Ryan Shay’s Widow Ready To Compete Again

Since losing her husband at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in New York City, widow Alicia Shay has struggled with grief, but is now ready to compete again.

A two-time NCAA 10,000m champion, Shay is planning to lace up her shoes again soon. “I’m ready to compete again,” she said. “I can feel it in my body. I can feel it in my stride.”

Shay, who is not running Sunday’s New York City Marathon, said she wants to one day return to New York and run her first marathon in the city where she met–and subsequently lost–her husband.

“If I could run the New York marathon, where Ryan and I met, where Ryan breathed his last breath, yes, that would be full circle — and sad, and incredible, and all those things,” she said. “That would be a dream. That would be an absolute dream.”

For More: New York Times