FW: Early in your career, you had great success racing on the track anywhere from the 1500 through the 5000. Over the last few years, you’ve had more frequent success in the 5K and 10K, as well as on the roads. Are the longer track and road races avenues you’ll be looking to explore more over the next few years?
AR: Unfortunately, age takes over. I love the 1500, and I’d run it if I still could be competitive. It’s been a pretty natural progression to the longer distances over the last few years, just listening to my body really and seeing what it can and can’t do anymore. I love the track—I love what our championships bring out—but I’m really starting to enjoy what road racing has to offer.

FW: In what respects?
AR: It’s not as stressful as the track and a more relaxed atmosphere in general. You have people of all different ages and fitness levels coming together to have a good time. And that’s what running means to me—enjoying yourself and having a good time. Plus, here in New England at least, there’s a road race every weekend, so if you’re feeling a bit flat or unmotivated, you can always find a race to use as a tempo run.

FW: You were an Olympian on the track in both ’96 and 2000. With the next Olympics less than two years away, and given your national title in the 10K earlier this summer, can it be safe to assume that event will be your focus leading to the Olympics in 2008?
AR: Yeah, I’m hoping the 10K is where it’s at for me the next two years. It’s not gonna be easy to make the Olympic team—there’s only three spots and 10 people vying for them. But I’m definitely focusing my training on the 10K in 2008. As far as my international career goes, that will likely be the end of that.

FW: American distance running on both the men’s and women’s sides of things have really taken off since the Olympics in 2004, with Meb Keflezighi and Deena Kastor medaling in Athens. More recently, Jen Rhines just dipped under 15:00 for 5K, and there are a lot of young up-and-coming women starting to make an impact not just on the national level, but internationally as well. What are your thoughts on the recent upswing for American distance running, particularly on the women’s side?
AR: When you see these women, and Deena and Jen are two of my best friends, you know how hard they work, and it helps you see that anything is possible. There are more opportunities for women today, too, and it just takes one person to make a difference. Deena’s performance at the Olympics got the ball rolling, and it’s just exploded from there. The attitude all of a sudden became, “Well, if she can do it, then we can do it too.” There’s a lot of young talent exploding right now, with girls like Lauren Fleshman, Shalane Flanagan, and Sara Hall. It’s an exciting time for women’s distance running right now in this country, and I’m just excited to be a part of it. Now that I’m getting older, I have to work a little harder, but it’s worth it, and it’s motivating at the same time.

FW: You’ve lived and trained in Providence since your college days at PC. Some might say it’s not the ideal place for a distance runner to train with the harsh winters, lack of soft surfaces, training partners, etc. How do you respond to that?
AR: I think it’s just a matter of what you’re comfortable with in your surroundings. I just enjoy living here, and I’ve got great training partners in Marie Davenport, Kim Smith, Roisin McGettigan, and some of the BAA girls around here. For me, it’s what I feel most comfortable with and what keeps me happy; it’s important to be happy.

FW: I know that in the past Mark has gone to Florida for some of the winter to escape the harsh conditions we face up here in New England. Do you usually head down there with him?
AR: Yeah, in the winter we usually head south when the weather gets bad. The weather up here makes us tougher, but we just throw our hands up when it gets real bad. Usually we head down to Gainesville, but the last two winters we’ve stayed up here, but it’s been hard. With the move up to the 10K, I’ll need to get on the track a little earlier than I usually would, so we’ll be going back down there this winter.

FW: You’re entering your second year as a volunteer assistant at PC after spending a year helping out at Bryant College. Is coaching something you’d like to become even more involved in when you’re done competing?
AR: That’s why I’m doing it—to see if it’s something I can do after I’m done running. It’s not an easy job, but I’m learning a lot right now and having fun with it. After 2008, Mark and I would like to start a family, so we’ve got to take that into consideration, too. I love the kids, and Ray has showed me there’s more to it than just coaching. I really enjoy the hands-on part of it. I’m not sure if I like all the other little things that go along with being a coach, but I love being an extra set of hands for Ray and really enjoy motivating the kids.

