GRIT, SELF-BELIEF, & GOOD COACHING HAVE BROUGHT HURLEY TO TOP RANKS OF USA ROAD RUNNINGBy David Monti, @d9monti.bsky.social(c) 2025 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved, used with permission.
(26-Feb) — After Emma Grace Hurley finished 89th in her senior year at the 2019 NCAA Cross Country Championships for the ninth-place Furman Paladins, the possibility of a professional running career seemed remote. Although Hurley had performed well at the conference level, she never made an NCAA national track championships in any discipline. By the time she graduated, she had achieved only a modest 5000m personal best of 15:57.23. Not a single shoe company tried to sign her.
Fast-forward six years, and Hurley, who represents ASICS, is coming off a career year in which she won the USATF Running Circuit overall title, finished on the podium at five USATF championships, represented Team USATF at the World Athletic Cross Country Championships, and made an excellent half-marathon debut of 1:08:26, which made her the 12th-fastest American of all time.
“I’m so grateful to still be in this sport,” the 27-year-old told Race Results Weekly in a telephone interview from Atlanta yesterday. “No one would have thought in 2019 at cross country that I would still have opportunities like this, so I am really grateful.”
It’s been a long road for Hurley, originally from Roswell, Ga., where she competed for the Fellowship Christian School before heading for Furman. Now based in Indianapolis, she’s back in Atlanta for Sunday’s USATF Half-Marathon Championships, part of the Publix Atlanta Marathon Weekend organized by the Atlanta Track Club. The event is the USA selection race for the 2025 World Athletics Road Running Championships in San Diego in September. The top three men and women will qualify for the team, and Hurley is the sixth-ranked athlete in the women’s field based on personal best. She’s approaching the race cautiously but thinks she has a shot at the podium.
“The thing I always think to myself is to never have my mouth move faster than my legs can run,” Hurley said. “That’s a big fear of mine, to throw something out there then not live up to it and have it be this pressure. But in my head, I, like, have to go into it to see myself as a podium finisher or else it won’t materialize.”
With the COVID-19 pandemic gripping the nation after Hurley finished college, her elite running career started slowly. She moved back home to Roswell and joined the Atlanta Track Club’s Elite program under then coaches Amy and Andrew Begley. She clicked with the Begleys and began to put in the work. She won the local Thanksgiving Day 5-K in 2021 and set a then-club record with her 16:13 clocking. She had found a home.
“Andrew and Amy were so chill,” said Hurley. “I actually felt less pressure in races (than in college), not just because they believed in me, but… I felt they didn’t hold expectations and wouldn’t get too high or too low, no matter how the race or workout went. And that for me was nice, knowing that the race was just the race and they would be proud of the effort and still believe in me just as much.”
In 2022, results started to come, even though Hurley was still only running 60-mile weeks. In the fall, she finished fifth at the USATF 10-K Championships at the Great Cow Harbor 10-K in Northport, N.Y., putting up a best of 32:50 on a hilly course. She also ran a fast 10-miler of 53:24.
Hurley benefited from the diversity of athletes on the Atlanta Track Club team and could work on speed and endurance without having to train alone.
“I was on a team with anyone from 800 to marathon, and so being the only in-between person at that point, I was just getting pushed in workouts by people who were stronger than me in long runs, or… always getting pushed on the track. I had an outstanding balance.”
In 2023, Hurley became a bona fide national-class athlete. Skipping the indoor season, she took second at the USATF 15-K Championships at the Gate River Run in March in Jacksonville, Fla.. She was beaten only by American marathon record holder Emily Sisson. She had struggled with “impostor syndrome” in her earlier elite races, but now she felt she belonged on those starting lines. She earned $5000 in prize money, the biggest payday of her career.
“That didn’t suck,” said Hurley with a laugh. “I think that was the first time I felt like I belonged.” She continued: “Like, the previous year at races, like the B.A.A. 5-K, I was looking around me and just being like, what am I doing here? I don’t know why I’m here.”
She got on two more national championship podiums in 2023, third at the USATF 10-Mile Championships at the Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10-Miler in Washington, D.C., and third at the USATF 10-K Championships at the Great Cow Harbor 10-K. In the 10-K, she was beaten only by 2024 Olympian and USA half-marathon record holder Weini Kelati and 2023 USATF cross country champion Ednah Kurgat. She credited consistent work for her success.
