From nursing to motherhood, to the Olympics and to coaching, Marisa Howard’s journey serves as a testament to the power of a strong work ethic and resilience.
“I think that not having all my eggs in one basket has been really important,” said Howard. “It can be easy for one thing to become your identity but my identity has always been in Jesus Christ, and having all these other different avenues has just kept me really balanced over the years.”
After running on the Boise State Cross Country team from 2010 to 2015, Howard went on to compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics and has now come full circle to help coach for the Broncos Cross Country and Track teams.
Here’s a look into Howard’s lifelong journey as she balanced chasing multiple dreams at once:
Marisa’s childhood
Howard grew up in Pasco, Washington, a small town where she spent most of her time outdoors.
Howard’s parents worked in the medical field, and her mother became unexpectedly pregnant with Marisa while pursuing her masters in nursing.
Howard has an older sister, Andrea, who is four years older than her, and an older brother, Kyle, who is just 17 months older.
“The kids mostly got along, but the two older ones got into trouble in high school, and so I think Marissa was just really resolved,” said Darleen Vander Malle, Howard’s mom. “By the age of 11, she said, ‘I’m not doing what they’re doing’ and so we have the opposite ends of our spectrum.”
From a young age, Howard dreamt of being an Olmypian, but from the ages of 5 to 10, a different sport had her heart: Gymnastics.
“She did gymnastics for a few years, but did it competitively for only one year because we were a very close-knit family and she didn’t like missing family dinners,” said Vander Malle. “We sat down every evening and she was missing three to four nights a week and didn’t like that so she quickly gave that up.”
After quitting gymnastics, Howard pursued other sports in middle school such as basketball, soccer and track.
From sixth to tenth grade, she took part in Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA), a student organization that seeks to address personal, work and societal issues through education. Through this, Howard grew as a leader and public advocate.
The start of cross country
During her freshman year of high school Howard began racing cross country and realized she excelled in distance running.
“She’s really tenacious with the way that she competes, and really smart about her training,” said Tim Harrington, her high school coach. “You could tell she wanted to be good, and she’s just a good testament to what a positive attitude and a super strong work ethic can get you.”
“There’s a lot of untapped potential in the sport, and there’s more room for growth in the college years,” said Howard. “I had pretty low mileage in high school, but I ended up being second in the state for the two mile and third in the mile. What attracted me is the fact that I was able to go up in the ranks without having 10 to 15 years of experience in the sport prior.”
Although it’s not a typical high school event, Howard had several opportunities to compete in the steeplechase, which is a footrace that includes obstacles such as water and hurdled jumps.
Howard did the steeplechase for the first time at the end of her freshman year at a meet in Hermiston, Oregon. From then on, she competed in it any chance she got.
“The very first time she did the steeplechase, she actually accidentally ran an extra lap than everybody else, and after they counted her time, she still got second in the nation,” said Vander Malle.
Howard had offers from over 50 colleges, so her mom quit her job at the time so she could be there for every visit.
“The Boise State program was really well rounded but didn’t have a super big distance budget for scholarships, but my class brought in 12 girls,” Howard said. “And that really excited me to be in a new era of the Boise State team. It’s really rare to keep all those people together, and we actually had nine of our 12 graduates that we started with, which was just a really tight-knit group of people.”
In addition, Howard was drawn to the trails in Boise such as the 30-mile green belt path and foothills.
Howard’s legacy at Boise State
Howard’s passion for the steeplechase flourished during her freshman year of college thanks to her Coach, Brad Wick.
“Coach Wick was a steeplechaser in college, and he kind of made everybody at least try it in practice, just because he loved it,” Howard said. “I had a little bit of a hurdling background from middle school, and my redshirt freshman year, I ended up being two spots out of nationals, so from then on I knew this was my event.”
The steeplechase was also the only 3,000-meter event in college, which was her best distance out of high school.
By the end of her redshirt freshman year, Howard took 25 seconds off her previous best time and continued to push herself to rise in the ranks ever since.
Although Howard broke countless records at Boise State, it did not come without hard times and injuries.
“Almost every winter I had some sort of stress injury in my leg, and so one of the biggest things I learned was resilience through that and also to not count yourself out,” Howard said. “Despite those injuries, I still was able to be runner-up in the NCAA. I learned that everybody’s path to success looks different, and just because some people can run 80 miles a week and get there doesn’t mean that my body can handle that.”
On top of being a college athlete, Howard’s nursing major also required a lot of her time. Howard balanced those two dreams by working her cross country schedule around her clinicals and other nursing commitments.
