(Editor’s note: Update at 10:40 a.m. Saturday – Maela Groshong crushed her personal record with a time of 43:51, according to her dad)
Maela Groshong has her eyes set on beating her personal record at Saturday’s Augusta Half Marathon/10K/5K.
The 9-year-old Cedar Ridge Elementary School third grader participated in her first 5K just a few weeks short of her seventh birthday in 2021, posting a time of about 51 minutes. Forty-nine minutes is the mark to beat, according to her dad, Gabe.
The Feb. 24 race will be Maela’s fourth 5K, and chances are good she’ll beat her personal best.
Maela was born without her right leg, but that doesn’t affect her decision to run.
“She doesn’t let anything stop her,” said Gabe Groshong. “When she sets her mind to something like running a 5K, she does it. She’s always been that one.”
Gabe Groshong is an avid runner, having finished a few marathons and several half marathons. Saturday’s Augusta Half will be the first time he hasn’t run in the longer race. He’ll be in the 5K with Maela instead.
Gabe Groshong said he runs with all three of his children, but Maela is the “most consistent.”
“I’ve been running with my dad, and I like to run races sometimes,” said Maela.
She enjoys it because of the time she gets to spend with her father.
“We talk a lot when we run. We have fun,” she said.
Maela sees longer races in her future although it may still be a few years before that happens.
Maela trains for the events by running regularly with her dad and building up to the distance. Sometimes, they add some push-ups into the mix, and he plans to get a pull-up bar, but the best training, Gabe Groshong said, has been the running itself.
When she’s not running, Maela likes to play with LEGO and read. And she likes to push herself in other hobbies as well.
“The night before her sixth birthday, she was reading a chapter book and said, ‘Can I stay up to finish a chapter book before my sixth birthday?’ Of course, we had to say ‘yes,’” he said.
Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for 35 years. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.
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