TicketsFormer Soccer Player Still Succeeding After UC Career
Lisa Stephens runs the Flying Pig and prepares for medical school
Contact: Jeremy Martin
5/12/2005
Stephens will graduate in June with a degree in Biology |
By Allison Hoehn
Just a week after her last fall soccer season as a Bearcat ended, graduating women?s soccer player Lisa Stephens decided that she didn?t want to coast through the end of her UC career. Rather, she started training for the 26 mile Flying Pig Marathon, along with successfully completing the MCATS, and oh yeah, finishing up and graduating from college.
The Flying Pig is an annual marathon run through Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. Measuring 26 miles, Stephens not only completed the marathon but ranked 647 of 3,798 runners. Her final time was 3:43.14.
?I started training right after soccer season ended running about three miles a day and worked my way up.?
Stephens followed a training program from the Flying Pig Marathon website. The training program consisted of a week-by-week training plan, nutritional hints, ways to avoid injury, and a mental aspects page with inspirational stories and quotes.
?It was hard training but the marathon itself was so much fun. The people were awesome and the volunteers are awesome. The only hard part was the last four miles when the miles felt like they were going on forever. I was a minute off for qualifying for the Boston Marathon but I really didn?t have that in mind. I ran an 8:30 pace the whole time.?
Not only has Stephens trained and completed a marathon, she was also busy studying for the MCATS, which she took in order to enroll in medical school. Planning to take a year off upon her graduation in June, Stephens would like to come back to UC to attend medical school in the 2006-2007 school year.
?Right now I do research at Children?s Hospital and will work there over the summer. I?m really hoping to get a full-time position their next year. I want to take a year off before I go to medical school, and I would really like to go to UC; it?s really competitive.?
Although her time here at UC may not be completely at its end, she will take many memories from her soccer career, and as an undergraduate major in biology, with her on her road ahead.
? One of my favorite memories with soccer was during my first two years when we played Notre Dame. It was really cool. Our environment for soccer here isn?t like their (Notre Dame?s) environment. Their stadium was packed and the feeling was incredible and I love that excitement. ?
Stephens closed her career as a Bearcat recording six goals and starting in each of the 82 games in which she played.
?I?ve had a great experience overall at UC. Everyone is so nice and I had fun.?