FW: Let’s talk a bit about your past couple of races. I saw you run at the New Balance Games and you looked very strong. Afterwards, you said that you felt as though you could have pushed the last 200 meters a bit faster. Tell me more about that race and your feelings about it.
SH: You know, I made a number of mistakes in my last two races, mainly, I think because of my lack of experience. So, in each race, I’ve learned something different. In that race [New Balance Games], I was targeting Carmen [Douma-Hussar] and just went with her from the gun and wasn’t very aware of the runners behind me and yeah, I also wasn’t quite aggressive enough in the last 200. I was a little bit disappointed because I felt like I didn’t run my best. But, all in all, it was my first race this year, and I had to start somewhere.

FW: How do you feel about your race in Boston this past weekend?
SH: I was similarly kind of disappointed not just with the time, but, I did kind of the opposite thing that I did at the [New Balance Track and Field Center at the] Armory the weekend before. My coach [Terrence Mahon] wanted me to work on starting in the back and moving my way up, but in doing so, I didn’t have enough of an awareness of what was going on up front and was too focused on the people I was passing, whereas in the race before [New Balance Games], I was too focused on the front. In the end, they were both good learning experiences… but I’m tired of learning experiences now and I’m ready for a good one! So now I’m fired up for Millrose.

FW: You’re excited for Millrose?
SH: Yeah, I am. It’s partly because I love the 3000. It’s definitely my best event. Part of it is just the atmosphere there; it’s just incredible. I ran there in high school my senior year and I remember it being unlike any indoor meet.

FW: How about the 3000 in Boston this past weekend [Tirunesh Dibaba broke her own world record and Shalane Flanagan broke the United States record]?
SH: Honestly, that’s also part of the reason why I am excited. I think the bar has been raised for us American distance runners, and I’m excited to respond to that. I want to be a part of this momentum that’s going on right now.

FW: Tell me what it was like to watch that race [the women’s 3000] unfold in Boston.
SH: It was a really exciting race to watch. I have to give Kim Smith and Shalane a lot of props for their gutsy performances. Also, it really lit a fire under me watching that and realizing that I want to run like that too. I’m tired of running merely for second or for the first American when Dibaba or [Meseret] Defar are running. I want to compete for the win no matter who is in the race and just seeing that played out was really exciting. I’ve definitely got some work to do and I’m excited to get started.

FW: When we were scheduling your interview, you mentioned that you have a workout in Boston tomorrow. What do you have planned for that workout?
SH: I think we’re doing a mixture of 300s and 800s, with the 800s controlled and the 300s at a pretty decent pace, like 48.

FW: Are there other Team Running USA members out there with you?
SH: Yeah, I am actually going to meet Gabe Jennings who is a part of our team and who is staying out here as well. So, it will be nice to have some community. Gabe always makes things interesting! And his intensity always inspires me.

FW: Tell me more about running for Team USA.
SH: It’s just been the most amazing blessing for a number of reasons. I realize it even more being away from them right now and being out on my own. It reminds me of what it could be like if I weren’t a part of the team. For a lot of professional runners, this is how it is.

I could go on and on about the team. There are so many reasons why the team has been such a good fit for both Ryan and I. The team members are one of the best things about it; I think it’s rare when you can get such highly motivated people to train together without it becoming very competitive, but we all work together really well. Even when we are doing different workouts, we try to mix in when we can and use each other to bring out the best in ourselves. It’s just a great setup for that and I also enjoy their personalities so much. Everybody brings something different to the table and we just enjoy being together, which is nice since we meet twice a day. It’s like you’re hanging out with your friends at the same time that you are putting in the work. So, in that way, it’s great.

And I’m very thankful to the people like New York Road Runners who have supported our team, because I know it takes a lot behind the scenes, but I definitely believe it pays off. I feel that I have been provided with all the tools I need to develop my potential to the fullest, and that’s an exciting place to be!

I’m also very happy with my coach Terrance Mahon. We communicate very well, and I trust him and his knowledge and his intuition with me even though he has known me for a short period of time.

