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Six New York State Women Qualify for Marathon Trials by Alison Wade New York will be well represented at April 3's 2004 U.S. Olympic Team Trials - Women's Marathon in St. Louis. Six New York state residents have qualified for the Trials by running faster than the 2:48:00 standard, and five of them planned to compete as of this writing. The top three finishers at the Trials — provided that they run under the Olympic "A" standard of 2:37:00 — will qualify to represent the U.S. at this summer's Athens Olympic Games. Although most of the New Yorkers in the field are not expected to contend for one of those top three spots, past Trials have proven that anything can happen. The 1996 Trials winner, Jenny Spangler, was the 61st seed, and 2000 Trials winner Christine Clark had the 22nd fastest time heading into the race. For most of the New Yorkers competing, the important qualifying is already done, and this starting line is the one that matters. Margaret Angell
Angell, 27, qualified for the Trials by running 2:46:20 at the 2003 Flora London Marathon, her seventh 26.2-miler. In February, she traveled to Palm Springs, California, to run a half-marathon and practice racing in unfamiliar territory. She passed the test with flying colors, running a PR of 1:16:02, winning the women's race, and finishing ninth overall. The 2003 New York Road Runners Runner of the Year in the 20-29 age group, Angell has lived in New York City for most of her life and says that she can't imagine a better place to train. "I thrive on group training and New York City offers the greatest and craziest running fanatics in the world," said Angell. By day, Angell is a student at Columbia University, working toward her MBA and a masters in public policy. It's a lifestyle, she says, that's conducive to serious marathon training. "It's a lot easier than trying to do it while holding a full-time job. Classes start a little later than the regular work day, so I can train in the mornings," she says. Angell is a member of the Central Park Track Club and is coached by Tony Ruiz. Her goal for the Trials is to run faster than she has before. "I can never ask for anything more than a PR," said Angell. Gordon
Bakoulis
While all of the other New Yorkers in the field will be running their first Trials race, Gordon Bakoulis has the distinction of having qualified for five straight U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials races. After competing in the 1988 (17th), 1992 (8th), 1996 (20th), and 2000 (45th) Trials, Bakoulis has opted not to enter the race this time around. After running the 2002 New York City Marathon with an injury, Bakoulis decided to take some time off from running and reevaluate her priorities. "I felt like I had these three aspects of my life - running, work, and family. I cared passionately about all of them but I felt like I wasn't able to perform well in all of them at once," she says. After putting running on the back burner, Bakoulis found that she liked the way her life was working out. For years, Bakoulis had juggled top-level running with motherhood and her career. She has worked as a writer, editor, coach, and public speaker, and currently works full-time for New York Road Runners as the editor of New York Runner magazine. She lives in Manhattan with her husband, Alan Ruben, and their two sons, Joseph, 6, and Samuel, 4. Now 43, Bakoulis ran under the Trials standard three times during the qualifying window, with a best of 2:41:43 at the 2001 New York City Marathon. She holds a career best of 2:33:01 and has represented the U.S. internationally. As for getting back into competitive running, Bakoulis says, "I refuse to say that I've retired, but it's kind of feeling more and more like that." However, she isn't ready to rule out the idea of attempting to qualify for a sixth Trials. "That would be a real honor - even though I didn't participate this year - to have qualified six times," she says. "That would be a real achievement for me." Laura
Bloedorn
A 2003 graduate of Carleton College, Laura Bloedorn, 23, will be one of the youngest runners in the Trials field. While at Carleton, Bloedorn excelled at the long distances, twice being named a Division III All-American in the 10,000m. Upon graduating, she decided to jump straight to the marathon, and made her debut at the 2003 ING New York City Marathon. While New York didn't go well as she had hoped - she ran 2:54:43 on a warm day - Bloedorn liked the distance enough that she decided to try again. She increased her mileage and entered February 15's Motorola Austin Marathon, where she ran a 12+ minute PR of 2:42:35 and qualified for the Trials with plenty of room to spare. Bloedorn lives near Rochester, New York, where she works as a molecular research biologist at the University of Rochester Medical Center. She is a part of Team USA New York, a training group for post-collegiate runners, and is coached by John Luther. The Trials will be her third marathon in five months, and she's looking to improve her time further. She told Runner's World Online, "I'd like to run under 2:40. Mainly, I'm just going to run the best I can." Jeanne
Hennessy
