EUGENE, OREGON – AUGUST 03: Emily Venters and Bailey Hertenstein compete in the PrimeTime Timing Women’s 5000m final during the 2025 USATF Outdoor Championships at Hayward Field on August 03, 2025 in Eugene, Oregon. (Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images)
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Two days before her first marathon in Chicago, Emily Venters admitted that she was nervous.
And who could blame her?
The former University of Utah track and field star and Salt Lake City resident, 26, had broken 15 minutes over 5,000 meters indoors in February, clocking a time of 14:58.77—the 76th-fastest time in the world in 2025—so she still had speed in her legs.
But 26.2 miles was a different animal, and by Sunday she was committed to making the leap up in distance. Venters had finished fifth at the U.S. Half Marathon Championships in March, claiming a time of 1 hour, 8 seconds and 48 seconds (98th-best globally), and she was eighth in the U.S. 10-mile Championships in April, securing a time of 52 minutes and 55 seconds (14th-best in the world).
To most, the Nike athlete was one of the up-and-coming women’s distance runners at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon on Sunday. Her initial plan was to race the distance for the first time next fall, but she said she “had a change of plans” and decided Chicago was the right time and “felt ready to do it.”
By race’s end, however, nearly everything went wrong and Venters may have endured the wildest race of her career.
“The biggest thing I’m holding on to is the will I found within myself to keep pushing to the finish, even when quite literally everything went wrong (kind of comical now),” she wrote on Instagram on Tuesday. “Because I know the person who finishes on their absolute worst days is the one who becomes the strongest.”
Where It All Went Wrong for Emily Venters
We should start with Venters’ official result, which read 3 hours, 26 minutes and 32 seconds. She was the 2,479th woman to cross the line and the 11,098th runner overall in Chicago.
For most women, that would have been an above average result.
But for Venters, a multiple-time NCAA first-team All-American, it was abnormal, especially considering her early pace over 5,000 meters—she rushed out to a split of 16 minutes and 54 seconds and at a pace of 5:27 per mile.
Naturally, everything was OK until it wasn’t.
Venters hit the half marathon in a time of 1:13:46, putting her within array of top women in the field and toward a sub-2:30 marathon debut.
But almost immediately afterward, she hit a roadblock.
“I stopped at medical at 15 (miles) for 20 minutes because I felt super dizzy and lightheaded,” she told media afterward. “They drew my blood and said my sodium was low. (They) made me drink Gatorade.”
An Unfortunate Start, An Extremely Gritty Finish
Historically, professional runners in similar scenarios (although not all) have tended to drop from positions like this. Facing adverse obstacles or unseen challenges, it’s often easier to take an L then to stick with the remaining grueling miles.
But for Venters, she decided that wasn’t going to be an option.
“I begged to keep going,” she said.
The only problem?
Following a 43-minute split over her next 5,000 meters after the halfway mark, she was now thrust in the thick of the marathon field. Runners were everywhere.
Which became tricky.
In major marathons, elite runners have the advantage of being corralled ahead of everyday runners—it affords them space to operate on the road, along with their own personal water bottles and gels at aid stations.
But by the time Venters reappeared at her next table, her liquids were gone.
“I had no fluids or gels,” she said.
Still, onward Venters went, with 15,000 meters remaining. She stopped at one point and grabbed a Coke. “Because I needed something bad,” she said.
Despite the setback, she maintained a strong pace while she was on the course, going no slower than 6:12 per mile.
Only, the law of averages continued.
Venters said at one point Bio freeze got into her eye after a runner sprayed the mist into the air. Then she stopped less than two miles from the finish “because I felt something weird with my heart and I cramped so damn bad.”
All that being said, Venters still wasn’t going to quit. She dipped back down to a pace of 5:57 at mile 23 and 5:50 at mile 25.
“I was going to do anything to finish,” she said.
Finishing a little over 3 hours and 20 minutes after she started, Venters ended her wild ride in Chicago not with a top 10 finish but with a mid-field finish. Among the-every-runner (some would say the true heart of any marathon).
Venters first marathon? Forgettable.
But certainly memorable.
According to results and discounting idle time, her moving time was actually 2:31:35.
On Tuesday, a few days afterward—enough time to process what had happened—Venters laid out her thoughts on Instagram.
“Here’s to the new racer in me who decides that no matter what, you never fu***** quit,” she said.
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