This one’s with a twist: Heather has qualified for and raced in the Olympic marathon Trials twice already, making her our first “Trials veteran” in the series. Yet her experience has not dampened her enthusiasm for going after a threepeat. Having become a marathoner as much out of ignorance (“I’ve run 10 miles. Now what do I do?”) as out of a desire to qualify for the Trials, Heather’s path as a Trials-calibre runner has been both fraught with peril and filled with opportunities for self discovery.
For the full interview: Houston Hopefuls > Heather May
Filed under: elites, injury, inspiration, olympics, racing, reading, recovery, resources, training | Tagged: heather may, houston hopefuls |
Races Like a Girl 
Another good one Julie. I hope she makes it — 3 trials appearances would be something.
I’ve just had this great idea! For the injured runner — buy a suitably sized rainwater tank, cut the top off, and use it for water running! Put it on the deck and you can even watch TV 🙂
So much in this one. I like that she’s someone who likes to just put it into auto-pilot and clock off laps on the track, even for longish runs, as do I.
She has a great observation on race-specific training and why it can be super easy (I know) to go out too fast: “The problem was, I went out at tempo pace. And tempo pace at the start of a marathon feels really darn good! You know, you’re tapered, it feels awesome, you’re around friends. It felt very comfortable. You feel like you might have a breakthrough and you don’t want to think, ‘Oh, that’s tempo pace. I’m going to dial it down.'”
As to the standard, I think the idea about non-marathon times is to allow elites to debut at the trials so that, say, Shalane Flanagan (if she hadn’t done one) could give it a shot.
I find her discussion about the qualifying standard of interest.