Not too many marathoners make the connection between running 26.2 miles to improving schoolwork, but it’s one made by a Midvale Elementary educator.

The school’s instructional coach, Amy Sandgren, clued in students to her running aspiration: the REVEL Big Cottonwood marathon.

“I love that running is a sport where you can set an individual goal,” she said. “It’s like our students at school. We’re looking at where they’re at right now and where they can see with the right training. Similarly, I look at the training I need for a run, evaluate where can I be and where do I want to be and what it looks like daily. I think that parallel really hit home because as educator, I constantly meet with students, help them set goals, and look at the steps that they take to get there. Running just connects to my teacher heart.”

Sandgren said that she didn’t just lace up her running shoes once she decided to run the marathon. 

“I was training with about four runs a week and do long runs on Saturday. I’d cross train with spin class,” she said, adding that on off days, she would go on long hikes with a group of friends.

The Midvale Elementary community, her hiking friends, and her spin class instructor and classmates kept Sandgren inspired along with a neighbor who she first ran a half marathon with in 2015.

“I didn’t run until I was older. My neighbor had a goal of doing a half marathon. She pulled me aside one day and asked, ‘Do you just want to go run-walking with me?’ We started slow and that was the key. It was beautiful outside and at first, it was a chance for me to get out and talk with some people when we did a neighborhood 5K. Then we kept adding miles until she convinced me we could do that half marathon together,” she said. 

Sandgren knew from running her 20 half marathons that she’d need to budget that time for her runs and made the tie into that dedication with her students.

“I was a teacher for 12 years before I became an instructional coach,” she said about her 16 years in education, 13 of it within Canyons School District and the last two at Midvale Elementary. “In the class, we’d talk about the race I’d have coming up. That was inspiring because they want to see their teacher succeed as much as I want to see them succeed in their classwork. So, we shared those success moments back and forth. Now that I’m an instructional coach, students I work with were cheering me on. And it wasn’t just me. Another instructional coach here, Maria Guizar, ran a half marathon. We had a community of people who were cheering for us.”

Knowing that was especially helpful during the marathon.

“We started at Guardsman, then ran down Big Cottonwood Canyon and go into Holladay and Cottonwood Heights until we ended at Cottonwood High School. A good part of it is in the canyon and then, you’re in Cottonwood Heights and Holladay, which is a beautiful area. But with every marathon, I’ve learned, there’s a point where it becomes painful. For me, that was mile 21. It was grueling. People were getting sick because of the heat. I wasn’t getting the fuel I needed because unfortunately, the course had run out of electrolytes at mile 18. I was there to finish, but it was sad to watch some other people who were trying to qualify for Boston, get real sick,” Sandgren said.

It was then that she thought about her family, friends and students who were cheering for her. 

Sandgren also got a boost as she watched several of the runners she coaches on Launch team finish the half marathon.

Every year since 2017, she has coached about 25 Midvale, Sandy, Salt Lake and Cottonwood Heights runners from age 7 to 18 prepare for the half marathon. She usually runs along with them, pacing them to the finish.

“It’s a positive environment, where we’re supporting the kids trying something hard,” Sandgren said.

Her 15-year-old son, Ryker, also ran the half marathon, clocking in his best time.

“I’m on the course, tracking him and I saw he was cruising. I was on mile 11 or 12 when I saw his time come up and I just started crying. Now he wants to run a marathon,” she said. “That’s the thing with running or getting better at anything. You can’t just stop because you’re always setting another goal and approaching it with the attitude ‘I know I can do this.’”

Sandgren, too, is looking ahead.

“I’m proving to myself I can do hard things. I tell students that I make a plan then, I see it through so I can cross that finish line and they can, too,” she said.

While she doesn’t have another marathon planned yet, she is planning to hike rim to rim at Grand Canyon National Park with friends in October before racing a half marathon in November.

While Sandgren knows not all Midvale Elementary students may be runners, her job as instructional coach is to help guide them to their goals.

“I cheer them on. The teachers are the ones trying to get their kids across that finish line,” she said. “Together we’re a team and we’re here to support each other every way we can so all can be successful.” λ