If you were to think about a typical path to competing in the marathon at the U.S. Olympic Trials, what goes through your head? Any chance open heart surgery comes to mind? Probably not.
 
But for former Wildcat and Pac-12 Cross Country champion Erin Menefee (2010-14), that was her reality.
 
Her journey to qualifying for the Olympic Trials started five years before her surgery when she arrived in Tucson to compete on the women's cross country and track & field teams, which instilled the competitive nature in her.
 
"It was a really competitive environment and I was always the sixth or seventh runner, so I had to work really hard to be a part of the team that was doing so well," Menefee said. "It definitely kept me on my toes."
 
Menefee competed at the 2012 Pac-12 Championships where the Wildcats finished in second place and then competed again as a senior in 2013 where Arizona took home the Pac-12 Cross Country crown.
 
She finished her collegiate career at the 2014 Pac-12 Track & Field Championships where she finished in 10th place in the 3K Steeplechase the weekend of graduation. A couple days after her season was over, she did what she does best... run.
 
"After graduation I thought my running career was over, but I wanted to do a 50-mile run," Menefee said. "I ran the marathon distance (26.2 miles) pretty fast, so I changed my mind and decided to transition to a different distance and keep training."
 
Menefee moved back to her hometown of San Diego after graduation and joined a running club called Prado Racing Team.
 
"Coming from such a team environment at Arizona, I realized I loved running because of the people that I am around, so I found an adult competitive running club that I have been a part of for five years now," Menefee said.
 
She kept herself busy, going to physical therapy school while continuously training for competitions with her running club with the ultimate goal of qualifying for the marathon at the Olympic Trials.
 
Little did she know, her dreams would be put on hold.
 
"In December 2015 I was on a longer run and had some pain going down my left arm and I was short of breath, so I knew something was up because of my background knowledge I gained during physical therapy school," Menefee said. "I hung out at home for a few hours and realized that I should go to the hospital. I went in and they said that nothing is going on but that I should follow up with a cardiologist because it is not normal for a healthy 23-year old to have chest pain. It was about eight months of testing where something was off but they didn't know what, so it led to more invasive tests, but finally they diagnosed me."
 
"It was kind of a waiting game because I was so young and healthy that they didn't want to jump into heart surgery when I'm able to run marathons, but it got to a point where my heart enlarged so much that they went ahead with the surgery."
 
Her surgery didn't stop her long term goals though.
 
"I had set a goal before I had surgery that I wanted to qualify for the Olympic Trials," she said. "It obviously wasn't guaranteed because they didn't want me to run so soon after surgery. I really wanted to do it because I wanted to be able to say that I had open heart surgery and still qualified for the Olympic Trials."
 
Fast forward about two and a half years later, Menefee is gearing up for the California International Marathon where she would run a time of 2:43:10, an eight-minute PR and good enough to qualify for the 2020 Olympic Trials.
 
"It was the perfect race and such a special day," Menefee said. "I ran stride for stride from mile 10 on with one of my teammates. It was cool to have that be such a team oriented race."
 
On Feb. 29, Menefee officially reached her goal and would go on to run the marathon at the U.S. Olympic Trials in 2:57:13.
 
From becoming a Wildcat to going through heart surgery, she reached her goal by staying true to herself.
 
"You have to be goal driven, and it felt like I didn't have any other option than to try my best and go for it," Menefee said. "It was the opportunity of a lifetime."