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Sydney
Olympic Marathon Competitors Chris Clark and Colleen De Reuck Together Again
Written by Drew Woodrich, WASHINGTON RUNNING REPORT
July
16 - Two top American female marathoners discussed the upcoming Women’s
National Marathon Championship to be held at the New York City Marathon on
Sunday, November 4th.
Race
director Allan Steinfeld led a conference call conversation with the running
media.
Although
they have not met each other, Christine Clark and Collen De Reuck competed in
the Sydney Olympic Marathon last year; Chris finished 19th in
2:31:40 and Colleen placed 31st in 2:36:48. The women responded to
questions on the November race, marathon strategy, and current training.
Steinfeld kicked off the discussion with an observation that this year’s New
York City Marathon will provide a chance for athletes to run against some of
the best marathoners and provide a showcase event for the American runners.
Television will do a fantastic job of publicity and coverage of the National
Championships, he ensured.
Christine
Clark began her remarks by complimenting the excellent organizational
structure of the event. It is a terrific opportunity to run in a world class
marathon and it will be her first trip to New York City as a competitor. She
and her husband have been in the city once before as tourists to see a museum
exhibit on Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition (‘by endurance we
conquer’) at the American Museum of Natural History: www.amnh.org/exhibitions/shackleton/home.html
This
will be the third edition of the New York City Marathon for Colleen De Reuck;
she is very excited about an event she considers a great race, and this will
be her first big competition as an American. When questioned about her
previous second place finish to Tegla Loroupe in 1997, De Reuck admitted that
there is unfinished business, i.e. winning.
In that race, she briefly lost her focus after a worker ran away with
her bottle at a water station; the lapse in concentration allowed Loroupe to
pull ahead to victory.
Both De Reuck and Clark agree that one should keep race strategy simple, giving the marathon a best effort, rather than planning a reaction to the performance of other women in the field. Clark went further and dismissed strategy in a long event as meaningless, even if this approach may not conform to the idea of a killer instinct used to win in a top caliber battle. Never allow oneself to fold in a race; maximize the training one has done and don’t sell oneself short. At the Olympic Trials in Columbia, S.C., she knew her incredible fitness would carry her through hot and humid conditions.
Injuries
this year have hampered De Reuck and Clark, which reflects the difficult nature
of high mileage preparation. Clark has withdrawn from the American team
traveling to Edmonton for the Track and Field World Championships due to a sore
Achilles. Her inability to log sufficient mileage since May has left her
dissatisfied with her current fitness level. De Reuck raced the 2000 Olympic
Marathon with plantar fasciitis and later developed a stress fracture as a
result of an altered foot strike. She was out of running from February to May
and is slowly increasing her mileage. Pool workouts and visits to the gym kept
De Reuck fit during that injury time but she is glad to be back on the trails of
Boulder, Colorado instead of confined to gym training.
De
Reuck ran a local Fourth of July road race and feels better, fitter with every
passing week. She still does not run all seven days of the week because there is
plenty of time to prepare for New York. Clark has run a couple of low-key local
events since the Sydney Olympics. She serves on the board of the Alaska Run for
Women 5 Mile, which benefits breast cancer research, and completed the course
with 5000 other women this past June.
Clark
is well-known for her use of a treadmill to run indoors during the long, dark
winter months in Anchorage, Alaska (mid-October through March). This past winter
was “hellacious” and since she uses indoor miles a maximum of two-three days
per week, her idea to run the Boston Marathon was nixed. The treadmill is only
for speed work, not distance training, she adds. But thankfully, Anchorage has a
wonderful trail system through the woods; she logs about seventy miles per week
during the friendlier summer months and includes one quality speed workout on
the trails, not on the track. She harbors no fondness for track intervals and is
happy to leave high school-style repeats behind her, rah, rah.
Clark
explained how she juggles work, family life and running: she often runs around 6
am before work at Providence Alaska Medical Center, schedules ten hour days on
two-three days per week, takes the children to school on her days off and then
does her workout. Clark is a devoted mother, wife and pathologist and chooses to
limit her running travel. The general attitude of her medical colleagues is,
‘When will you grow up?’, she jokes. A run in the woods is a stress relief
and mental break from the demands of a busy life; fitness and enjoyment are
important factors for her running and racing.
Both
athletes appreciate the “gentle “ hills of Central Park and look forward to
running the New York City Marathon.
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