Post-collegiate journey
After graduating from the nursing program in 2015, Howard became a school nurse in Boise whilst continuing to train.
“I got to shadow a school nurse for six months and really learn the ins and outs of school nursing, and so right when I graduated, they hired me and I did that for five years,” Howard said. “I did it three days a week and had my schedule to where I didn’t work on the days I had my bigger workout sessions.”
Because Howard had summers off of school nursing, she was able to travel to all her races and make both careers work.
Following an injury in 2016, Howard was desperate to get healthy again. At this time, she turned to former (and now returning) Boise State Coach, Pat McCurry, who had personally coached 21 Olympic Trial Qualifiers and five Olympic Championship Qualifiers.
“After college with Coach Pat, I’ve had one injury in eight and a half years, and that’s a testament to lower mileage,” Howard said. “And a lot of it is more strength training and really embracing cross-training as a tool to keep me healthy. I cross-train now probably three to four days a week so that I don’t have to do the higher mileage.”
This sparked the beginning of an ongoing partnership helping to shape Howard into the athlete and Olympian she is today.
She went on to compete in the World Championships in 2017 as well as the Pan American Games in 2019 and 2023.
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic postponed Howard’s aspiration to not only compete in the Olympics, but also to start a family with her husband and former Bronco Track & Field athlete, Jeff Howard.
In 2021, Howard was two spots short of qualifying for the Olympics and got pregnant with her son, Kai, that same year.
Howard continued to train up until 25 weeks pregnant when she got a sciatic back issue and began to scale back.
“I just wanted to keep moving, but not in a way that would hurt my body, so instead of running, we did uphill treadmill walks, and I did long two hour hikes in the foothills,” Howard said. “I think listening to my body during pregnancy and not pushing things was one of the biggest aspects to coming back safely and healthy.”
After giving birth to Kai in June of 2022, Howard worked with two different pelvic floor physical therapists to get her body back in line before competing again.
Howard bounced back to competing six months after giving birth with running times that continued to improve.
The breakthrough: 2024 Paris Olympics
“I didn’t run super well leading up into the trials, and I’ll never forget Coach Pat sitting me down
to talk probably ten days out from the trials, and he really just spoke a lot of belief into me,” Howard said. “I went into trials as confident as I could and felt better than I ever had in the prelim. I wasn’t on anybody’s radar, but I went out and ran with a 15 second PR.”
Howard finished third at the Olympic Trials with a personal best time of 9:07.14, securing her spot on Team USA.
“Our entire family was at the trials. Our children, their significant others and all of our grandchildren,” said Vander Malle. “And of course, I’m just the screaming mom, and she took the lead that last lap, and at the bell we just went insane. It was an incredible moment.”
Howard competed in the 2024 Paris games as one of three United States competitors in the 3000m steeplechase. Howard finished seventh place in her steeplechase heat with a time of 9:24.78, 7.39 seconds shy of fifth place.
She made history as the first female Boise State runner to compete in the U.S. Olympic Team.
Becoming a coach
In the fall of 2024, Howard became the assistant coach for Boise State’s Women’s Cross Country and Track team alongside Head Coach Pat McCurry.
Prior to this, Howard had helped coach distance runners for seven seasons with her husband at Rocky Mountain High School in Meridian, Idaho.
“I realized this fall that a lot of coaching is about relationships, and I really got to develop some of those with the women,” Howard said. “I got to work out with them a lot and these college women are a little more mature than high schoolers, so I’ve been able to relate to them a lot more.”
The Boise State Women’s Cross Country team placed second in the Mountain West Championship and sixth at the NCAA West Regional this past fall.
“She’s managed to be a healthy mom and compete at the highest level and that comes from strong mental and emotional health and nutrition,” McCurry said. “Having a daily example of that for our women’s distance runners is huge.”
Howard is now helping coach the track & field team, and they’re set to compete in the Mountain West Championship on Feb. 27 – March 1 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Future aspirations
On Feb. 6, Howard announced she is pregnant and will welcome her second child in July, 2025.
This will allow Howard to have some more time to focus on coaching with the Broncos, but she also plans to compete in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
“I feel like I really honed in on what I want to do in the next couple years. I definitely want to do the steeplechase through 2028, but I also want to try some other things,” Howard said. “Coming out of pregnancy I want to do half marathons and try to make a world cross country team.”
Howard also received her masters degree in nutrition and human performance and is set to speak at a class about the importance of this.
“She’s a mentor, she’s a teacher, she’s a nurse, she’s a caregiver,” said Vander Malle. “Through all of it, she keeps this very calm persona and is so very balanced. I always say ‘I want to be like Marisa when I grow up.’”
