EAGAN, Minn. – On October 11, Northern State University alum and professional marathoner Dakotah (Bullen) Lindwurm placed 13th in the women’s section of the 125th Boston Marathon and third among American women.

Lindwurm, a native of St. Francis, Minnesota, now trains and competes for the Minnesota Distance Elite team out of the Twin Cities. She started as a hockey player, and when she began running, she never expected to run professionally. In fact, she was not highly recruited coming out of high school.

“I had to ask Coach (Kevin) Bjerke for a spot on the team, she stated. “Northern was really the only school I looked at. I fell in love with it right away.”

Lindwurm ran for the Wolves from 2013-2017 and developed into one of the most decorated athletes in Northern State track and field history. Lindwurm was a five-time NCAA Division II National Qualifier, earning First Team All-American honors in 2017 in the outdoor track 10,000-meter run and Second Team honors later in the calendar year in her senior cross country season.

Undecided on her post-graduation plans, she met with Bjerke, the NSU head cross country and track coach at the time and to whom she attributes her development and rich success as a long-distance runner.

“Bjerke asked me about my plans post-graduation, and he told me he thought I could make the (U.S. Olympic marathon) trials if I trained for it.”

Lindwurm moved to Eagan, Minnesota after graduating with a degree in biology education and joined Minnesota Distance Elite in September 2018 to jumpstart her marathon career.

Many long-distance runners struggle in the transition from training for 5,000-meter races in high school to 10,000-meter races in college given the increase in volume of training required to sustain endurance across a longer race. Now, imagine the increase in volume between 10k training and marathon training.

Lindwurm’s normal training week consists of Tuesday and Friday workouts where she runs anywhere from 10-20 miles during the workout depending on intensity, not including additional mileage on the warmup and cooldown. Sunday long runs can range anywhere from 18-26 miles.

Lindwurm ran her first marathon in June of 2019 in the Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth. She won in her return to the Grandma’s Marathon in June of 2021, earning a personal best of 2:29:04 and becoming the first Minnesotan to win the women’s race since 1987.

Averaging over 100 miles per week consistently takes a toll on the body, and Lindwurm credits much of her ability to stay healthy to her extra stretching, core, foam rolling and strength work that she does on top of practice with her team.

Her highest career mileage week came this past September, running 120 miles in her “peak week” before Boston. Lindwurm then had a three-week taper – the phase of training where volume and intensity gradually decrease to put the body in the best position to be physically and mentally fresh by race day.

Lindwurm entered the race planning to run 5:38 per mile, which would have been enough for a near two-minute personal best. By starting at that pace, she was in the lead pack for the first half of the race and even led at points at the beginning of the race.

However, she fell off her goal pace in the second half of the race. The latter part of the Boston Marathon is known for being more challenging due to the notorious Newton Hills.

Despite the start line being at a higher elevation than the finish line, runners push through 891 feet of elevation gain. The Newton Hills, which last from miles 17.5 through the 21st mile, account for much of that elevation and make it extremely difficult for runners to maintain their earlier pace.

“It felt like they were never going to end,” Lindwurm noted.

Lindwurm finished with a time of 2:31:04, two minutes from her lifetime personal best.

Lindwurm’s next race will be the USATF half-marathon championships in December, and she will likely run her next marathon in the spring. The next step in her young career is improving upon her finish at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials.

“Right now, the main focus long-term is 2024 and being in a position to make noise at the trials and see if I can qualify (for the 2024 Paris Olympics).”