Karen Bauschlicher (12) began training for her first marathon the summer before senior year.

“Over the summer, they told us to do something meaningful, and I didn’t know what meaningful was,” she said, referring to the college counselors’ common refrain during junior spring. “Running a marathon, that’s something I never thought I would do. But then, I was talking to a friend, and she runs marathons because she’s a Marine, and she was like, you should totally do a marathon, and so I started training with her, and I ran one!”

She made it sound so easy in retrospect — and she even signed up for a second one this May. But the mental fortitude and physical toughness encapsulated in the word “marathon” didn’t come without doubts or moments of hesitation.

“Around mile 18, I told myself I couldn’t do it, because it was so long, but you had to keep telling yourself ‘you can’ instead of ‘you can’t,’” she said.

Running taught her to push through immense physical hardships. Since she was a child, she had always enjoyed running laps around the track and going on short runs, but it an extra push of effort to make the leap from casual jogging to marathon training.

“Pain is only momentary,” she said. “What happens after, when you cross the finish line, it’s so much greater than the pain you’ve experienced during the race. I can tolerate high amounts of pain, and even though your legs feel like they’re about to burst, like at mile 18, when your legs physically can’t move, and they go into anaphylactic shock and it’s a lot of pain, I’ve learned that I can push through.”

She still remembers the feeling of pride she experienced at the finish line.

“Twenty-six point two-five miles,” she said. “That’s an insane distance. That’s halfway between San Jose and San Francisco. I was proud of myself, and so was my dad. I couldn’t walk for two weeks, since your muscles go into shock and you can’t walk, but it was worth it.”

Uttara Saha (12) described Karen as “driven, perky and intelligent.” From daily runs to horse rides to linguistics problems, Karen imbues her activities with energy.

Growing up as the daughter of two chemists who both work at NASA, and the granddaughter of 2 doctors, she has always had an aspect of medicine ingrained into her life. She hopes to eventually become a doctor in the emergency sector.

“Saving someone’s life is always a difference,” she said. “Working in the emergency room, it’s either that you save them, or they die, so it’s a 50/50, and I really want to save them, so I’ll do everything in my power to do that.”

Karen’s friend, Aadi Ghildiyal (12), admires her authenticity and extensive knowledge.

“She is really organic to who she is as a person and portrays herself as such,” Aadi said. “I don’t think I’ll ever stop being amazed and, frankly, sort of concerned by the amount of esoteric knowledge she possesses. She’s like a treasure bank to all the things you never thought you wanted to know.”