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Jzsanette Cullen of Globe, Arizona, never expected her first marathon—the 2024 Mesa Marathon—to qualify her for the prestigious Boston Marathon. But on a chilly, rainy February 10, she clocked an impressive 3:13:55, surpassing the 3:25 qualifying standard for her age group (30–35).
Though she had run competitively since grade school and competed at the collegiate level at UC Riverside, Cullen had never planned to run a full 26.2 miles. That changed after her older brother ran Boston in 2022. Inspired by his experience, she promised to join him the next time—and in 2025, she did just that, running alongside brothers James and Daniel Lindstrom in the marathon’s first wave.
This June marks five years since Cullen and her family moved to Globe. As she trained for Boston, she leaned on community support—including friends who helped watch her children. Her training plan included threshold runs at marathon pace on Tuesdays, hill repeats on Thursdays (“which is perfect for Globe,” she noted), and long runs of up to 20 miles on Saturdays. She also did strength training twice a week and participated in the Copper Corridor Trail Run in both 2022 and 2024.
That training paid off. At mile 20 in Boston, where the course begins its notorious climb up Heartbreak Hill, Cullen barely noticed. “I didn’t realize we were on Heartbreak Hill until we were toward the top,” she said. “I thought it was just another rolling hill.”
Despite feeling under the weather and having her watch die at mile 11, she gave the final stretch everything she had. “I wasn’t sure how much I could push myself throughout the race,” she said, “but I gave it my all that last mile.” She crossed the finish in 3:07:38—beating her Mesa time by more than six minutes.
“The sound is palpable,” Cullen recalled of the final stretch. “Everyone cheering for you, all the different signs—that was really fun to see.”
David Sowders, who now lives in Globe, has been in southern Arizona since childhood and grew up in Tucson. David earned an associate of applied sciences degree from Eastern Arizona College. He has 10-plus years of experience as a newspaper reporter and editor in Safford and Globe, and his articles have won several Arizona Newspapers Association awards. Writing, hiking and discovering new places around Southern Arizona are some of his greatest joys.
