Start Line Stories - 2025 Series Kicks Off with Kat from Miami

Kat Svadbik of Miami crosses the 2024 Eugene Marathon finish line.

Welcome to Week 1 of the 2025 edition of Eugene Marathon’s Start Line Stories!

This series, which started in 2023, might just be turning into an annual tradition and that’s because of you! We love to hear and share your stories and we want to use our platform to connect you to others across the globe who are coming to run Eugene this year or have done it in the past. Last year, the 2024 Eugene Marathon was a record-breaking event. More people (over 12,000 of you!), from more places (all 50 states and 28 countries) ran or walked their way across the iconic finish line at Hayward Field. One of those people was Kat Svadbik from Miami, Florida.

Kat convinced a crew of 23 other runners from her run club in Miami to travel across the country to run Eugene with her in 2024 and is fixing to do the same in 2025. Here’s a little bit about her and what’s getting her to the Start Line in April:

Name: Kat Svadbik

Age: 31

Where are you from and where is home now?

I was born and raised in Miami, Florida.

What’s your local run club or training group and tell us about it?

I run in community with Tres Piñas and the Tres Piñas Collective and I train with some of my best friends three days a week.

Last year, I trained with Salis, which started as a group of four friends who just wanted to get faster. We showed up at the track one morning with a workout in mind and we did our best that day and made a commitment to keep showing up every week. Over a couple of months, the group grew in size and we met our coach and he was training to run a major marathon at the time and asked us if we wanted to join him on his training; for team, for friendship, for many reasons, we said yes. Training next to someone who was running a marathon, gave me such a feeling of empowerment —that I could do it too. After watching him run, our entire group decided that we had to run our first marathons. I spent two months researching the best marathons in the US and for many reasons, I just kept coming back to Eugene. I made a crazy pitch to my team to run the Eugene Marathon as my first marathon and I would love it if they joined me. 23 of them were crazy enough to do it!

Then my partner and I did a road trip up the Oregon Coast. It was an amazing trip!

Why Eugene 2025?

I’m on a journey to qualify for Boston this year. I fell in love with the marathon after Eugene last year, so much so that I immediately signed up for another marathon, which I also enjoyed, but I wasn’t able to get my BQ. When it came time to buckle down for another training cycle in January, I went back to the drawing board and I put Eugene up against every other spring marathon and it won. This marathon, this course, the community, it’s something that I still crave and it’s why I’m coming back.

Current Total Marathon Count:

2. Eugene Marathon 2025 will be my third.

Favorite road race or racing experience?

I love racing the 305 Half Marathon, which happens every year on the weekend of March 5 in Miami - I love running the cities and highways that I’m so familiar with.

What kind of training plan are you following and do you have a specific goal on race day?

I’m following a 16-week cycle, it’s an intermediate plan geared toward getting me a BQ race time, which is 3:20.

What I love so much about running is:

That it brings an unparalleled sense of the human experience; I feel alive when I’m running in a way that my job can’t give me, my friendships can’t give me. It’s a very personal experience and whether it be an incredible run, a tough run, an exhausting run, I always feel better after doing it.

Why the marathon?

Oof. I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately… the marathon is an unparalleled race. It’s long, it’s tough, it can be lonely. It can be really painful. You’re left alone with your thoughts in the race and during a lot of the training. It takes a long time to feel ready to run one, but once you cross the finish line, it feels like time has stopped. I will keep chasing that feeling for a lifetime!

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We are so excited to have Kat and her crew from Miami back in Eugene in 2025! Give her a follow on Instagram: @katsvadbik and give her a high five on race day!