Laurentian University cross-country and track athletes may not have to look far for a little extra inspiration this winter.

Assistant coach Megan Crocker recently turned in a very impressive performance at the Road to Hope Marathon in Hamilton.

Coming off a summer where she was plagued with significant health issues, the alumnus of the Voyageurs’ program posted a time of 1:19.51 (21st fastest for women in the country) in the half-marathon, a new personal best time that including an initial 10km dash of 37:45 on a day where she betrayed her traditional race strategy.

“Usually, I don’t go with a group – I just kind of do my own pace,” said Crocker. “But there was this group of guys just in front of me. They we’re going a little faster than I had planned so I just held on as long as I could and suffered over the last 5km – but I got a PB, so that was good.”

"Our plan going in was to go easier in the first half and try and negative split - but based on people that were around me, it just felt right to go with this group."

"This was a big race for me to PB and to trust my body again."

After taking some time off during the summer, Crocker resumed her workouts leading into the post-secondary cross-country season. "They (the L.U. XC team) were a huge part of this process," she said.

"Sometimes, I would go out (on my own) for a longer run, but most often, I would just do a couple of workouts a week with them and then some mileage."

The end result was a 21km race time that beat her previous best by almost two full minutes and now has her eyeing a 10km in Toronto in early December.

"I was hoping I would have a good race," said Crocker. "I think this race gave me the confidence that I can still run."