FW: It seems like there are so many good races I could ask you to talk about. I guess first I was wondering if you could talk about the 5K at the big Rome Grand Prix.
CT: Yeah, that one was okay. It was my first race off the plane, a 15:20. I think it was 15:20; I don't even know what time it was, I just know it was a great day, but for me, I felt like it was a horrible race, and to run 15:20 off of the airplane, not having a good day, I just am much happier that that's 15:20 when I know that if I had a great day, I would have been very close to 15:00 or under. It wasn't a great race, but that was not the one we were looking for. We were setting up for a different race, and unfortunately it just didn't happen. I don't want to base my whole year on that Rome race, because it really wasn't the one we were looking for.

FW: You had a big PR in the 3000 at the London Grand Prix a couple weeks after that 5K in Rome. Can you tell us how that race went, especially considering that it was switched from a 5K at the last minute, and everything?
CT: We were over there and had gotten there just before Rome, and we had had two weeks to train and get ready for that race, and they told us three days before the race they were switching it to a 3K. And you know, that's fine, because I wanted to run a fast 3K as well. Going into the race, I felt great, and I just had one of those races where I think I should be running 8:45 at this point in my career, and in order to run under 15:00 you have to be able to run that fast. I wasn't totally surprised that I ran that fast, but the way I felt—and it was just a perfect day—it was fun to walk away knowing all the hard work that I was doing was paying off. It was a good day, and I'm kind of using that as motivation for the next couple years to really keep going and hopefully run fast.

FW: So you felt like it was a pretty big confidence booster that you proved to yourself you could run that fast?
CT: Yeah, you have to believe, if you want to run certain times, you have to be able to do it across the board. I'm one of those runners that run all kinds of events; I don't just run one event. I need to be able to run fast in the 15[00], the 3[K], the 5[K], and even if I step onto the roads and want to be respectable in the 10K. I just think that all different aspects of training really help all of my races. I want to be competitive in any event that I race, so I have to be able to run 8:40s in order to be one of the best in America, but then to go overseas, you have to really crank it to be competitive. It's good to be able to be fast at everything you run, because I don't want to have to be one of those people that just runs one event and only one event.

FW: It's interesting you mention the 10K. I don't think I've ever seen you in one on the track. Is that something we might see down the road?
CT: Well, I'm one of those girls that would love to run the 1500 all the time; that's my favorite event. Unfortunately, a lot of people have tried to convince me that I'm not a 1500-meter runner; I'm a 5K runner, so I think eventually I'm going to have to make that bump to move away from the 15[00] and try the 10K, but I don't think you'll see that for awhile. It's amazing to see how these 5K girls now jump up and run really fast in the 10K, but it's twice as far as I've ever run on the track, and the 5K is a beast for me still, so I just can't even imagine going that many times around. But I'm just going to never say never, because you kind of just have to go where you're meant to go, and if the 10K is my future, then I definitely will have to do it.

FW: You also ran well at the Falmouth mile, winning in a pretty swift time. How was that race?
CT: It was a perfect race. Tiffany [McWilliams] took it out hard, like she is known to do; she likes to run hard from the gun. We all just ran really tough together, so it was nice that we had each other. For me, if I could watch that race on video, I think it would have looked like I was a 5K girl stepping down to the mile, because I really haven't done a ton of speedwork but I was strong throughout the whole race. It felt good to be able to run that fast, knowing that it wasn't coming from speed; it was coming from strength, so I was just really excited. Even more so, I was excited that my first 1500 of the year was 4:06, and we were even doing more 10K stuff than 1500-meter. It's a nice reinforcement to know your speed is always there, and as long as you work on your long stuff, you're going to have it. They say it's the fastest in the world this year, and I know they don't run a lot of miles, but not very often do you get to say you've run the fastest in the world, so that was kind of fun.

FW: It seems like after your "surprise" win in the 1500 at the 2004 Olympic Trials, you've shown a lot of consistency as a miler. You say the 1500 is really your favorite event but not your best, so how do you really look at it?
CT: I'd really like to work on it. I'd really like to have one year in my career where I can focus on running some fast stuff, going to the track and just running 1500-meter and 800-meter workouts, but it's hard to do that when you also have to be good at the 5K. For me, I've always been more of a 3K/5K girl, even in college. They threw me in the 1500 and the mile when we needed points and just for practice to help my 3K and 5K. It's something that's a little discouraging for me at times, because I love that race so much, and yet people just don't want me to run it as much as they want me to run 5K, and it's hard because I really love it, but I know that I need to probably just stick to my guns and know my mom and dad gave me genes to run a little bit longer, so I just kind of have to suck it up and do it.

