Molly Seidel battled the pain of 2 broken ribs while setting an American record at the NYC Marathon

• Molly Seidel shocked the world when she won an Olympic bronze medal in her third-ever marathon.
• The 27-year-old breakout star did it again when she set an American record at the NYC Marathon.

If there's any athlete who knows how to defy the odds, it's Molly Seidel.

The 27-year-old American breakout star earned a bronze medal in the women's marathon at the Tokyo Olympics, completing just the third marathon of her career when she crossed the finish line in Sapporo, Japan. Few expected Seidel to qualify for Tokyo when she lined up at US Olympic qualifiers in February 2020. Even fewer thought she'd break through on sports' biggest stage.

Three months to the day after Seidel shocked the world at the games, she lined up for her fourth marathon ever — the New York City Marathon. Despite telling Insider that she was "being realistic" about her expectations for the iconic race through the Big Apple's five boroughs because of the "really hard turnaround" from the Olympics, she crossed the Central Park finish line with 2:24:42 on the clock — good for fourth place and an American course record.

But in typical Molly Seidel fashion, there was a twist. She did it all with two broken ribs.

Though she declined to specify how it happened, Seidel revealed shortly after completing the course that she had cracked a pair of ribs approximately one month before the race. She had considered withdrawing from the marathon due to the persistent ache in her chest, but settled on giving it a go after having some "frank" conversations with her team and realizing that she'd "invested too much in this" to walk away.

But that resolve didn't dull the physical pain she felt while running.

"It started hurting later in the race — like badly," Seidel said during a press conference in New York. "But I didn't feel like it was messing up my stride or anything."

"I went all out with what God gave me today," she added. "I think I made the most of the situation I was in."

Now, at long last, Seidel is ready for some rest and recovery. She'll head back home to Wisconsin, spend some time with family and friends, and unplug as much as possible.

Maybe she'll let those ribs fully heal, too.

"My Jeep is back in Wisconsin, so I might just fricking road trip across the country and turn my phone off," Seidel told Insider before the NYC Marathon. "I don't want to have to deal with anything after [the race]. Just finding some way to relax a bit."