Bruce’s diagnosis came last October, after a troublesome year. She lost her mother to breast cancer in June and was feeling off, which she realizes now was possible “misery induced pressure.”
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That drove her to see a specialist, who put her through a huge number of tests, and they happened to discover a congenital heart condition — meaning she was born with it, and it was unrelated to how she had been feeling — called Bicuspid Aortic Valve disease (BAVD). “It was only a surreal appointment, because here you are having this specialist let you know that you have a heart condition. I’m like, ‘Kid, I’ve been a professional athlete for 15 or more years, and I’m simply hearing about something that I’ve had in for what seems like forever for the initial time at 38.’
It recently was jarring a smidgen,” she says. “It was confusing. I wasn’t really certain how to react.” Bruce’s primary care physicians put her through a litany of testing, and said that they had no concerns about her continuing to run and race. That passed on the mother of two with a decision to make.
“It took me some time honestly to leave that appointment and process what was actually going on, what it meant for my future, what it meant for the past,” she says.
In any case, Bruce then chose “speedier” than she expected she would, to hang up her running shoes after 2022. “I’ve had a ton of back and forth for sure,” about the decision, she says. “I don’t be aware, I think I had a ton to happen last year that really — I wouldn’t call it an emotional meltdown, yet I was somewhat at a roadblock and I assumed I had to make a decision and head one path.”
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So in January, Bruce announced her plans to resign on her blog, and started forming her race plan. She’s run the Boston Marathon, half marathons, 10Ks — including taking home a national championship in the distance in August — and wanted to make the New York City Marathon her grand finale.
“That was kind of an easy decision,” she says, having experienced childhood with Long Island. “It’s my favorite marathon on the planet.
It’s a race I wanted to win since I was youthful. Haven’t come nearby any means with I think 10th place, 10th place and eleventh.
However, I love racing the roads of New York and I recently knew, ‘Okay, this is definitely where I wanted to attempt to wind down.’
” Bruce says her training block has been going great, as she prepares with her teammate and 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials winner Aliphine Tuliamuk, who is also running New York City.
And because she’s (maybe) on her retirement visit, doesn’t mean that Bruce is going to keep down.
“For me at this point in my career, I’m not 26, there’s no great explanation to go in for experience or just to be in the main 10.
I’m trying to finish on the platform and I think I have the experience, I have the years, I have all the apparatuses and so simply need everything to meet up on the day,” she says.
And there may in any case be more to come from Bruce after Nov. 6.
“I think what’s really neat about this year, I’m learning that occasionally you don’t have to make these definitive decisions. I think that’s the reason this year has been so beautiful and so loaded with promising and less promising times, yet much more ups,” she says. “I’m kind of going with things each day, each week, each month of this year and it’s been really fun.”