Interview with Colleen De Reuck
by Shannon Martin

Colleen De Reuck running the 8K at the 2006 USA Cross Country Championships in New York.
Photo by: Alison Wade
New York Road Runners

Colleen De Reuck, 42, is running the NYC Half-Marathon Presented by NIKE on Sunday August 27. Four-time Olympian De Reuck has been winning major road races since many of her competitors were in grade school. A native of South Africa, De Reuck became a U.S. citizen in December 2000, and won her first U.S. title a few months later at the USA 8K Championships in South Carolina. She represented Team USA for the first time at the 2002 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, capturing the individual bronze medal and helping the USA to the team silver. She won the 2003 USA Half-Marathon Championships, and passed pre-race favorite Deena Kastor in the final mile to win the 2004 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, earning her ticket to the Athens Games. Earlier this year, De Reuck finished second at the USA Cross Country Championships in New York City’s Van Cortlandt Park. She lives in Boulder, Colorado, with her husband, Darren, and daughter, 11-year-old Tasmin.

Fast-women caught up with De Reuck after her press conference appearance at NIKEtown in New York City, three days before the half-marathon.

Fast-Women.com: So, here you are in New York. Tell me how you decided to run this inaugural half-marathon.
Colleen De Reuck: I decided quite a few weeks back when it was first announced. I am training for the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon so this is a good buildup race and I love New York City. It’s so different to come here to race; there’s so much energy and excitement. It’s great!

FW: I feel that the course is laid out so perfectly with more than the first half of the race in Central Park and then you take to the streets. I know that if I were running this race, I’d have a lot of adrenaline building up right after mile 7, exiting the park and hitting the streets.
CD: I just saw the map. You are right, you exit the park right after mile 7 and they say that it’s pretty flat and downhill all the way to the finish, so that’s exciting. I’ve run the New York City Marathon which is through the boroughs; I’ve also run the Mini, which is in Central Park, so now, I get to run something totally new.

This must really wow the people who live in New York and who are racing in Central Park every weekend. You have to take into account how much work goes into a race in a big major city and you are running on the streets!

FW: 42nd Street nonetheless, one of the busiest streets in the entire city!
CD: I know. You just have to sit back and say “Wow! “ There’s so much work behind it. You have to sit back and appreciate all that New York Road Runners has to go through to put on this production.

FW: I think the hard work is especially noticeable for inaugural events. When a race happens year after year, it’s easy to take for granted all of the hard work required to put the race together.
CD: Yes, that’s true, but in South Africa, we belong to a running club and we help put on a marathon and I’ve helped put on track and field events for schools and I know how much work goes behind that, getting the volunteers together, all of the coordination. It’s a lot of work. It’s weird that as runners, we don’t really see what goes on behind the scenes. I sort of have a little inkling of all that goes on behind the scenes, but I can only imagine all of the work behind an amazing production like this.

FW: It’s great to hear about your many ways of involvement in running. I hear that you are doing quite a bit of coaching these days too.
CD: Yes, I started coaching a group called the Striders and I coach them twice a week. It’s amazing how much joy you can get from doing this. I also started personal training at the gym in Boulder. So, I’ve started doing other things besides running and I’ve noticed now that I am training for a marathon that all that I am doing is making training a bit harder. The few hours that I used to have each day to rest and to relax are now filled up with other activities, but at least I am enjoying those activities.

FW: Do you have any specific goals for either the half-marathon or Chicago?
CD: Well, I’d like to just have a good solid race on Sunday. It’s hard though-I can’t race those girls anymore! It’s just a fact, you know. They’re so much younger than me and I have become a little bit slower as I have gotten older. So really, I just want to be able to hold my own in the race.

FW: You say that you can’t stick with the younger girls, but we have seen you do so. In the USA Cross Country Championships, you came in second in the 8K and had a remarkable kick at the end!
CD: Yeah, but for Sunday, we’re talking about an international field and they’re running like 69 minutes and I’m not there. So, I just want to hold my own out there and have a good solid race. I’d like to do 71 or 72 minutes.

