LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Angela Stanford is going to squeeze a marathon into her schedule this season.

Yes, she’s going to train to run a 26-mile race between events in the spring.

She believes it’s going to help her golf.

“I didn't feel very strong mentally last year,” Stanford said. “I felt pretty weak, in general. I thought, you know what, I'm going to figure out how to beat this. I have to be stronger mentally out here, and I guess the best way to do that is to train for something.”

So, she is training for the Los Angeles Marathon, which is scheduled for March 8. It will be her first marathon. She ran 16 miles on a treadmill a couple weeks ago as part of her training regimen, when rain kept her from running outside.

“My legs have never hurt like that,” Stanford said.

Stanford, 42, broke through at Evian two seasons ago to win her first major championship, her sixth LPGA title, but she struggled to follow up on that success with a rib injury plaguing her later that year, and with complications spilling into last season. Her 2019 season ended early when she didn’t qualify for the fall Asian swing events.

“You can't appreciate the good unless you have the bad, and I've never been one to shy away from how bad things can get when you play this game,” Stanford said. “But I've just never gotten a dose like that.”