FW: You mentioned your training partners earlier. Is Ray coaching all of them?
AR: Yeah, he’s coaching the whole group of us and also Amy Mortimer, who is going to be moving down to Providence and will be joining us in October.

FW: Do you and Mark ever run together?
AR: On occasion we run together, but not regularly. Mark likes to meet up with the guys—it’s a social time for all of them—and I like to run alone or with the girls. We might run together if we’re both taking a real easy day, but not all that much.

FW: With both of you being professional runners, do you ever find things difficult trying to balance each other’s training and racing, or is it more the opposite where the two of you can sort of feed off each other?
AR: There are definitely pluses and minuses to it, but I think for both of us, the pluses outweigh the minuses. For example, we both know what it’s like to be both up and down, and fortunately, neither of us have been down for too long, but we can relate to each other when things get tough. I think it’s better for both of us to be doing the same thing rather than not. Overall, it’s definitely a good situation.

FW: Most professional runners like to spend their time between workouts relaxing with their feet up, while others are known to keep themselves pretty busy. Which of those categories do you fall into?
AR: It’s hard for me to relax [laughs], so I usually find a way to keep myself busy. We bought an old house, so there are always house projects to keep me occupied. I also help walking the dogs for our neighbors, but between running, coaching, stretching, the gym, resting, and just normal everyday stuff, the day goes by pretty fast. Every day is different and full of a little bit of everything.

FW: What have you learned over the course of your career about dealing with injuries and other setbacks?
AR: Injury-wise, I haven’t dealt with anything real major, but I’ve had some problems with anemia and just staying healthy in general. Over the years, I’ve learned to listen to my body. Say I’m feeling tired and flat, but it just drags on—I’ll take a step back now and see what I need to do to get out of it instead of digging myself into a deeper hole. I pay close attention to my body and keep a log of how I’m feeling. I can always use it to go back and look and make the right adjustments, which is very helpful. I’ve learned you don’t need to be so serious and stressful all the time. Running should be fun, and sometimes you just need to remind yourself that’s why you do it.

FW: In the past few years, you’ve started focusing more on racing longer distances. With that shift in focus, how has your training changed, if at all?
AR: It really hasn’t changed all that much, but there’s no more crazy speed sessions anymore or anything like that. To run a great 10K, you need to be in great 5K shape, so maybe we’ll add a couple reps to interval sessions, stuff like that.

The biggest thing has been consistency with tempo runs, and I really feel like those have helped me a lot in the longer races. I used to have a strong dislike, you might even call it a fear, of tempo runs, but now I enjoy them. That’s probably the biggest difference. Overall, it’s just consistency over the years—another year of hard work just gives you that many more miles in the bank when it’s time to tap into that reserve.

Editor's Update: Amy Rudolph finished third in the CVS/pharmacy 5K with a time of 15:41. She was the second American finisher, behind Sara Hall who finished in second place with a time of 15:40. Fast-women. com caught up with Rudolph a few days after the race and here's what she had to say about her perfromance.

FW: You had a great race at the CVS/pharmacy 5K, running faster than last year but finishing third overall and second U.S. to Sara Hall, with the top three places separated by one second. Take us through the latter stages of the race and how the race played out over the final mile or so.
AR: The race was very close at the finish and there was still a large group of us at two miles. With about 1200 to go, Sara Hall made a big push and I covered the move and we seemed to distance ourselves a bit from the rest of the group. We caught one of the Kenyan women who had gone out very fast with the leaders and we started closing on Olga [Kravtsova], but she still had a sizeable gap on us. The finish is uphill and both Sara and I were trying to break each other and we went back and forth, but she was able to find another gear and really sprint for home. Olga really struggled up the hill and we were able to make up about seven seconds from the bottom of the hill to the finish. It was a very exciting finish and I had a great time overall. Sara ran a gutsy race and it was good to see her end her season on a good note.

FW: What's next on the race agenda for you this fall?
AR: As for the rest of my racing schedule, I am planning on running Tufts [10K for Women] and the Manchester Thanksgiving Day Road Race. Both of these races will be a great way for me to break up the fall training and use them as markers.

Interview conducted on September 13, 2006, and posted on September 21, 2006.