Run, Rena, Run — A Texas-sized Olympic Tale

Featured Photo by Helen Photography and The Cross Timbers Gazette

Rena Elmer is no stranger to trials. Trials of the painful, gut-wrenching variety and also of the Olympic kind.

Olympic Trials. As in, tryouts for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. The svelte 5-foot-4, 117-pound Elmer sits cross-legged on the couch. She has the body of a runner, the picture of lean muscle and endurance. An elite amateur, she calls herself. With an eager smile, she nearly bounces off the couch as she recounts the story that got her to this point – the women’s marathon Olympic Trials.

Rena is 37 with nine kids. Those facts alone make her the poster child of anything-can-happen Olympic dreams. But as you dig deeper, Rena is so much more than numbers, though numbers certainly do tell a compelling story.

The Olympic marathon trials take place on February 29 in Atlanta, Georgia and will be Rena’s second appearance. After narrowly falling short of qualifying times for the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Trials, Rena qualified in her specialty, the grueling 3000-meter steeplechase, in 2016.

“I always want to set a [personal record] after every kid,” she said.

In this case, it was after her fourth child, Kristen. She placed 10th in the finals, well above her expectations and 12 seconds faster than she had ever run, up to that point.

She talks of 26.22 miles as if it’s no big deal. And for Rena, it really isn’t. Running is in her nature, in her essence.

Case in point. The marathon that qualified her for the Olympic Trials – the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon in November 2019 – was the very first marathon she ever ran. The Atlanta Trials will be her second marathon. Her qualifying time was 2:40:21, five minutes faster than her goal.

“That was way faster than I was training for,” she said.

Fitting, as it was another personal record for her only ten months postpartum from her fifth child, Kimber.

But why not the steeplechase? That is her forte, after all. It’s the event that earned her third place in the 2005 NCAA Outdoor Championships and was the reason she was named an All-American distance runner for Brigham Young University.

The answer was simple. “The Trials are on a Sunday. I don’t run on Sunday,” she states matter-of-factly.

And there’s where the heart of the matter lies. One conversation with Rena and there is no doubt she is a champion of commitment and accountability. She brings the same dedication to her faith as she does running, and for her, that is the key to her success.

“I made a commitment to never run on Sunday,” says Rena, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“There was a time I ran on Sunday, but it just didn’t feel right. That’s when I made the commitment to not run on Sunday ever again. This feeling just came to me right then that said, ‘You will be blessed far beyond what you can imagine in your running if you keep the Sabbath Day’.

“I really feel like the Lord has blessed me. Not just to run faster, but blessed me to have people in my life when I needed them,” she said.

She refers to family and friends that helped with the children when she trains and especially when she experienced a particularly dark time of her life after a 12-year marriage ended in divorce and an arrest in 2015. That’s when Rena became a single mother of four children.

She credits her relationship with Jesus Christ, studying scriptures daily, and running, as what got her through those tough years.

“My first marriage was really challenging. We were all going through a lot of trauma during those years. I was able to persevere through having a relationship with the Savior. The [adversity] brought me closer to the Savior, and I owe a lot of that to just studying the scriptures every day and having that relationship with the Lord. When you do that, you really see the atonement work in your life and that’s been the biggest blessing for all of us.

“Through all that, my running really was a gift. I would have been so depressed and distraught that my whole world just got flipped upside down. The running brought out a confidence in me and helped me to get through those challenges and to be a better person,” she said.

Enter Will, who has four children himself from a previous marriage. Rena and Will were married March 2, 2017, to create a family of ten, which later grew to nine kids 11 years old and under when they had Kimber in 2018. Rena is sure to point out that there are no “her kids” or “his kids” in their blended family – “just our kids.”

Following the birth of Kimber, there were some setbacks. Rena broke her big toe on the sidewalk outside her home and was unable to train for two months. When she recovered and wanted to restart training, it was a soul-searching time.

“I was having all this conflict and feeling torn because, well, we have a lot of kids and a lot to manage and take care of. I felt like by running I was being selfish. Maybe it was time to move on and kind of grow up and not put so much focus on running.

“So I started praying and asking Heavenly Father if I should do this. Is this going to impact my family for negative? The Spirit instantly told me, ‘This is your gift. Use it to build the kingdom of God.’ All of my thoughts of being selfish and greedy from the running were gone.”

Rena said that was when she witnessed miracles and tender mercies. Through her running, unique ministering experiences were made possible. She has given away multiple copies of the Book of Mormon and shared the Gospel in ways she said would otherwise not happen without running.

“Running is the gift God has given me. The Lord has worked through me in my running. This is where He wants me.”

Rena points to the scriptures as a source of inspiration and strength, particularly Isaiah 40:31.

“But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”

“Trying my best to be obedient through my whole life has allowed me to rise above on eagle’s wings. I stayed faithful and rose above those challenges and never doubted the Lord. It wasn’t about what is happening right now, but what this is going to lead to in the future. He gave me that perspective.”

She recalls President Russell M. Nelson’s talk “The Book of Mormon: What Would Your Life Be Like without It?” from the October 2017 General Conference.

“I promise that as you prayerfully study the Book of Mormon every day, you will make better decisions—every day. I promise that as you ponder what you study, the windows of heaven will open, and you will receive answers to your own questions and direction for your own life.”

“The is absolutely true,” says Rena. “Studying the scriptures and Book of Mormon have absolutely been the number one factor in helping me get through hard things.”

While there are accolades and achievements galore in Elmer’s running career, she says the true highlight of her life was going to the Salt Lake Temple last summer with Will and the children to be sealed as a family for all eternity.

Family is everything to Rena. Posted on the Atlanta Olympic Trails website is her bio, which includes her favorite quote by President David O. McKay.

“No success in life can compensate for failure in the home.”

And that’s the thing. Running is a part of Rena, but isn’t who she is. She’s a wife, mother, and member of the Church of Jesus Christ. There are no sponsorships or shoe deals or coaches. Though, she does claim to have the best training partners: Nine kids who can be found riding their bikes alongside her on the sidewalks of their home in Flower Mound, Texas.

“It’s about keeping the balance in life. It’s about serving the Lord and serving your family,” she says.

“My [BYU track] coach always kept a quote on his desk that said, ‘What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?’ That’s my personality. Always going. To see what I can do next. Going to the Trials to me is going to the Olympics, says Rena. “For me, this is my Olympics.”

Other news stories about Rena can be found at LDS Living, NBC DFW News, and Runner’s World.