FW: That’s fair enough. So, what do you think about being in the masters category now after years and years of running?
CD: Well, I love to run in major races like New York Road Runners’ Fifth Avenue Mile. I think “Wow, this is so cool.” It’s such a good feeling and to get to run with the best of the best, like running with Catherine [Ndereba] on Sunday. It’s great!

Things have changed for me though. I take longer to recover. You know if I race on Sunday, I wouldn’t be able to do a workout on Tuesday. Before, I would have been able to go ahead and do a light workout, but now, I just need more time to recover. I can also only do two workouts a week. I’m trying to train as hard as I have before, but I’m not running sub-70 for half-marathons anymore. So, that’s just the way it is!

FW: You finished very strong at Falmouth this year [She won the Masters category, placed ninth overall, and was the fourth U.S. finisher]. Was that your last road race?
CD: Yes, that was my last race. It was a good race. It was my first race back because I had hurt my Achilles and had to take two months off. So, hopefully, I got all of the rust out and I’ll be good to go on Sunday.

FW: So, you feel like you are back to your normal self?
CD: Yeah, I’m back to my normal self. I haven’t done as many races as usual this summer, but I’m really looking forward to Sunday to really see what kind of shape I am in and how hard I can go.

FW: Tell me more about your running schedule. You told us in a past interview that you had to schedule your workouts around your daughter Tasmin’s schedule. Does that still hold true?
CD: This is the first summer that I will go for a run and she will stay at home by herself. I’ll just go out for a little run and she will stay home. When I do the long hard stuff, she has dance camp or something like that going on. She’s quite comfortable to stay at home for an hour, so that has been nice.

FW: So, tell me what does a week in Colleen De Reuck’s training life look like?
CD: On Mondays, I will do a 50 minute run in the morning and then I will do a Pilates class and a I’ll do a 35 minute run in the evening.

On Tuesdays, I’ll do a workout, not on the track. I don’t go much on the track; it’s not something I really like, so I will run on the trails or bike paths and there are markings on them so I will so fartlek or something, with varying distances and speed.

Wednesdays, I coach in the morning and I will do a short run afterwards. In the evening, I’ll do another 35 minute run or so.

Thursday, I’ll do two easy runs. I’ll do like an hour in the morning and 30 minutes in the afternoon.

Friday, I do another workout, either a tempo run or something longer and sustained type of workout.

Saturday, I coach and I’ll do a 30 minute in the afternoon.

Sunday, I do a long run. I’m up to 2 ½ hours now.

FW: So, Sunday is the day you use to get in that nice long run?
CD: Yeah, Sunday’s the day to do that and I don’t run at all after that.

FW: It’s great that you do Pilates. I’m noticing that a lot more professional runners are integrating Pilates or yoga into their training. I personally think that it’s great for rehab and also great for injury prevention, building core strength and keeping the limbs flexible.
CD: I do Pilates twice a week and I lift weights twice a week. It’s odd, I can easily run for an hour, but I find it hard to sit down for ten minutes and stretch, so you know, if you are at home, there are always things going on. So, by going to the gym, I’ll do Pilates and it’s great for stretching and strengthening the core, like you said. On the reformer, the springs really help me to support my stretching.

One thing that I have noticed is that when people get older, a lot of these injuries or weaknesses are emphasized. When you are younger, you just bounce back and you can keep on training. When you are older though, those little weaknesses flare up and cause you to have imbalances and injuries.

If I were a high school or college coach, one of my workouts for the runners would be to do core-strengthening exercises. If you look at kids today, they are not running around and playing like we did as kids, so they’re not getting their balance and strength developed with play. They may do organized sports and they watch TV and play on their computers. So, if I coached younger runners, I would have them work on their whole bodies, not just spend hours running.

Editor's Update: De Reuck achieved her goal of finishing in 71 or 72 minutes; she finished fifth in the NYC Half-Marathon Presented by NIKE with a time of 1:11:48, which is a pending U.S. Masters half-marathon reecord. She missed the world master's best by seven seconds.

Interview conducted August 24, 2006, and posted August 25, 2006.

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