Lake Placid: Runner Girl and the birth of a marathon runner

The old and the new marathoner: Coach Pete and Belle Hettie, post-race at Lake Placid.

Anyone that spends any amount of time around the Marist College campus has seen her. Of this, there is no doubt. She is known by many simply as “Runner Girl.” I am not on Twitter or Instagram or any of those things, but apparently, “Runner Girl” has a sort of cult following among Marist students. They see her pounding out her lonely miles, doing endless loops around campus. And they Tweet about it. Runner Girl sighting near Fontaine! Just saw her passing Foy! There she is, back behind McCann!

Well, I’m here to tell you that Runner Girl has an actual name (Belle Hettie) and she’s got game in our runners’ world. I saw it first-hand up at Lake Placid on Sunday. I got the sense, during this past year, that Runner Girl became a sort of punch line among some students on campus. Oh her. She just runs and runs. And she’s not even that fast! Not me. I know better. I took notice of Runner Girl, mostly because I noted that her runs were exceedingly LONG. I’d come puttering onto campus in my rickety old car, coffee in hand. And I’d see Runner Girl heading behind McCann. Slow, methodical strides. A few hours later, maybe I’d go out to gas up the van in preparation for 11 a.m. practice, and get coffee #2 for the day. Oh! There’s Runner Girl. Still running. Looking strong.

To me, she was no punch line. Sure, her pace was not fast. But it was steady. And long. To me, from a distance, she seemed like a legitimate long-distance runner. Eventually, I met Runner Girl. Belle. A freshman at Marist. A quiet, studious, unassuming young lady, training for her first marathon. At Lake Placid. She had a lot of questions. First-time marathon questions. They were smart, well-informed questions. She knew her stuff. She did her research. She got good advice from others in the running community where she lives. She trained long. She trained hard. She was ready.

Because of the out-and-back nature of several sections of the Placid course, I saw Belle several times during the race. She was ahead of me, as I suspected she would be. She looked confident. She looked steady. She looked strong. Just like she does when she cruises around those endless campus loops, as others perhaps are poking fun of her on social media. Belle finished strong in 3:57:02, a 9:03 pace, a sub-4:00 marathon in her first attempt, on as challenging a road marathon course as you will find, at age 18. She’s got a bright future in our sport. Runner Girl’s got a name. Runner Girl’s got game. Belle is a marathon finisher, and she should be proud of her excellent effort.