fitness | Why would you cheat Strava? Arthur Bouffard, who developed a program which does just that, spoke to the New York Times

💨 Running late | The fastest 75-year-old woman in history only started running eight years ago. “Never think you’re too old,” Sarah Roberts told Ben Bloom in the Guardian

RECENT EDITIONS

• #17 No End In Sight | NFL veteran Justin Britt on the freedom of running

• #16 What Running Should Be | former pro Serena Burla returns to racing

• #15 Dreaming Bigger | Faith Kipyegon’s bid to break four minutes in the mile

Thanks for reading! Have a great weekend.

– Callum