Nicole Cueno: " ... I have never felt so competitive at the end of a marathon."

Nicole Cueno of Minneapolis, it's safe to say, had a great day at the Cal International Marathon recently. The Minneapolis resident knocked 10 minutes off her marathon PR with an Olympic Trials qualifying 2:42:03 runner-up finish that, by the way, earned her $5000.

DtB contributor Chad Austin -- check out his own web-sites HERE and HERE -- interviewed Cueno about her big run ...

DtB: First off, congrats on your Olympic Trials qualifier at the California International Marathon (CIM). How were the conditions and the course?

Cueno: The temperature was perfect (cool at the start and stayed cool throughout the race) but there was a fair bit of wind. I tried to be strategic about staying with a group because I knew there was often a headwind on this course. I was part of a great pack for over the first half of the race and we traded leads a bit so none of us fatigued too much with the wind. I, and two other women, led the pack the majority of the time but I got a few of the guys to step up a couple times (Did they really think they could stay tucked in with a group of women trying to qualify and not pull their own weight? :) Pack running also helped even me out a bit on the hills which were not huge but more substantial than what most of my training was on.

DtB: Did you have any other goals besides qualifying for the Trials?

Cueno: Qualifying for the Trials was the main goal. I felt that, with good conditions, my training might allow me to drop lower than the qualifying standard but I did not want to focus on that. With poor conditions in a marathon, one just never knows. I wanted to go in to the marathon with that one clear goal and have training that could get me there even if the conditions were not ideal.

DtB: You were able to run negative splits. Was that your race plan going in or did you just feel great during the second half?

Cueno: That was not the race plan but it could not have felt better. The race plan was to be as even as possible. I went through the half in 1:22:20 with another woman, Sara Donahue. She and I were running together really well and we decided we’d try to maintain 6:15s, 6:18s through mile 18. We went slightly faster than that. At mile 17, a spectator told us that we were in 6th and 7th. That made me so excited but I knew I should still hold back. Sara and I stayed together through 20 and then I started calculating; I knew the women I could see were over a minute ahead of me. I knew that meant that I couldn’t wait any longer and yes, I was feeling great. Mile 22 was sub-6 which freaked me out a bit so I stopped looking at my splits. I kept taking them though and when I looked at them after the race, I realized my last four miles were the fastest of the race. I really have no explanation for it other than I have never felt so competitive at the end of a marathon. It was an incredible feeling that I’m quite sure I will never forget.

DtB: At what point did you know you had 2:47 wrapped up?

Cueno: I said it before, but you just never know what’s going to happen. I think somewhere between mile 17 and mile 20, I felt so confident in making the standard that I stopped thinking about it and started focusing on competing.

DtB: Given that the Minnesota racing season basically ended two months ago, how were you able to tune up for CIM?

Cueno: The City of Lakes 25k was a good jumping off point for my training. It reassured me that I hadn’t lost too much fitness in my recovery from Grandma’s and it motivated me to get back in to tough training (and the weather was beautiful this year). I did a half marathon in Kansas City, MO in mid-October and then a 5k two weeks out. Other than that, I just focused on my own workouts and training progression.

DtB: Granted, conditions were less than ideal at Grandma’s this year, however, you still PR’d with a 2:52. Now, just six months later you sliced another 10 minutes from your PR. What changes have you made to your training that have led to such a large jump in fitness?

Cueno: I can’t give away all my secrets can I? I can say that I trained harder than I’ve ever trained before but I was also very deliberate about getting the most out of the miles I was logging (i.e. eliminating junk miles). I never even hit 80mpw because I was having some backside/hamstring issues that seemed irritated by too much running. When I was topping out in the 75mpw range, however, I was doing three, intense workouts/week and getting in 3-4 hours of additional cross-training.

After Grandma’s I was not entirely certain where my training might go. I knew I would be working full-time at the YWCA of Minneapolis and also trying to complete my master’s internship and thesis. I was able to do all of that (my successful thesis defense was five days before the marathon! – maybe it was the relief that carried me through -- : ) ) and train hard in part because of the supportive environment and people at the YWCA. Throughout this most recent last training period, there has been a great group of people, led by Paul Johnson, working to develop the YWCA Endurance Sports (YES!) program. I feel very strongly that the underlying excitement about having the opportunity to be involved in program development that combines my personal and career passions (health and fitness as empowerment; the YW’s mission is to “empower women and eliminate racism” ) added to my motivation for training. I was also, in a very explicit way, encompassed by people who truly understood what I was working toward. I don’t think many runners get that kind of understanding from their jobs, co-workers, or often even friends and family. I felt supported in so many ways that I know that had a hugely positive impact on my training.