I think everyone would just love to run shorter events, especially long-distance runners. You always think it's more fun to go out there and just focus for four minutes. It's not any easier; I'm not taking away from what the 1500 runners do, but I think it's just fun and you don't have to think so much. You just race, and you're always in it, you know what I mean? Even if you're 10 seconds back from the winner, you still can see them, and if you're that far back in the 5K, like when I go overseas and they're running 14:30 and I'm trying to run low 15's, they're halfway around the track. It's exciting, because you stay in it, and you're always in the hunt until maybe the last 200 meters.

FW: It seems to be getting pretty crowded at the top at 5K—you’re the eighth best American in it this year. How are you feeling about your progression in it and the competition as everyone is aiming for 2008? It seems like there's such a huge list of women who are capable of sub-15:10 or sub-15:20 and could be doing the 1500 or the 10K instead in 2008.
CT: Well, I think a lot of the 5K girls are dabbling in the 10K, so the 10K is getting a lot more competitive than it has been in the past. We've always had three or four women that are very fast up front, but now you're getting five, six, maybe seven girls that can run that fast. I think it's going to spread out pretty evenly, but you have to be at the top of your game. We go overseas and hear how many different countries over there are like our states, and they're pretty small, so there's more of an opportunity to make Olympic teams, and you come over to the States and you have to be one of only three people to make the Olympic team in each event, so it's going to be difficult no matter what event you're in. You don't want to shy away from any event; you want to go to the best one. If the 5K is going to be stacked, I just hope I'm ready to hang on and sneak my way in there. I ran 15:04 the year of the Olympics, and I know that I'm fitter than I was then, and I'm stronger and probably a better athlete from what I went through in 2004, so I think I'll be okay, and I hope that I can stay healthy and give it my all.

FW: It seems like across the board in track, in America, people are talking about the young talent stepping in and going pro. What do you think about it?
CT: I think there are a lot of people that are starting to really train at a high level, and the high school kids are taking it to a higher level than we did. You know, Kara Wheeler [now Goucher] and I raced each other since I was in eighth grade. She's a year younger than me, and we raced each other every single year in Minnesota or in the Foot Locker championships or whatever, and both she and I were girls that ran 30 miles a week, 40 miles a week at tops, but we both still ran fast. I think it's a different age, and maybe that's why people are going to start seeing times fall, but ultimately it's about who gets to the line first. I don't really know if it's a right way or a wrong way, what's going on now, but I just hope we can continue to show ourselves when we're overseas and continue to make a name for the U.S. and be competitive. We're all getting our times down there, and we are getting competitive. I hope this next generation can keep on continuing to improve and bring more medals home. It'd be nice if Deena [Kastor] had someone else to bring a medal home with and celebrate in that excitement. Hopefully all the Americans can keep on continuing to run faster.

FW: I also want to talk about your training with Team USA Minnesota. What has training in the group been like, and how has it helped you?
CT: All of us girls basically train together, and even the guys. Dennis [Barker], our coach, comes from a long-distance background; he was a marathoner and a 10K runner, so we all do a lot of long endurance stuff. Katie [McGregor] and I have worked out the whole year together this year, and Jenelle [Deatherage] will do workouts together with Katie. It's rare we're not doing something that someone else could do. Only at the very end of the season do you have to get really specific with what we're doing. We really have a great group here. We all warm up together, we all cool down together, and most of us women get together to do our long run together as well as the guys, so yeah, there are people that are running marathons and 10Ks, and people that are running 8[00]s and 15[00]s, but Dennis kind of uses the same strategy for all of us, but he might just add on a rep or two for the longer people. I think we're definitely going to keep improving, and the younger guys and women have just been really great to have around. I'm just excited to see what Team USA is going to do in the next couple years.

FW: There's been a little buzz about groups like yours and how they're funded and what they can do for the sport. Do you have any thoughts on this philosophy and strategy to step up American distance running and bring home some medals?
CT: I know for me, in order to be a better runner, I need to have that same sort of company around me. I'm just going to talk about the girls, because they're my girls, they're my training partners. Katie and Jenelle and Kristin [Nicolini] and Sara [Wells] and Annie [Bersagel] and I, we all go to the track together, we all are believing in each other, and we all push each other, and we have dreams and we have goals. It's pretty neat to say I'm training with Katie McGregor, who's a national champion, or Sara Wells, who's a national champion, or Jenelle Deatherage, who just missed the team; she was fourth at the last trials. It's pretty amazing to be able to say all these women are trying to make the Olympic team and trying to make World Championship teams, and you just kind of raise the bar. I guess it's just kind of like going to college—when I was at Villanova, we didn't think anything different. Our team wanted to win the NCAAs every single time we stepped out there as a team. That's kind of how it is now when I go to practice. My team, we might be individually setting our goals, but together we're all trying to achieve them. It's neat, and sometimes it's funny because we have to race each other, but just having each other out there and knowing we're fit and ready to go, it's a pretty comforting feeling, and it just makes you want to run fast. There's nothing bad you can say about training with some of the best runners in the world, and I have some of them right here in Minnesota. It's pretty cool, and they're my best friends, so it's the best of both worlds.

