Jenna Boren: "I had two voices in my head ... "

Jenna Boren, who lopped big chunks of time off her marathon PR in her last two outings, was recently featured on Chad Austin's fine Running Minnesota blog. The St. Olaf grad ran an impressive 2:45:51 at the sticky 2006 Grandma's Marathon and topped that a few weeks ago running 2:42:39 at the Chevron Houston Marathon.

My favorite Boren quote from Chad's piece: "I had two voices in my head; one telling me to hold back and the other telling me to go. I listened to the "hold back” voice through mile 25 because I was SO afraid of blowing up. I was in a bit of shock that my legs felt as good as they did, but I didn't trust myself either. I never really felt bad or on the edge. I was more afraid of my past tendencies to explode in the marathon."

At the top of Running Minnesota page now is an interview with Run N Fun's Erin Ward, a Minnesota runner not unfamiliar, as you'll read, with big PRs herself.

Photo by Todd Sheldon: Boren at the 2005 Twin Cities Marathon