NYRR Media Center

Nell Rojas will be making her TCS New York City Marathon debut after finishing as the top American at the last two Boston Marathons. She was 10th in Boston this April and sixth in 2021.

She has also run 2:28:06 to win the 2019 Grandma’s Marathon, and her half-marathon personal best of 1:09:42 came in January in Houston. 

Rojas ran for Northern Arizona University, where she won four Big Sky Conference titles and raced at the NCAA Championships. Out of college, she shifted her focus to triathlon and then obstacle course racing, opening up her own gym and training other young athletes for a variety of endurance sports. She ran her first marathon in 2019, the California International Marathon, to get experience for an Ironman, but after finishing seventh in the event and qualifying for the U.S. Olympic Trials, she shifted her focus to running. Rojas finished in the top 10 at the 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, going out with the lead pack and sticking with it for most of the race.

Her father, Ric Rojas, was a professional runner, coached her growing up and remains her coach to this day. In 2019, she won the Bolder Boulder race 40 years to the day after her father won the first edition of the event.