I struggle a little bit with altitude when I first go up there, but I’m starting to get a little bit better at it. I’m really looking forward to going down to San Diego when I get back; we’re going to the Olympic training center there and also spending some time in Big Bear, where I can drive down to sea level to do workouts. So, that’s worked well, being able to spend parts of the year there [in Mammoth Lakes], but not to be totally tied to one place, to be able to go wherever it makes sense for that part of the year. That’s something that not a lot of professional runners can do, you know? Their husbands may be working, so they are tied to a certain place and I feel really blessed that I have a husband who is also a runner and is mobile with me. I feel like I am doing everything I can in training without having to compromise at any point.

FW: It must also be nice to share your ups and downs in running with Ryan.
SH: It’s great; you have to enjoy the high points because the low points are bound to come too. We were both really struggling in the summer over in Europe and we [had] to pick each other up after those races and remind each other that times like this [when they are performing extraordinarily well] are going to come, and to keep our sights on the reasons why we run. It’s good to have each other and our teammates. For instance, Jen [Rhines] was an inspiration for me last track season. I worked out with her a lot and to see how well she had done in Europe, running 14:55 in the 5K just made me realize that even though I hadn’t personally achieved that, my training wasn’t in vain, that I put in the work too, and that it was going to come out at some point.

FW: It seems as though your hard training paid off when you won the US 5K road championships and then the Continental Airlines Fifth Avenue Mile.
SH: Yeah, that was a great confirmation that all the work we had done was paying off. I took a little bit of time to regroup after Europe and to get strong and get my feet back under me, and it was nice to end on a good note. The Fifth Avenue Mile is what got me thinking about [competing in the] mile too because that race felt so natural to me, and that it emphasized my strengths as a runner.

FW: Tell me what it has been like to evolve as a runner. Let’s look back to the days that you first gained an interest in running.
SH: I started running in junior high. I was a soccer player and I knew that I had speed from soccer, and also basketball. My junior high English teacher was the cross country coach and he encouraged me to come out for the team and was very influential in inspiring me along the way. I immediately loved it; I loved running in the trails. I had a huge state park across the street from my house that I loved to just go get lost in and run for miles. I think too it gave me a lot of freedom when in junior high you don’t normally have very much freedom. You can’t drive or anything [laughing]. So, I loved the freedom part of it. I was always pretty driven and would run every day after practice, usually doing hill sprints and running the same 5 mile loop and trying to beat my time from the previous day.

Going into high school, it was a big decision to stop soccer so that I could focus solely on running and one that made me realize my commitment to the sport. In high school, I loved the team aspect of cross country, but yet I liked that I wasn’t held back by my team in accomplishing things individually. I always liked the mile in high school and I always liked doing the speed training. Actually, probably my favorite event was the 4X400 even though my history definitely wasn’t in the 400. In high school, it truly clicked that running was what I was created to do as far as sports.

FW: When did the notion of professional running first cross your mind?
SH: I didn’t think too much about it until my senior year of college. A lot of people in college aren’t even aware of it as an option or how to even go about it; I was really fortunate to have people like Lauren Fleshman around, who had just gone through the process and my coach Dena [Evans] who had seen a lot of Stanford athletes go on to run professionally. They helped a lot, because it is a really confusing process.

FW: One thing that I wanted to touch upon is the fact that you are much younger than many of the women whom you compete against. For instance, this weekend, you competed against Sara Jamieson, who is almost 32, Shayne Culpepper who is 33, and Carmen Douma-Hussar, who is almost 30. Do you ever think about this fact and realize that you have many years ahead to further evolve as a runner?
SH: You know, I don’t think too much about it I guess. I guess it’s because I have never been one to put people on pedestals or to familiarize myself with everybody’s stats. When I race, it’s just bodies [laughing]. I guess I don’t build other people up too much. Ryan always tells me to think that on any given day, you can beat anyone, because everybody has good days and bad days.

