Woodward Alum Mercer Runs Like the Wind

Allison Mercer’s inspiration for running hundreds of miles a year — often in the punishing Georgia heat along rocky trails, no less — may startle some. Running, after all, is a most rigorous, painful, at times monotonous sport that constantly tests the willpower and patience of its most dedicated practitioners. But Mercer, a lifelong Atlanta native and alum of Woodward Academy, who continues to compete in marathons and even much longer events all around the world, maintains that running, above all else, is a pleasant diversion from everything else going on in life.

“I just like running. I’m just happy to run. A lot of people need a race or some kind of incentive,” said Mercer, who is unmistakably an elite race runner, having recently represented Team USA in the 100K World Championships in India, during which she helped the U.S. secure a bronze medal by finishing third in the entire field of women over 40.

A late bloomer in every sense of the term, Mercer participated in cross-country and track and field at Woodward but never posted such awe-inspiring running times to catch the attention of college coaches. Ironically, she would matriculate at the University of Pennsylvania, host of the venerable Penn Relays, but the closest she ever got to competing at Franklin Field was partaking in ultimate Frisbee matches. However, when she wasn’t playing organized Frisbee, Mercer kept running on her own time during her undergrad years at Penn, remembering how much the sport had given her during high school.

“Running was fun,” she reiterated. “It was tough in the summertime because of the Atlanta heat, but I always enjoyed it. It was just great to go to different campuses and compete.”

After graduating Penn in 2005 and joining TNT Sports where she worked as a production assistant, statistician, and field producer, Mercer stayed active by running recreationally (there were multiple times when she would go on distance runs with one of her colleagues, NBA Hall of Famer Reggie Miller, when they were on the road) but her travel-intensive, unconventional work schedule, which frequently involved nights and weekends, made it difficult to adhere to a strict running regimen and work towards constantly shaving minutes off her personal records (PRs). Yet, in 2017, when she transitioned to a new job handling regional logistics for Amazon, the new “9-5” schedule enabled Mercer to meet up with friends for group runs and even try her hand at marathons.

I just like running. I’m just happy to run.

Now in her early forties, while working full-time for Amazon, Mercer, who has run so many marathons that she has literally lost count, is posting logic-defying times that are considerably faster than those which she recorded at Woodward. During her most recent race, the Athens Twilight 5K, Mercer, 42, finished first in her age group with a 17:40 mark, which equated to a 5:41 mile pace — six minutes faster than her personal best time in high school and well ahead of the times set by runners half her age. Two weeks earlier, during a blustery afternoon in Madison, Wisc., Mercer polished off the 50K MadCity Ultras in a tidy 3:24:29. Merely 15 runners — irrespective of age and gender identity — finished ahead of her. Mercer’s crowning achievement as a runner that catapulted her to the U.S. national team came during the 2023 Tunnel Hill 100 when she completed the 50-mile race under six hours to set a U.S. record for women over 40.

“It [running] has created so many opportunities that if you told Allison in high school, ‘Hey, you are going to be wearing the USA across your chest, representing your country, and also be setting these times and doing these paces,’ I would have just been like, there’s no way,” confessed Mercer, who is actively engaged in the Atlanta Jewish community through volunteering for the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta and Jewish Family & Career Services, and dedicates herself to the Atlanta Track Club and Atlanta Trail Sisters, a group that empowers women to feel comfortable running on trails.

One of the opportunities that Mercer’s running career has afforded her was meeting her husband, Ben, a very talented runner in his own right, in 2019. To this day, Allison credits him for not only encouraging trail running as part of her routine — the couple has blazed through the 58-mile-long Georgia Loop that snakes through the Chattahoochee National Forest at a vertical gain of 15,000 feet and the entire Georgia section of the Appalachian Trail, which spans more than 80 miles — but also discouraging her from putting forth max effort in workouts for the sake of social media promotion. “He [husband] really instilled in me [the importance of] keeping the easy days easy,” acknowledged Mercer.

Aside from Ben, if there’s anyone else Mercer credits for supporting her running endeavors it’s her manager at Amazon, who’s no stranger to pounding the pavement herself.

If you told Allison in high school, ‘Hey, you are going to be wearing the USA across your chest, representing your country, and also be setting these times and doing these paces,’ I would have just been like, there’s no way.

“You make it work. It’s nice to have a schedule where you can see what calls you have and plan around it,” she added. “My boss is also a runner, so it helps that she understands the demands. If I’m going to a race, I just give her a heads up. She approves the time off and just asks to send a tracking link so she can follow along as well. It’s just nice to have that balance.”

Between battling the inhospitable, jagged terrain of the Georgian hills and the region’s often sultry weather, “I mean, you just adjust. As long as you can anticipate it and you’re used to it. It’s just perspective. It helps prepare you for everything.”

Mercer has positioned herself well for enjoying a sustainable run as a world-class runner. Perhaps more importantly, she has thus far steered clear of muscle tears and shin splints that derail many runners’ careers and feels poised to land atop the leaderboard at the Peachtree Road Race in a couple months.

On a grander scale, looking a few years down the road is, of course, the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. How would she feel about donning the stars and stripes during the first Summer Olympics on American soil since the 1996 Games in Atlanta?

“I’ll see how the marathon qualifier is. I mean, it being in L.A., why not?”