Suffolk University cross country runner and graduate student Amalia Dorion was awarded Conference of New England Runner of the Week after running a 22:49.9 minute 6k, a stand-out performance for the latest addition to the Suffolk team.
Dorion wasn’t always serious about running. Although she had been running since middle school, she didn’t get serious about the sport until her junior year of high school. With her newfound passion for the sport, she began to see rapid improvements in her skills and times. With such a strong foundation in the sport, Dorion was able to attend Adams State University, where she competed for five years.
“I feel like normally in Division II or in Division I you ‘red shirt’ your freshman year, where you just sit out and you don’t compete with the team you just train with them just to develop more. . . I was improving a lot there, and I loved my teammates, the coaches were great but I didn’t want to go to grad school there,” said Dorion.
At Adams State, Dorion was able to make strides in her distance running times over her five-year career, going from running 19:30 5k to a 16:51 time and bringing down her mile time by 39 seconds, a major sign of the improvement she went through during her time training. For her sixth year of eligibility though, Dorion was searching for something different out of her education and location, eventually landing at Suffolk for her Masters of science and marketing.
“I wanted to go to a smaller school in Boston, so I reached out to a few and some just wouldn’t let me run there, they wouldn’t accept grad students. So then Coach [William] Feldman said I could run for him and I said sure,” said Dorion.
With only one year of eligibility left, there’s been a lot that is different this time around for Dorion. At Adams State, Dorion studied studio art, where many of the classes required long hours in the studio painting and writing papers — a stark difference from her experience with her program at Suffolk.
A similar sentiment carried into the athletic environment. Being from such a competitive program originally, Dorion appreciated how different the coaching style and team environment has allowed her to have a lot more fun and enjoy the sport. Feldman’s attention to every individual’s improvement and journey makes the environment a positive one for her and the team.
“He pays attention to everyone. I feel like that was something lacking at my other school. He doesn’t care if you’re the slowest person or the fastest person, he’s paying everyone equal attention and I can really respect that,” said Dorion.
With such a unique circumstance for her, Feldman has taken extra care to make sure that Dorion’s season goes well and the coaching staff can give her everything she needs to make this year her best.
“She’s coming from an elite program that has won the Division II national championships pretty consistently. For her to come to Suffolk and take a leap of faith with me as a coach and the girls within the program, we can provide her with the support and access to whatever she needs to reach her goals, which are pretty lofty,” said Feldman.
Dorion’s own competitive spirit and drive for self improvement have carried over into her start with Suffolk. Although Dorion’s recognition with the CNE is an exciting award for Suffolk and the team, she doesn’t want to get too excited about these successes yet, being critical of her performance and the consistent room for honing her skills.
“Something like that isn’t a big accomplishment, I mean I wasn’t really happy with my race quite honestly. I wanted to do a lot better than I did, so it was bittersweet I guess,” said Dorion.
Dorion’s accolades aren’t the only thing shining a light on the runner. With over 22,000 followers on instagram and over 45,000 on TikTok, Dorion has been making content about her running journey for a major social media following. What started as posting every day on TikTok to see what would happen brought her to a whole new group of people passionate about running.
“I just kept seeing running influencers who were so fake. And I was like, be so for real you are not wearing these cute outfits and looking so pretty, it’s painful and it sucks sometimes . . . It’s not so glamorous,” said Dorion.
After seeing the lack of honest influencers in the sport, Dorion made it her mission to start posting content that reflected her truth while being involved in distance running. The journey that started a year and a half ago hasn’t shaken up her world, but has made a lasting impact on her followers.
“I don’t feel it, like what the heck I just feel like a normal person. I mean just to have an impact on people like that, people come up to me and say ‘I started running because of you,’ or ‘I chose to run in college because of you,’ and that is insane that I have such an impact on people,” said Dorion.
With one more year on the collegiate cross country circuit, Dorion is looking to her life running after graduating with exciting prospects. With her current set of skills, she’s sure she could qualify for the Boston Marathon in the future and keep competitively running.
“I think I could just do it — I run 80 miles a week, so I think I could just hop into it and do it . . . I want to keep getting better and hopping into college pro meets and running the 5Ks, 10Ks and 1500ms after college,” said Dorion.
With the rest of the year to focus on her time at Suffolk, Dorion has hopes to continue to make as much of an impact as she can in the little time she will be with the team.
“I’m just so excited to see what we can do this season. I mean I’m only here for a year and I want to help the team get to nationals. We’ve never qualified for nationals as a team. I feel like I know I could do it as an individual, but I want to go with all the girls,” said Dorion. “I can’t imagine my life without running hard and chasing goals,” said Dorion.