It is interesting though when I think about how I can be in the sport for 10 or 12 more years, but that’s kind of daunting to think about now [laughing]. I think I’m just taking it a year at a time. As long as I feel that this is what God is calling me to do, I’m going to keep doing the best I can.

FW: Let’s talk more about this being your calling.
SH: A lot of my motivation for running and in my decision to run after college is just realizing that God gifted me in this, and so I need to do it the best I can and really use this gift to my fullest potential. It’s a way to honor God, for giving me this gift. It was hard in college when I was deciding to continue running, because I also felt gifted and passionate about other things, particularly mission work in third world countries, and I wasn’t sure which one I should pursue. So, I was debating for a while but I finally realized that this [running] is what I am meant to be doing for now and as long as I am doing it, I need to follow Colossians 3:23, which states “Whatever you do, work at it with all of your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.” That’s really what sums up why I run.

I especially like the part in that verse that says “not for men”. I’ve found it’s easy, without even realizing it, to run and compete for others’ approval, and for fame, and I think that’s such a dangerous thing because you are always going to have ups and downs. People that love you one minute are going to treat you completely differently once you start performing poorly. That can be really hard if that were your motivation, to gain others’ approval. I strive to run just for the Lord’s approval, and all I need to do is give my best and not worry what anyone else thinks- which is easier said than done!

A lot of times when people hear Ryan or I mention God, they kind of get the impression that we’re saying that God’s on our side or that we’re trying to convert people. It can bring up a lot of misunderstandings, so that’s hard because [our faith] is more of a personal thing. At the same time, it’s hard not to thank God because we feel so blessed. God blessed us with this team that we’re on and blessed us with the ability and opportunity to compete, so it’s hard to not thank him and to not give credit to him for giving us this talent which we had no say in. We definitely put in the hard work and we are definitely the ones out there on race day, so it’s not as though we are saying that he is supernaturally making us win [laughing].

FW: Well, it also seems that God blessed you and Ryan with each other, to have the same faith base and to be able to train on the same team.
SH: For sure! We were definitely made for each other; we’re just loving life right now, just getting to spend our days doing what we love and being with each other. We also love that we get to live and train in such incredible places. It’s unlike what I ever imagined professional running would be like.

FW: Aside from training and competing, what have been your favorite experiences since becoming a professional runner?
SH: I’ve really enjoyed getting to know a lot of the other American runners, or runners that train or compete with us, that aren’t necessarily American. You find that it’s pretty much the same people at most of the races here [laughing]. It’s really fun because you really get to know people pretty well. I have fond memories of having insomnia with Carrie Tollefson in Moscow and just lying in bed talking because we can’t sleep at all, or Kim Smith smearing her mystery meat cafeteria food around in disgust at the Swedish training center. Being in Belgium this summer, there were so many other runners who were based out of there and we were all living in these dorms. So while the races were hard for me at that time, the aspect of having all these runners around was really enjoyable. I think that that’s something that I really enjoyed about running in college, was the people aspect, like the people that you meet and your team. I didn’t know it was going to be the same way after college, but it definitely has been. So, I really enjoy that.

FW: Tell me about your new house that you and Ryan just bought.
SH: We bought a house in Big Bear Lake, California, which is east of LA and it’s at almost 7000 feet. It’s where Ryan grew up ever since he was 4. A lot of his family is still there. It’s been neat; we haven’t gone to train there a whole lot unfortunately because we wanted to stay with the team. We feel like it might be a good place for us, and even the team too, in the future, when say Ryan wants to be at altitude, but I want to train at sea level, because you can drive in just an hour and get to nice tracks at sea level, but you can live at 7000 feet and you can’t really do that anywhere else in the nation. So, that’s something that’s pretty special about Big Bear Lake.

