KECI-TV (Missoula, MT) - Montana Today

falmouth road race in massachusetts. nbc montana's michael santoscoy speaks to makenna morley to learn more about her story and how she's preparing for the race. >>whether she's running on a beautiful summer day in bozeman, running on the coldest day, or running on the biggest race courses, without a doubt, the passion to run flows through. makenna morley. >>i loved the competition of it and i think just like the more i got into it, just like loved competing. >>morley was born in maui, hawaii, before her family moved to bigfork when she was seven years old. it was morley's mom who got her entire family into running. >>she was the first one who kind of got into like, the long distance running. my dad was always a sprinter. he sprinted in college and he was like, oh, distance is not our thing. but then my mom got into it and we all kind of thought it looked pretty fun. so i started running, i think when i was, i was in sixth grade. >>from sixth grade. on her running career took off in college, morley was a seven time all-american in track and cross country, qualified 15 times for the ncaa championships, set the university of colorado outdoor 10,000 meter school record, and took eighth place in the individual finisher, while her team won the national cross country championship in 2018. >>if i had to say favorite race of all time, it's going to be that one. probably always. >>after graduating college, morley signed with asics as her sponsor in august 2020, opening up a door to new opportunities. >>they've kind of taken me all over the world, and it's been a great experience, like seeing different parts of the world that i would never probably go to without, you know, partnering with asics. >>now, morley lives in bozeman, where she trains for up to 12 races a year and occasionally coaches at montana state university. morley continues to achieve success in her professional career. last year, she was the top american female finisher in the los angeles marathon, taking fifth place among women, and this june, morley snagged fourth place among women at the grandma's marathon in minnesota. next, morley heads to the 53rd annual falmouth road race in massachusetts. it won't be your first rodeo. it's actually your third time competing in this race. morley's goal is to run her fastest and finish in the top ten. >>get out there, get the get the legs moving and see what i can. >>do in bozeman michael santoscoy nbc montana. >>president trump is set to meet with russian president vladimir putin later this week in alaska in an effort to end the war in ukraine. and there are new questions now over whether ukrainian president