Marie Sample: "Go 36. You're going to qualify!"

It's Marie Sample week on the Internet in Minnesota!

Below, we've posted a short interview DtB did with the recent Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier after her 2:45:58 PR at the Cal International Marathon. Over on Running Minnesota, Chad Austin's fine site, there's another interview with the Marshall resident -- and photo to boot!

Here's Sample's story of her PR run in Sacramento and the long road that got her there ...

DtB: How did the race play out for you? Were you on pace and feeling strong throughout?

Sample: I had planned to run a very consistent and conservative 6:18 to 6:20 pace per mile with hopes of feeling well enough at mile 20 or so to pick it up a bit and make a little room to spare. Turns out there was a pretty decent headwind though a large part of the race - middle mostly. There were about 25 women there trying to qualify and I knew some of them were going to go out harder than I wanted to. We basically formed 2 packs from the start. I was in the second pack until all of them dropped off. I could always see the lead pack of women but by mile 10 I found myself alone and bucking a headwind. They were too far in front to try to catch so I decided just to go it on my own with the same game plan.

At mile 15, I was feeling kind of tough and little tired. We had just come out of a pretty hilly first 15 miles. I slammed 2 power gels and drank as much Ultima as I could keep down without shooting it back out and kept moving forward. At mile 18 I was a new person. I felt awesome and ready to start picking up the pace. I could still see the lead pack and even better, I could see them coming back to me. Some of them were walking along the road and some were just stopping in front of me calling it quits. I knew I was still right on pace. At mile 20 I was starting to catch and blow by people. I had a nice rhythm and a whole lot of confidence at that point.

With a 5K to go, there was a guy that yelled to me, "You have to run a 20 minute 5K to qualify". I knew I could do that so I just kept running. People were yelling, "Go 36. You're going to qualify. You look so strong." At 2 miles to go I knew I had the qualifier. I felt so good and I was reeling people in. My sister, her husband, her 2 girls, my 3 daughters, and my mother in law were all on the route with about 6 blocks to run. I could hear them above the crowds of people. It was so nice to hear them. My husband and Father-in-Law were following the course on bikes after about mile 10 - where the chickens and roosters were on the course. The finish was a 3 block horse shoe with 2 left turns. The first turn took me to the final turn where I expected to see 2:45 something. Sure enough, that is what I saw. When I saw it, the tears were already flowing. It was a dream that I had had for 4 years.

DtB: If I remember correctly, you had a bunch of close-misses in attempting to qualify for the Trails in 2004. What has changed since then?

Sample: I had missed qualifying 2 times in 2003. I ran a 2:48.14 in Minneapolis and then 8 weeks later I ran the same time in Tuscon Arizona. The difference is, I had only logged 66 miles as my highest weekly mileage before running those marathons. I had logged many more miles for this race. I had 5 X 100 mile weeks, more track workouts (mostly mile repeats at 5:20 to 5:30 pace), 10 to 15 mile hill runs at Camden State Park located about 12 miles from here, days where I run 10 miles at 4am before going to work and then another 10 miles at 11:30am after getting home from work, and occasional naps. I am the lightest and fittest I have ever been in my life.

DtB: You live in Marshall, I see. Are there special challenges to training there. I'm guessing training partners, competition, calm weather are harder to come by there than, say, in the Twin Cities.

Sample: I have nobody to train with here. The next fastest person in town is my husband Dave and when I am running, he has child watch duty at our house. We have a lot of wind here but no hills. I have to leave town to get hills. The wind can be helpful because it adds and extra challenge to my workouts. I learn to try to hold pace even when I am bucking a headwind. I don't have an indoor track to do speed work on this winter to train for the trials and the outdoor track is already covered with snow. I will have to get creative and also use the treadmill some for speed training.

DtB: What's your goal for the Olympic Trials?

Sample: I have never run this many miles in my entire life. I am the lightest and most fit I have ever been in my life. I am the strongest and most determined to improve that I have ever been. I have another 3 months that I can run high miles and continue to work on physical strength and speed. I have a lot of faith that I can continue to improve before the trials and also afterwards. I would realistically like to run a lower 2:40 to a 2:42 at the trials. I think I could have run faster than a 2:45:58 in Sacramento but that wasn't my goal. We'll see what training brings and how well I will be able to get in speed workouts over the winter. It is going to be a lot of fun just seeing what I can do. The sky is the limit when you dare to dream and work harder than you ever thought you could.