FW: So, that must be the reason why so many phenomenal runners come from that area!
SH: Well Mammoth has really started to attract runners, largely I think because of Deena [Kastor] and Meb [Keflezighi]. In the summers, it’s crazy how many high school teams go up there to train. It’s become quite the running Mecca, but it’s fun because we really enjoy talking to the high school teams. I remember being in their shoes and so many things come to mind that I wish I knew in high school [laughing]. You know, because you have learned so much since then.

FW: What are some of the things that you talk to high school runners about?
SH: One thing that I remember about high school is that mileage was this big hot topic, and everyone was asking “How much mileage are you doing?” and then they would say “Oh, that’s a lot; you are going to get burned out.” It was this big taboo thing. I remember once I got to college, everyone was doing different things, like Arianna [Lambie] was doing maybe a third of what Alicia [Craig] and I were doing, yet we were racing at a very similar level, so training is so individually based. So, I tell the high school students to just be confident with what they are doing.

I joke with them about all the rituals I did in high school before races, thinking that they were the key to my success, and how now I don’t do any of them anymore! Like eating five bowls of oatmeal the morning of my race or listening to the same songs.

I always ask them, “Why do you run?” because I think it’s a question that all runners need to know. So many runners don’t even realize why they do it, yet they devote so much of their lives to running. I encourage them to find what their motivation is and let it be what drives them. Once you identify what it is, it’s easier to not let other things motivate you that aren’t as positive. I also try to talk encourage girls to make good eating habits and have a long term perspective on their running. It’s hard to see so many great runners be plagued with injuries from not eating well. I tell the high school girls how much chocolate Deena [Kastor] and Jen [Rhines] eat and they are amazed

FW: What role do lifestyle factors like nutrition and rest play in your training?
SH: I definitely think it’s important, but I also think it’s important to be balanced, that’s something my mom instilled in me from a young age. But especially if you are running high mileage it’s something you have to think about because you have to be constantly fueling yourself. Ryan and I have started getting fuel in constantly throughout the day and we’ve really noticed a big difference in our recovery when we are doing that. We’re hoping that by paying attention to it, it makes the training less hard on your body than you it would be otherwise. And hopefully that will increase the longevity of our careers.

FW: And you’re probably able to rest much more now than you were able to college, right?
SH: [laughing] Yeah, my lifestyle is very different from college because I never had 10 minutes free all through college. The academic work was pretty rigorous at Stanford and I was also very involved with a lot of different things on campus, which I really enjoyed. I like to be busy, but it’s funny now because we live in these places that are totally isolated [laughing]. Mammoth is totally isolated and you can’t get any more isolated than down in the training center [Olympic training center in San Diego], which is good for me because I tend to do too much and wear myself out. The isolation makes me rest more. Ryan and I are very different in that way. He needs his nap every day and he likes to be pretty low key. We balance each other out in that way; I make him do things when he doesn’t want to and he makes me take a nap when I don’t want to. I definitely rest a lot more now and I have noticed that the rest allows me to work out more often than I did in college because we used to take two days in between workouts and now we pretty much work out every other day and I have found that I can recover so much faster when I am taking better care of myself.

FW: Do you run doubles?
SH: Pretty much most days are double days, just not the long run day and usually one other day in the week, I will only run once.

FW: What type of crosstraining do you do?
SH: We meet in the morning for our primary run and then in the afternoon we do our second run and then head to the gym to do some form of crosstraining. We do weights every day, but it can be as simple as doing a couple of measured jumps. We do core every day as well.

It’s neat. We started a new weight program this year by Dennis Klein, who is Andrew Rock’s weight coach, who he [Andrew] attributes a lot of his success to and it’s pretty different from anything we have done before. It’s a lot shorter reps and more explosive exercises. It’s really different, so I am excited to see how this year plays out with this new regimen.

FW: Do you enjoy weight training?
SH: I really do. It’s the perfect example of how a group makes such a difference because on my own, I would just kind of get through it, but with a group, it’s so much more fun because we are challenging each other and cheering each other on to get the last chin-up in. It’s nice that it’s so fun seeing that we do it every afternoon!

Interview conducted on January 29, 2007, and posted on February 1, 2007.