5 Minutes with Serena Burla

Published by Running Times on December 17, 2013

The appropriate adjective to attach to American women’s marathoning in 2013 may be “moribund.” Even the highest finishes by Americans in World Marathon Majors, the fourth and sixth places by Shalane Flanagan and Kara Goucher in Boston last April, were lesser achievements than either woman had hoped for. There were no new faces. On the homefront, matters had been bleak for months until Becky Wade, who’d been a steeplechaser at Rice University, made a surprising debut in December with a 2:30:41 victory at the California International Marathon.

The phrase “out of sight, out of mind” certainly applies to the marathon, and what doesn’t happen right here under our noses can unfortunately go unnoticed. For folks who’ve been wondering where the next sub-2:30 female American marathoner is coming from, here’s a bulletin: Serena Burla is that marathoner. The 31-year-old mom of soon to be five-year-old son Boyd ran a 2:28:01 for second place at the Amsterdam Marathon on Oct. 20. That 2:28:01 is the fastest 26.2-mile time in 2013 on a record-eligible course; only Flanagan’s 2:27:08 on net downhill Boston is quicker.

And it wasn’t even that a big breakthrough for Burla. In March of 2012, she’d run a 2:28:27 for third in the Seoul. Both performances, Amsterdam and Seoul, might as well have occurred in witness protection.

“Amsterdam is amazing,” says Burla. “I was looking for a new experience and as someone who beat cancer, I also decided to run in Amsterdam because of the Golden Shoelace Campaign. With this charity program, we support the research into cancer at the VUmc Cancer Center in Amsterdam.”

The cancer Burla mentions had generated the biggest press coverage of her athletic career to date. She had been second to Flanagan at the USA Half Marathon in Houston in 1:10:08 in January of 2010. But just a few weeks later, after being diagnosed with synovial carcoma, a dangerous form of soft-tissue cancer, a sizeable tumor was surgically removed from her right hamstring. That July, in her comeback race, she won the Boston Scientific Heart of Summer 10K in Minneapolis in 33:58.

Not long after that, Burla said in an e-mail that it was “truly miraculous that we caught it early and that surgery was successful and no other treatment was needed. Every morning I wake up to a hug and my son Boyd greeting me with, ‘Hi, Mommy.’ What more can I ask for? I am so lucky that I am healthy; this experience gave new meaning toward seizing the day. When I was in physical therapy I was constantly reminded to keep things in perspective. The wall of windows faced a cancer center where people were working toward finishing their own personal battles with cancer. I said lots of prayers for strangers because I know the support I received was crucial to my outcome.”