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SAN DIEGO (14-Feb) -- At last year's U.S. Cross Country Championships in Boulder, Colo., Shalane Flanagan had high hopes for victory. Her main rival, Deena Kastor, was in the midst of heavy training for the Boston Marathon, and Flanagan had been flying on the track, just setting an American indoor record for 3000m: 8:33.25.
But Boulder's mile-high altitude played to Kastor's favor (she was one of the few athletes who actually came down from a higher altitude to race in Boulder), and Flanagan was soundly beaten by about about a minute over the 8 km course.
"Boulder was really tough for me," said Flanagan recalling the race on a teleconference today. "I felt really ill afterwards. Maybe it was altitude or just the effort of the race. There were a couple times on the course when I literally considered throwing myself off the course. I was completely exhausted and it took me a few days to recover."
Kastor, who won two individual silver medals at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships, isn't entered in Saturday's 8 km race here in Mission Bay Park. But Flanagan, who just finished a stint of high altitude training in Mexico, is now the one coming down from altitude, and she will be tough to beat.
"The 8-K is no joke," said Flanagan the USA record holder for 5000m (14:44.80). "I think this year it'll be a little different because it's not at altitude and the weather should be a little bit kinder. I do like cross, I've always liked it, but last year was very tough."
Flanagan, 26, competed in the 5000m in the Athens Olympics, where she did not advance out of the heats, and the 2005 and 2007 IAAF World Championships. At last summer's world meet in Osaka, she finished eighth in the final. She's looking to improve on that result in Beijing this summer, in part by building a bigger endurance base this winter.
"I guess I didn't have the strength that I had hoped towards the end," she said of her effort in Osaka. "I still had a decent amount of speed, but after a while there are only so many races you have within a season, I believe, I was just kind of running out of races and it had been a long year emotionally and physically, a great year. I feel like to be at my best for the Olympics, kind of gotta take a little bit more of a long-term approach here."
Here in San Diego, Flanagan's main challengers will be Lauren Fleshman, Katie McGregor, Blake Russell, Sara Slattery, Molly Huddle and veteran Colleen De Reuck. De Reuck, 43, the individual bronze medalist at the 2002 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, has a clear opinion of where Flanagan stands ahead of Saturday's race.
"Yes, I see her as the favorite," said De Reuck on yesterday's teleconference.
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