“I think that maybe the previous year and a half-ish of work was excellent and consistent,” Hurley explained. “One of the things I do really well isn’t necessarily nailing one day and having a crazy workout or anything like that. But I did an excellent job of, up until that point, of not having missed anything.”
But a significant change was coming. The Begleys and Atlanta Track Club had parted ways, and Hurley had to decide what to do.
“There was definitely a level of anxiety,” said Hurley, who ran her last race in an ATC kit at the USATF 5-K Championships at the Abbott Dash in November, 2023 in New York City. She added: “Knowing that there was going to be a transition at the end of the year was a little stressful.”
Amy Begley took a job at USATF as director of long distance running programs and moved to Indianapolis with Andrew. Hurley wanted to stay with the Begleys’ coaching and decided to move, even though she would lose the financial support she got from the Atlanta Track Club. Atlanta was also her home.
“The only reservations I had were that my family and my boyfriend was in Atlanta, and my friends were in Atlanta,” Hurley said. “Obviously, that’s a lot of reservations, but I don’t think anyone really questioned that they were the right coaches for me, and this is such a finite time where I can do this. Of course, I would do everything I could to take advantage of the next few years, and my body can do this.”
Early in 2024, Hurley’s management agency, Flynn Sports Management, got her a sponsorship deal with Asics. She was already a fan of their shoes, and Asics was making a renewed push into road running. It seemed like a good fit.
“I first got some Asics shoes to try in early February, and then my first race in their uniform was Gate River Run in 2024,” Hurley recounted.
Hurley’s competitive 2024 year was a whirlwind. She did more than a dozen races from the mile to the half-marathon. A very consistent performer, she finished fifth or better in every national championship she entered, except for the USATF Road Mile Championships (she still ran a credible 4:37.55). In her last two national championships of the year, she finished third in both the 10-K and the 5-K. In November, she clinched the USATF Running Circuit title, which included a $30,000 paycheck.
However, Hurley saved the best for last. A week after the USATF 5-K Championships at the Abbott Dash, Hurley secured a late entry for the CNO Financial Group Indianapolis Monumental Half-Marathon. She felt fit and wanted to put it all out there in a half-marathon for her last race of the year.
“I was excited about that,” Hurley said. “I really, like, decided to do it the week of. I started thinking about it, maybe the day before the Dash, and I had told myself that if I got second or third at the Dash, I would surely do the half next week.” She added: “I was really grateful that they gave me the opportunity the week of.”
Because it was a last-minute thing, Hurley didn’t have all of her usual race preparations in order, like where and what to have for dinner the night before. Unable to get a restaurant reservation in downtown Indianapolis, she and a friend ended up eating pub food the night before, and as good as her legs felt during the race, her stomach was pushing back.
“I had seen Amy and Andrew (on the course), and they told me I was going to win,” Hurley recounted. “I got to enjoy that last mile (and) that was awesome. The homestretch, to be completely honest, I had a little whoops on dinner the night before. She continued: “We didn’t get dinner reservations. I called around too late, and we had, like, burgers and nachos and I was really freaking in the homestretch. I was not underfueling or losing energy but had eaten the wrong things. I was getting sick.”
She ended up throwing up a few minutes after the race.
“It didn’t feel good,” she said good-naturedly. “It was my own fault.” She added, “I wouldn’t have eaten this before a workout. Why did I think this was a good idea?”
In addition to making sure she eats a good meal on Saturday night, Hurley is feeling entirely ready for this Sunday. She hasn’t run a race since last November and just completed her first-ever altitude camp. She spent five weeks in Albuquerque and ran three 90-mile weeks, something she’d never done before.
“I really wanted a good couple of months (to only train),” Hurley said. “Even if you aren’t taking a full down-week for a race, you still miss 10 to 15 miles there. I wanted to see what happened if I was consistent in training and not interrupting things to race.”
But running at altitude is so much more complicated than at sea level, so Hurley isn’t sure exactly where she is fitness-wise.
“I think preparation went well, but at the same time, I don’t know what things mean there,” she said of her paces. “So, we’ll see how it translates. But I’ve been in Atlanta for about a week and a half now, and everything feels excellent.” She added: “I’m optimistic.”
While Hurley didn’t discuss the rest of her racing plans for the year, it’s safe to assume that you’ll see her in more extended events.
“I think I always knew that I was going to end up in longer things,” Hurley said. “I think we’re still kind of exploring and discovering that, but I think that’s where I’m most at home right now.”
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