Running on Passion: Former Division III runners keeping the dream alive

By: Jacob Infald

Collegiate track and field athletes have less than a one percent chance of running professionally. What many former collegiate athletes lack in terms of professional support, they make up for in community and love for the sport while continuing to train for both personal bests and lifelong memories. 

The Olympic Marathon Trails Qualifier, otherwise known as the OTQ is a term widely recognized by both elite and sub-elite runners. What makes the Olympic Trials for the marathon different from the other track and field events is that there is no hard limit on the number of athletes that can participate in the race, as long as they hit the qualifying mark during the designated time window they get a chance to compete. 

Every Olympic cycle, hundreds, if not thousands of former sub-elite NCAA runners across all divisions make it their mission to qualify for the Olympic Trials. For many of them, that requires sacrifices as they have to balance the intense load of marathon training with a full-time job and other life responsibilities as they often lack financial support in pursuing their post-college running dreams. 

For Charlie Wilson, a 2025 graduate of Division III powerhouse SUNY Geneseo, the marathon was something that he knew he wanted to pursue post graduation. Wilson, who finished second in the 10,000 meters at the 2025 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships, said he always knew the marathon would be his strong suit after finding the most success in the longer events as a collegiate athlete. 

Wilson immediately began training for the marathon after graduation, and ran an impressive debut time of 2:19:27 at the 2025 Chicago Marathon. However, he said he made a few mistakes and knew he had it in him to run under the two-hour-and-sixteen-minute mark to qualify for the Trials. Just a few months later in March of 2026, less than a full year removed from college while working 40 hours a week as a Medical Assistant, Wilson ran a four-minute personal best of 2:15:18 at the McKirdy MicroOTQ.

“Ever since I graduated college, that was always my goal in the back of my mind, I knew I could do it,” Wilson told The Extra Mile. “Everday with the monotony of training and work, day in and day out, I always knew it was going to be so worth it once I qualified for the Olympic Trials and I finally did and that was definitely very meaningful to me.”

Wilson, who runs nearly 100 mile weeks in only five days of running while cross-training on the bike and elliptical the other two days, said marathon training is a sacrifice that he said he could not do without his community of support. What many athletes training for the OTQ lack in financial support, they find in the emotional support from training partners, friends, family and coaches. 

Wilson said the community he had as an athlete at Geneseo is one he cannot recommend enough, from teammates, alumni and coaches, he said he has made lifelong connections through the program. While Wilson coaches himself, he said he always feels like has people from Geneseo he can turn to for support, including Alexander Burks, a 2018 Geneseo alum who despite already qualifying for and finishing 43rd at the 2024 Trials, came back and ran another personal best of 2:15:53 this past March at the McKirdy MicroOTQ to qualify for his second Olympic Trials eight years after leaving the collegiate scene. 

“Just to be able to do that with Charlie, and have him tell me how much it meant to him, and how much he had looked at what I was doing and said, ‘yeah, I want to do that one day, I want to try and chase that too,’ it really helped me to see value past what I already was able to internalize about how I was doing with running,” Burks told The Extra Mile. 

Burks, who teaches high school chemistry, said on top of the Geneseo support, another community has found him in Boulder, Colorado where he moved to after a breakthrough 2:16:52 in 2021. Burks said after that race he was reached out to by Noah Droddy, a legend in the Division III distance running community. 

Droddy, who is a graduate from DePauw University, has a marathon best of 2:09:09 and is the cofounder of the media group D3GloryDays, invited Burks to group runs in Boulder. Burks said the continued running community in Boulder has allowed him to continue to push his running dreams forward while working for nearly a decade now. 

“If you get to know one person who knows a lot of people, if you really want to dive into that you sorta just kind of got to say, ‘let’s keep meeting up, let's keep getting together,’” Burks said. “Everyone wants to run with people who are at a similar level to them, give off good vibes, and are just there to have a good time, and train as hard as you can.”

For every post-graduate who has already accomplished their dream of hitting that OTQ, there are more training, waiting for their opportunity. Hunter Brignall, a 2024 graduate of SUNY Cortland who is now teaching physical education and health, is aiming to hit his first OTQ this upcoming December. 

Brignall said he struggled with over-training and plateauing while at Cortland, and he did not find breakthrough success until his senior year, when running almost took a back seat in a way as his focus shifted to student-teaching. That year, Brignall finished fourth at the 2023 NCAA Division III Niagara Region Cross Country Championships to qualify for the national meet for the first time. 

“I had a lot going on with the team, student-teaching and my running, and I didn’t focus on running as much and I think that’s when I started doing better,” Brignall told The Extra Mile. “Now I’ve adopted that mindset of just living my life, and now I’m running in addition to it.”

Brignall said training as a post-graduate is not easy. Balancing work and graduate school, he said there are definitely days where he wants to hit snooze on his 5 a.m. alarm clock, but ultimately he feels like running makes him a better teacher. He is able to practice the lessons he preaches to his students about healthy living, and said he thinks this helps students buy into what he teaches.

Brignall’s struggle of wanting to hit snooze some days is not a unique experience. Wilson and Burks share that struggle, but ultimately, the three of them all agree that once they get out the door and start their run, they are reminded of why they do it, and why they make the sacrifices. 

All three encourage any former collegiate track athlete to continue to follow their passion after graduation if it is still there. Wilson said he feels as if there is an idea that people feel like they need to abandon their passions in their mid-20s and settle down and focus on their careers. He said he has the opposite mindset and feels now is the time in his life to go all in on running while he still can. 

“I think I’m going to look back at this time in my life and be proud rather than regret it, being like, ‘Oh I wish I pursued my passion a little bit more,’” Wilson said. 

Burks said he first continued running post-grad because it was something he had always done and was always good at. However, as time has gone on, his motivations have gone from external to internal as he has found why he fell in love with the sport in the first place; his love for the running community. 

“You don’t need to do it super competitively to be part of that community, but if the competitive aspect of it and the training is something that gets you up in the morning to go out and be the best version of yourself, then by all means I would recommend continuing with [running],” Burks said. “It’s a really, really cool community, it’s a really really cool world, and it can open up a lot of neat experiences.”