FW: You've had such a long and consistent career through high school and Villanova. For example, I remember the stat that you're the only American to win five high school state cross country titles. How have you personally focused on maintaining that for so long with what seems like little struggle with injury?
CT: I think just being consistent and having the desire and the passion for what I do. I absolutely love to run, and it's brought so many great people and opportunities into my life, that I don't ever want to see this career end. I love being able to go to speak to kids and more importantly, to tell younger females, that adidas pays me to run and I train with Team USA Minnesota and they help continue my career, and they pay me to live here and train here. And once you get the chance to wear the “USA” across your chest, it's a feeling that is just unexplainable. Any injury that comes along, I know what it feels like to continue to be healthy, so I just get back out there and keep training. There have been ups and downs along the way, and they all make me a better person and runner because of it.

I've been so blessed to be able to go since I was 12 and continue to run, and I think I'll be around a long time. I've taken my time. I didn't run very much when I was in high school, and then Villanova brought me along slowly—I didn't run any longer than 60 miles a week when I left Villanova, and now I'm almost 30 years old, and I'm just slowly bumping my mileage up as I get older. You just have to be patient and just dig deep, see what you're made of. It's just been a dream come true. My best friends are in the sport, and I just don't think I could find a better job.

FW: So where is your mileage and training at this point in your career?
CT: My highest week in college was, I guess 60, and that was in the fifth year, and now my highest week will probably be 90 to maybe 95. It's just been slowly but surely going up. It hasn't been an all-of-the-sudden change in things. We're adding things here or there, whether a longer run or harder, so we're kind of tweaking things as I get older, but it's just nice to be able to have somewhere to go, and room to grow, as well. I think sometimes we train too hard when we’re young, and it's hard to find different ways to tweak things, so that's been nice about my coaches along the way. They've kind of held me back.

FW: Do you then see yourself going up and over the 100-mile mark in the coming years?
CT: I guess I would if I were to be running maybe the 10K or the marathon, but probably not. Like I said, my coach is a distance guy, and he's not afraid to push us in our mileage. Even Jenelle, as a 1500-meter runner, she doesn't run 50 or 60 miles a week; she'll run up to 80 miles a week, and maybe even a little over that, so we definitely get our mileage in. I don't think I'll do too much more if I'm not doing anything over 5K, but who knows. You never know with Dennis!

FW: What are your main workouts?
CT: I guess in the fall we do some long intervals on Mondays, and then a long hard run on Tuesdays, and then Thursdays we hit the hills usually or do some 200s, and then we do another long run on Saturdays, so we have four quality days a week in the fall, and we do that as long as we can. And then in the spring we maybe drop down to something like eight to ten 400s or something like that, but we always do a lot of reps. So we're never just running two or three 400s or something like that. We usually do more 5K-on-up stuff.

FW: So you said earlier you've been coaching high schoolers.
CT: Yep, I'm an assistant coach at a private school in Minnesota here. I'm just kind of hanging out with them one to two times a week—not very much, because obviously I'm still training full-time, so they know that comes first and foremost, but it's been great. This guy who has been coaching them, his name is Gary Lee, and it's Blake High School, and they coach the same way my coach coached me in high school. I don't think I could have done it if it were a high-mileage, do-or-die situation. It's real laid-back; they have fun; we go to races and we eat afterwards. Those are my two favorite things to do, run and eat; so yeah, it's been a great experience.

FW: Do you have any specific plans for after the 2008 Olympics, whether for a career in broadcasting, or maybe having children? It sounds like you have a lot you still want to do.
CT: Oh, babies are always on the mind. But once they're there, they're here forever. Charlie and I are definitely looking forward to that, but I could see myself going to 2012 even, and waiting. I see a lot of women having kids in their late 30s, and I want to give this career everything that I can, and then we'll see what happens. I just hope to continue on for as long as I can. London and running in the Olympics there is definitely a goal. I'm not just going to say the next Olympics would be great; I'm going to keep on going. And I definitely want to be able to get in the final. I was the second person out of the final in 2004, and that's kind of been a little spot that's been sitting in my stomach ever since. It would be fun to get back there and really run fast.

FW: Anything else you want to add?
CT: No, I think it's just been a fun year and I'm looking forward to a nice big break, but I'm just going to try and keep it going for a little bit longer. It'll be a good time out in Providence, that's for sure.

Interview conducted on September 7, 2006, and posted on September 12, 2006.