Meet Wanda Ross, the Oklahoma City resident who PR’d by 25 minutes in the marathon after only 9 weeks on the team!

Her Story:

Back in August, TWB partnered with Trivium Racing for their End Of The Road Giveaway, to offer free 3 months of personal coaching. Wanda who had “never won a giveaway” was tagged when one of her friends tagged her in the giveaway and was randomly selected as the winner. Not only that, she also found out she had also been one of only 1,000 people to win the NYC Virtual Marathon lottery spot as well, you could call it a lucky week!

When speaking with her, we only had 9 weeks to prepare for her OKC & NYC Virtual Marathons that were to be run at the same time, we knew we had a lot in store.

After 9 hard weeks of marathon training designed for her, I knew before the race that she was ready for a big day!

And boy was it.

Wanda came away last weekend with a 25 minute personal best in the marathon. She had left nothing to chance as she tried to mimic the race day atmosphere as much as she could as she scheduled her water stops and which friends were going to run with her on certain parts of the course to make the most out of the virtual event!

So what was her experience like from her own words? I'll let her do the talking in a short Q & A we had with her:

1. What was your experience with a running coach before this giveaway?

The only prior experience I’ve had is small group training. I’ve never had one-on-one training/coaching before this program.

2. What was the most helpful part of having a coach prepare you for your race?

The well planned training program created an environment to have an unbelievably enjoyable race experience and also having someone to answer questions as they arise throughout the training process is invaluable. 

4. Tell us more about the virtual marathon(s) and the experience you had running with a group of friends.

The virtual race created an environment where I could run with my friends and have a lot of fun running. In traditional races, everyone is striving for his/her own personal goal. With the virtual, my half marathon friends were able to start the run with me, finish their run, then come back and finish my run with me. I know the virtual race is the only time I’ll get to run through the finish line tape. My friends made me feel like the most important person in the world.  

5.  What was your overall experience with a personal coach?

I never realized the value added to running, for the non-elite runner, by having a personal coach. My coach, prepared me for an enjoyable, injury-free running experience, by pushing me outside of my comfort zone each and every week. I am forever grateful for this training experience.  Team Wicked Bonkproof and Coach Johnny Crain run a stellar program.  

Working with Wanda these last 10 weeks has been a blast. She has come so far and she worked hard to make this PR happen.

2020 has been a hard year for those seeking PR’s as most opportunities have been taken away from us with the cancellation of races.

Wanda though trained hard and made the most out of her opportunity. We’re proud of her and all our team members that are working hard, no matter what event their getting ready to run.

Thank you to Trivium Racing for partnering with us for this giveaway and thank you to Wanda for allowing us to share your story!