THUNDER BAY — Growing up, running was more of a casual thing for twins Kim and Michelle Krezonoski.
It was just something they did, a chance to hang out with friends and have some fun.
But as the siblings started growing up, the distances started getting longer and longer, and the competitive fires began to burn.
The Sir Winston Churchill Collegiate and Vocational Institute graduates found themselves deep in the heart of Texas, at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, a city of about 102,000 – around the size of their hometown Thunder Bay – just south of the Oklahoma border.
In her senior year at MSU, Kim had several top-10 finishes in the 5,000-metre run, and as a sophomore in 2013 she took bronze in the distance at the Texas A&M Spring Classic.
Michelle captured the 5,000-metre race at the 2015 West Texas A&M Twilight and found herself on the podium on multiple occasions.
Their university careers were just a warm-up for what was to come.
The sisters once again began ramping up their distances, and though Kim returned home to win the 2018 Firefighters Ten Mile Road Race – Michelle took second place that year, and their father Bill finished 28th overall – the duo started taking aim at marathons.
The effort culminated at this year’s Boston Marathon, the most prestigious long-distance race in the world, where the twins were the top two Canadian women to cross the finish line.
Michelle finished the 26-mile course in 2:38.23, 16 minutes behind winner Hellen Obiri, in 23rd place. Kim wasn’t far behind, clocking in at 2:40:40, good for 26th.
“It’s not just one run that’s going to make you get to the level you want to get to,” Michelle said on Thursday night, special guests at a Ten Mile Road Race pre-party at the Da Vinci Centre, the pair set to be honorary starters for Monday’s race.
“It’s being consistent and surrounding yourself with people who believe in you and don’t give up.
"I think it’s really special to have each other throughout this (venture) because we support each other.
"We’re our biggest motivators, but also competitors, and we know how to push each other to the next level and do it with grace and do it with success,” Michelle said.
Kim said finding the enjoyment in running is not always easy, especially for distance runners who have to time their recovery and peak at exactly the right time.
Just having the chance to run in Boston was a thrill in itself, she said. Once they got the email telling them they’d made the field, she said they knew they at least had a chance.
They made the most of it.
“We knew we had a chance to just be in the field and we knew we were going to do everything it takes to be successful on that day. We kind of put our heads down and still had a lot of fun along the way. It ended up a pretty good day,” Kim said.
The sisters, who now call Toronto home, are hopeful it’s only the beginning.
Both plan to run next year’s Ten Mile Road Race, and have every intention of breaking Erja Ervonen’s 30-year-old course record of 57:16, a little more than five minutes faster than the 1:02:37 it took Kim to win the title six years ago.
“I think I would cry just thinking about (setting the record)," Kim said.
“Yeah, me too,” Michelle said.
Beyond that, the two runners have their eyes firmly set on the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
They’ll likely have to up their marathon game to qualify – the World Athletics Council’s minimum standard for the upcoming Paris Games for automatic qualification is 2:26:50, a mark eclipsed by just 11 female runners in Boston.
How they get there remains up in the air.
“We have a couple of plans, but nothing finalized,” Michelle said.
