Nurse-Marathoners to Compete in Olympic Trials

Working as a nurse in itself can feel like running an Olympic marathon, but some nurses are taking it to the next level. A growing number of nurses are marathoners in the literal sense, and they do indeed have Olympian aspirations. In the upcoming Olympic marathon team trials in Atlanta, the profession is being represented by nurses who come from a variety of fields. Among those planning to compete in Atlanta are an NP, an ED registered nurse, an over-40 primary care nurse, and a nurse specializing in Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat medicine. Here’s a sketch of the nurses trying out for the US Olympic Marathon Team:

Philadelphian Emergency Department RN Kayla Lampe is among the nurses competing in the marathon trial. A runner since the age of 12 (she started running with her mother), Kayla makes time for training in between her 12-hour nursing shifts.

41-year-old primary care nurse Roberta Groner ran her first marathon in 2011. Now living in Randolph, NJ, Roberta has run on tracks as far from home as Qatar, where she ran in the 2018 World Championships in 90-degree weather. While working as a full-time nurse and single mother of three teenage boys, she trains by running up to 110 miles a week and performs interval workouts—often as early as 5 am.

Samantha Roeker, an Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat nurse specialist, is another Philadelphian. Samantha is currently recovering from an injury that might prevent her from running in the February 29 trials, but she already made her mark. In the women’s marathon first medal match at last July’s Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, she scored a personal best, and came in at fifth place.

Nurse Practitioner Katie (Lanphier) Ruhlman lives in Centerville Ohio, and when she’s not working or training, is a distance running coach at Cedarville University. On the track, she was a four-time National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) All-American.

For details on the February 29 marathon trials in Atlanta, visit the Atlanta 2020 Trials page.

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Koren Thomas

Associate Editor at DailyNurse

Koren Thomas (pictured with Assistant) was the associate editor of DailyNurse from late 2019 through July, 2022—and she was not joking about the "issue postage stamps saluting US nurses" idea. Send your article ideas, submissions, Nurse of the Week suggestions, comments, and corrections to the current Editor in Chief at [email protected].