For the second year in a row, Molly Bookmyer is the first woman to cross the finish line at the OhioHealth Capital City Half Marathon.
Bookmyer, who now lives in Clintonville, finished the 13.1 mile race in 1 hour and 13 minutes this year - beating her 2018 finish by approximately 6 minutes.
Her journey to the finish line was not an easy one.
She is a well trained runner, spending years competing in high school and as a walk-on for the Ohio State University cross country and track teams. A serious injury sidelined her for her senior year of college: she learned she had a brain tumor.
The diagnosis forced her to take some time off running, but she admits she had a goal on her mind.
"I ran one marathon leading up to my surgery because it was just one of those things I wanted to cross off a bucket list, to say that I ran a marathon," Bookmyer said.
In January 2015, she had an operation to remove the brain tumor. Four months later, Bookmyer went back under the knife to fix a complication.
"I think coming off of those surgeries, I realized kind of how short life can be," she said.
During her recovery, Bookmyer then set a new goal for herself.
"I think I wanted to get healthy and I did that by wanting to run," she said. "I wanted to have a goal so my goal was to come back and train for something."
She made a big comeback during the OhioHealth Capital City Half Marathon. In April 2018, three years after her final surgery, she sprinted across the finish line to become a first place female finisher.
That finish line led her to another start line. Bookmyer competed in the Chevron Houston Marathon in January 2019, finishing the 26.2 mile race in 2:44:07 and earned a spot at the Olympic trials.
"Cap City and that marathon were the first times I actually believed in myself and I could actually accomplish a goal," she said. "I think for me that was almost the biggest breakthrough."