FW: What kind of injury was that you were dealing with?
ED: I had a posterior tibial tendon tear, a partial tear kind of, which aggravated into plantar fasciitis and compensating. I don't think I took it seriously enough right away. I just thought it was one of those aches and pains that would come and go, and it just stuck around, so I wasted some time trying to run on it rather than just addressing it aggressively right away and taking time off right away. So lessons learned, you know?

FW: Whether by choice or not, you seem to have taken your time moving up in distance. How has your running progressed over the years, in terms of training and focus in racing?
ED: Well, right now I feel like I signed up for a whole new event almost, like I took up a whole new sport. The marathon is just so different than the 5K/10K. I think there are a lot of things that go into it. I did a lot more mileage than I've ever done before in preparation for the marathon. I've progressed as far as my blocks of training have progressed, and I feel like I'm fit, and it'll just be a matter of whether I'm fit for a marathon. I'll be able to know more about the event once I run it, and know next time if I want to tweak this or that, so now I'm going into it feeling like I've had some good preparation and can just see what happens with it and take it from there.

FW: What does your training look like? You said you've been doing higher mileage, but also how have you broken it down in terms of intensity?
ED: Well, in terms of mileage, it's certainly higher than what I would do in terms of 5K/10K training. My peak week was probably around 120, and that's far more than I would do; previous to this year, I think I hit two 100-mile weeks in my career total. For this I peaked around 120 and was lingering right around 100, 105, 110 sort of range. I didn't have the intense speed workouts, of course, and more focus on the tempo runs and the long interval stuff. Also some marathon pace-specific stuff. Hopefully I've done the training that will give me a good marathon and a good experience.

FW: So are you looking at it as just getting it under your belt to get ready for maybe the Olympic Trials?
ED: Exactly. I need one under my belt at this point. I've put it off long enough, and the marathon trials for the Olympics are just around the corner. I think with the marathon there's definitely a learning curve, and so if I can get a couple before the big event and learn from it, maybe, as my husband says, hopefully I can say this was my worst marathon. So the next one will be better—not so much that I want a bad experience. You've got to start somewhere, and it's time to step up to the starting line for sure.

FW: It seems like you are giving marathons a try at a pretty opportune time, with the new marathon majors, and also maybe a little more attention on marathons after Meb Keflezighi’s and Deena Kastor's medals in Athens. Are the majors something you plan to focus on?
ED: I don't know yet that the marathon is my event. I think that would probably be too early to say. I hope that after I do Chicago, it will leave me wanting to come back for more—that’s what I'm hoping, but you just don't know, I think. I don't know. I feel good going into it, but it's still 26.2 miles. My longest race at this point has been 20K, and that was once.

FW: What has your racing schedule looked like in the past year or so? As far as I've seen, you haven't stepped on a track to race since 2005. And then I saw you ran the U.S. 15K championships, and then got second in the U.S. 20K championships.
ED: This year has been a very different year compared to what the last ten years of my career have been. My focus has been primarily the track with a little bit of road racing in there, and coming back from an injury at the beginning of this year, I went up to Kenya with my manager's group for five weeks for a little bit of base training and to learn about the marathon, because there was a bunch of guys there getting ready for spring marathons. So I learned a little bit about their training, and had a good experience. After I returned from Kenya, I ran the 15K just the week after, and I had a little flare-up of the plantar fasciitis again, so I decided this time to take care of it right away and took some down time and backed off and then just eased my way back into it, which left me not ready to be where I wanted to be to step on the track and have the performances that I wanted. So I decided to forgo the track season this year and just focus on being really healthy and ready for the marathon. It was a probably a pretty average year for me, or more of a bad year actually. As far as my race performances, I struggled with some stuff and probably set a personal worst—well, did set a personal worst—for the 10K this year. So I don't think those races this year really speak for how I feel now, but hopefully doing the marathon will turn some things around.

FW: You said you're not sure if the marathon is your event yet, but do you feel like you still have goals to reach in shorter events? For example, is breaking 15:00 for 5K something you're maybe going to let go of if you move up? Jen Rhines broke 15:00 this year for the first time just after her last marathon, right?
ED: Yes, she did. I don't think I'm ready to let go of the track yet. I want to return to the track after the marathon, and I feel like there's still room for improvement, and one of my career goals I think still is to run sub-15:00 and get close to breaking that 31-minute barrier on the track. Even if the marathon goes well, I think that you can do both, and I think Deena and Jen Rhines, and Meb and Alan Culpepper have shown that you can do both and run fast on the track. Look at Jen; she ran sub 15:00 for 5K after one of her best marathons this spring.

FW: I know you've traveled a bit in the past to train with other elite athletes, but I didn't know you went to Kenya. I'd like to hear more about that trip. How did you get the opportunity to take it?
ED: Well, Tom Ratcliffe with KIMbia, my manager, and Dieter Hogen, who coaches the Kenyan marathoners with the group, they were going to do a training block in Kenya in preparation for the spring marathons, and my manager was like, "Hey, if you're interested in going, the opportunity is there." My husband had been coaching me for a number of years, and we felt like it would be nice to get some insight into marathon training from someone else's perspective. At first I wasn't so sure about traveling to Kenya pretty much on my own. I was going to be the only American that I knew of where I was staying—once I got there I found out there was another American there—but I went and had a great experience.

I stayed at Lornah Kiplagat's training center in Iten, and there was a number of international athletes training there while I was there, and it was nice to mingle and get to know people from other countries who were training for other events and at the same time have this group that I could meet with every day. Most days I met with the KIMbia group and had a couple other younger girls, one from Uganda and one Kenyan girl, and then a guy whose job was to sort of pace the women. It was really easy to get settled there and get into training. The local people were really welcoming; the food was great; the weather was great; and the hills were like hills I've never seen before. It was really a great experience, and now looking back I'm so glad that I went and had the opportunity to do something like that that I probably otherwise never would have.

