Stephanie Bruce.Photo: iro Mochizuki/IOS via AP
For professional runnerStephanie Bruce, 2022 has been all about two things — “fun, but also really high goals.” Back in January, she declared that this year would be the last in her career, her “GRIT finale,” after learning that she had a congenital heart condition, and she’s preparing for that finalmarathon, New York City, on Nov. 6.
But will it actually be her last one?
“Right now, this is the last one,” Bruce, 38, tells PEOPLE. “But I would just say everything is to be determined.”
Bruce’s diagnosis came last October, after a difficult year. She lost her mother to breast cancer in June and was feeling off, which she realizes now was likely “grief-induced stress.” That led her to see a doctor, who put her through a multitude of tests, and they happened to discover a congenital heart condition — meaning she was born with it, and it was unrelated to how she had been feeling — called Bicuspid Aortic Valve disease (BAVD).
“It was just a surreal appointment, because here you are having this doctor tell you that you have a heart condition. I’m like, ‘Boy, I’ve been a professional athlete for 15 plus years, and I’m just hearing about something that I’ve had in my whole life for the first time at 38.’ It just was jarring a little bit,” she says. “It was confusing. I wasn’t really sure how to react.”
Bruce’s doctors put her through a litany of testing, and said that they had no concerns about her continuing to run and race. That leftthe mom of twowith a decision to make.
“It took me a while honestly to leave that appointment and process what was actually going on, what it meant for my future, what it meant for the past,” she says. But Bruce then decided “quicker” than she expected she would, to hang up her running shoes after 2022.
“I’ve had a lot of back and forth for sure,” about the decision, she says. “I don’t know, I think I had a lot to happen last year that really just — I wouldn’t call it a midlife crisis, but I was sort of at a roadblock and I thought I had to make a decision and go one direction.”
So in January, Bruceannounced her plans to retire on her blog, and started forming her race schedule. She’s run the Boston Marathon, half marathons, 10Ks — including taking home a national championship in the distance in August — and wanted to makethe New York City Marathonher grand finale.
Bruce says her training block has been going well,as she prepswith her teammate and 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials winner Aliphine Tuliamuk,who is also running NYC. And just because she’s (maybe) on her retirement tour, doesn’t mean that Bruce is going to hold back.
“For me at this point in my career, I’m not 26, there’s no reason to go in for experience or just to be in the top 10. I’m trying to finish on the podium and I think I have the experience, I have the years, I have all the tools and so just need everything to come together on the day,” she says.
And there may still be more to come from Bruce after Nov. 6.
“I think what’s really neat about this year, I’m learning that sometimes you don’t have to make these definitive decisions. I think that’s why this year has been so beautiful and so full of ups and downs, but a lot more ups,” she says. “I’m kind of just going with things each day, each week, each month of this year and it’s been really fun.”
source: people.com
