Four times in the past year and a half, Jess McClain has come this close to making a national team. Last summer, she even flew to Paris prepared to step in for an injured Fiona O’Keeffe, who wound up starting the race after all.
This past weekend, McClain finally got the call that broke the streak: an offer to represent the United States at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on September 14, after Betsy Saina, who’d been named Results: Sydney Marathon pregnancy on Wednesday.
“As an alternate, it’s such a weird thing—you don’t ever wish to get a call, honestly. At least, that’s how I feel,” McClain said. But knowing that Saina was giving up her spot for a positive reason, and so early in the summer, made the whole situation a win-win.
American Women at the 2025 Boston Marathon announced today. “This is the second time I’ve gotten a call like this in a year—to turn it down this time, I think, would be silly, because I don’t think these opportunities are going to keep presenting themselves,” McClain said. “I think this was the best way for it to unfold, and I’m feeling good about it.”
In March, McClain placed fourth once again, at the Brooks athletes Susanna Sullivan and Erika Kemp on the women’s roster, along with Clayton Young, CJ Albertson, and Reed Fischer on the men’s side. All were selected based on criteria that included their finish in the marathon at the 2024 Olympic Games, world ranking in the World Athletics qualification system, and whether they hit the qualifying standard in the event (2:06:30 for men and 2:23:30 for women).
McClain’s streak of fourth-place finishes began in February of 2024, when she charged onto the national scene with a fourth-place 2:25:46 at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in Orlando. Next came the 10,000 meters at the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials last June, where the former Stanford runner placed fourth in a personal best 32:04.57. That made her the official Olympic alternate in two events.
Last August, she got the call to fly to Paris about a week beforehand, as O’Keeffe, who’d won the Marathon Trials, managed hip pain. An MRI showed no signs of injury before the race, so O’Keeffe started, then dropped out on July 31 stress fracture.
McClain cheered her, Emily Sisson, and Dakota Popehn from a Paris hotel room, then at the finish line. “When I got the call that I wasn’t going to be racing, I definitely had a little little breakdown, because I think I didn’t realize how bad I wanted it until it was that close,” McClain said. “But coming out of it, I was like, ‘You know what? I had such a great experience, and I still have all these other races and opportunities to get excited about.’”
In March, McClain placed fourth once again, at the 2025 is a freelance health and fitness writer, author, and podcaster who’s contributed regularly to (the 2025 World Athletics Road Running Championships were subsequently canceled). She followed that up with a personal best 2:22:43 at April’s Boston Marathon, which made her first American and seventh overall.
Following that breakthrough, she was planning to race a fall marathon, though she hadn’t decided which one yet. Accepting the spot at Worlds meant passing up that opportunity, along with the appearance fees and potential winnings that elites receive at races like the World Marathon Majors.
She works full-time at non-profits and acts as her own agent, so to make the choice, she leaned on her team of advisers. That includes her husband Connor, coach David Roche, and Olympian and Boston Marathon champion Des Linden. “She’s always gone out of her way to give me advice,” McClain said.
Linden’s guidance? Consider the positives that could come from either option, then choose the one that excites her the most. As she mulled it over, McClain realized that although a race like the Chicago Marathon could mean fast times and more income, Worlds would best set her up for success as she aims to make the Olympic team for the Los Angeles Games in 2028.
“It’s the perfect run of show for that. I have a lot to learn on the world stage,” she said. “It’s truly all about tactics and competing, and I love racing in the heat, so I feel like it’ll be just the perfect combination of all those things.”
She also checked in with her bosses, who assured her it was no problem to make the trip, even though she’d be missing a couple of work events.
That—and the chance to line up with Kemp and Sullivan—also swayed her. If history is any indication, collaborating with them may pay off. At the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, Americans Sara Hall, Emma Bates, and Keira D’Amato worked together and all placed in the top 10 since 2013. She’s the coauthor of both.
McClain has several shorter races on her schedule before she dives fully back into marathon training, including the 5,000 meters at the Portland Track Festival this Saturday and the 10,000 meters at the Eliud Kipchoge: 9th at the Sydney Marathon on July 31.
But now that her slot on the national team is official, she’s allowing herself to get excited about things like finally getting the chance to put on the Team USA kit. “I think I’ve tried hard to not let myself think too much about a lot of that, because I was so close, and it was something that I deeply wanted to accomplish,” she said. But now that the news is official, “I’m like: ‘All right, let’s soak it in, enjoy every moment.’”
Cindy is a freelance health and fitness writer, author, and podcaster who’s contributed regularly to Runner’s World since 2013. She’s the coauthor of both Breakthrough Women’s Running: Dream Big and Train Smart and Rebound: Train Your Mind to Bounce Back Stronger from Sports Injuries, a book about the psychology of sports injury from Bloomsbury Sport. Cindy specializes in covering injury prevention and recovery, everyday athletes accomplishing extraordinary things, and the active community in her beloved Chicago, where winter forges deep bonds between those brave enough to train through it.