FW: Your husband didn't go with you?
ED: No, he didn't. I was on my own and my manager was there for the first two weeks I was there—he went as well, him and his daughter, so that was comforting just having people I knew and who had been there before to kind of show me the way. Dieter came for the last bit of training I was there for. It worked perfectly; it was just a great arrangement. I don't know if you remember him, but Godfrey Kiprotich, who was a really good road racer for a long time from Kenya, he kind of took care of the logistics of the training camp while I was there. All I had to do was focus on the training, and they took care of everything else and showed me around. I felt really safe; I felt really comfortable and I hope I have the opportunity to go again. It was fantastic.

FW: I guess you don't have a lot to compare it to, but would you recommend marathon training over there to other Americans looking to step up in the marathon?
ED: I think the best part about it was that I was in a group environment, and I was away from so many distractions. It was a camp setting. I didn't really have a phone—well, I kind of had a phone. My cell phone worked there, but it was about $5 a minute to use it, so calls back home were infrequent. I think if I were to go again or if I were to suggest to anyone else to go, I'd say it would be a great time to go when you need to just put in some base, and maybe have a group of people to go with. The great thing, too, was that there were a number of other international athletes there, and so oftentimes on my afternoon runs when I would go out for an easy jog; someone else was going to be going for a run. So I would just jump in with whoever was going to go, and that was nice. Everyone was really friendly and accommodating; it was refreshing. The track is dirt and the inside lane is just a dirt bank from so much use, and there's no roads—well, they're all dirt roads. So if you're preparing for road races, it's tough. It's a lot of hill running; it was the most surprising thing. I'd heard it was hilly, but it was hilly. It was beautiful, beautiful rolling hills on this great farmland. It took a couple weeks to adjust to not only being at 8,000 feet but also the hills, so the recovery became more important.

FW: I don't know if you saw it, but KIMbia is sponsoring a contest to try and win an opportunity to go to Iten and write about it.
ED: Yeah, I did see that. I would say if you ever have the opportunity, I mean, I always thought, "Maybe I'd like to go to Africa one day," but I didn't know how I was going to get there or what I was going to do there. It was just one of those things like, "Yeah, I'd like to go to Africa." I think because running is so much part of their culture, it was really interesting to be around—to be in this third world country where there are some runners there who are world class and will never make it out of this village. It was just very cool; I don't even know how to describe it. If you have the opportunity to, it was really neat. ... It's an opportunity of a lifetime, to be honest.

FW: When during the year was it?
ED: This winter. I went for the end of January and all through February.

FW: So you have been training in New Mexico since then?
ED: Oh, you know, actually we moved back to Gunnison, Colorado in July and have been here and also had a couple visits to Boulder and the group there, but didn't stay there to train. I've learned a lot from Dieter and from just seeing what they've done and how they prepare. I've gotten lessons from here and there and put my own plan together, so we'll see.

FW: What are some of the most important lessons you've gotten?
ED: Hydration, just practicing it consistently and religiously. That's one thing when I went up to Boulder and I did a couple long runs and consistently every 5K through the run you're practicing it, taking water. It's something I didn't do a lot of until now, but it's definitely something you have to do, and I feel better. The recovery is so much better and with my long runs, no wonder I used to feel so horrible. Things like that, you just pay attention to detail—hydration, nutrition, rest, recovery, work hard, rest hard. I've been kind of living like a hermit the past couple months, but it's been good.

FW: Are you just playing your plans for the next couple years until 2008 by ear? Do you know if you'll shoot for the marathon or the 10K or maybe both for the Olympics?
ED: The best scenario would be to have that option of the 10K or the marathon. That's where I'd like to be in 2008, feeling good about both events and then picking the one that I think I can do the best in.

FW: And you've been to the Olympics twice before.
ED: Yes, in the 5000 in 2000 and the 10K in 2004.

FW: How do you look at the 2008 Olympics with those experiences under your belt, whether the 10K or marathon, or I guess possibly even both?
ED: Well, I don't think I would do both. If I were to qualify in both, and I don't know that I would, but if I qualify I don't think that I would do both at the Olympics. At least for myself, I don't think I would be setting myself up to do well. I would rather just pick one race and then give it all I got. I want to go back to the track next year and that's 2007, and then the trials are I think in Boston for women, in 2008, I think in April, and I'll see how that goes and make a decision. Either way I will likely do the track trials. I think they're in July.

FW: Do you have any plans for after Chicago?
ED: I hope that Chicago goes really well and I leave it all out there and I can just take a nice vacation. I hope it goes well and I can take a few weeks and relax with my family and just do the stuff I haven't been able to do for the past 10, 12 weeks because I've been hunkered down preparing for the marathon. I'd like to do cross country next year; I haven't done cross country in a couple years, and it's at altitude in Boulder, just three and a half hours away, and I train at altitude. It will probably be my first race back, or maybe I'll do the half-marathon championships in January in Houston. A lot of it will probably depend on how the Chicago Marathon goes and how I recover from it. I just have no idea how I'm going to feel afterwards.

FW: Anything else you want to add before we finish?
ED: One thing is that I find it absolutely incredible how many people in America voluntarily sign up to do the marathon. It's taken me so long to feel like I'm prepared, but so many Americans are doing it. I find that so incredible and inspiring.

Interview conducted on October 14, 2006, and posted on October 17, 2006.