Jeanne Hennessy, now 26, was a collegiate star for Villanova, not as a part of their top-level cross country and track teams, but as the goalie for the soccer team. After graduating in 1999, Hennessy needed an outlet for her energy; she took up running. She ran the Jersey Shore Marathon in April of 2000 (in 3:26) as a tribute to a friend who had died of cystic fibrosis. Within a year, she had become more serious about her training and ran a 2:49 at the 2001 Boston Marathon. Running 100 miles a week or more, combined with natural talent, helped the Mahopac, New York native continue her rapid ascent and position herself among the country's elite runners. In the fall of 2002, she ran her best marathon, a 2:35:53 in Chicago, which ranks her 11th among the current Trials entrants. The high mileage eventually took its toll, however, and 2003 was filled with a series of injuries and health problems for Hennessy. In the middle of last June's USA Half-Marathon Championships in Duluth, Minnesota, Hennessy became so frustrated with the injuries that she decided to "retire" from the sport right there on the spot. To alleviate the frustration involved with being a full-time but injured runner, she took on a full-time job as a guidance counselor at an elementary school in New Jersey. The retirement from running didn't last long — Hennessy was back running the next day — and she spent much of her time in the pool, rehabbing her injuries. Now healthy, Hennessy is back to her punishing training regimen, which involves waking up at 4:45 a.m. and running as much as 120 miles a week. She told the Journal News in February, "I'm just thinking that getting to the line healthy and feeling that I did everything in my training to prepare myself will be just good enough for me." Megan
Holden
A former middle-distance standout for Shoreham-Wading River (NY) High School and the College of William & Mary, Megan Holden ran her first marathon in 1994, three years after graduating from college. "It was a big joke with all of my college friends," says Holden. "They said, 'You ran a marathon?' because I used to complain when I had to run five miles." Her original goal was just to finish, but she ran 3:05 and had a great experience. An attempt to qualify for the 2000 Marathon Trials was compromised when Holden broke her arm in a mountain biking accident. Holden improved her PR to 2:59:32 at the 2002 New York City Marathon, and in the fall of 2003 renewed her efforts to get a Trials qualifier. "Being a middle distance runner, I'd never [done] high mileage," she says. "Even in my training for marathons, I never went over 60 miles a week. My friends said, 'You should try it, see what you can do!'" The increased mileage — she ran four weeks of between 80 and 100 miles — combined with Philadelphia's fast course, helped Holden run 2:47:31 and qualify for her first Trials at age 34. After taking a break in December, Holden - who is self-coached - ramped up the mileage again in preparation for the Trials. She did two 100-mile weeks this time out, but has also had to fight off two colds this winter. "[Before getting sick,] I was pretty confident that I'd be able to improve my time [in St. Louis], now I'm hoping that I will," says Holden. Holden, who lives in Shoreham, New York, balances her training with a busy schedule. She works as a teacher's assistant by day and attends classes at night. She is enrolled in a Master of Arts and Teaching program at Stony Brook University, and hopes to get a job as a social studies teacher when she graduates. After the Trials, Holden would like to focus on the shorter distances for a while and improve her 5K (17:07) and 10K (35:58) PRs before returning to the marathon. Julia
Stamps
Best known for her high school and college achievements, Julia Stamps is a newcomer to the marathoning scene. Stamps qualified for the Trials by running 2:46:17 at the 2003 LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon, only her second marathon. A running prodigy from a young age, Stamps was one of the most heralded U.S. high school runners ever. After a promising start at Stanford University, injuries got the best of her by her junior year. A 2001 skateboarding accident ended her collegiate career and it looked for a while like Stamps might not return to competitive running. Upon graduating from Stanford in 2002, Stamps took a job in New York City. On a whim, entered that year's New York City Marathon; she ran 2:54:47 and had a blast. After a year of more structured training, Stamps traveled to Chicago, ran an even-paced race, and earned her spot in St. Louis. After living in California for the first 23 years of her life, Stamps, now 25, has struggled with the New York winter. "I am still not used to training in tights, jackets, hats and gloves," says Stamps. "Sometimes I found myself running 12 miles on a treadmill, but I watched the news and [listened to] books on tape and the radio. I had a whole entertainment center." Because of her less-than-ideal training, Stamps said that she'll have to rely on her talent to get her through the Trials. Stamps balances her training with 10-hour work days at Bear Stearns, where she is an assistant broker. She does the bulk of her running at 5:30 in the morning, something she claims is not too hard, thanks to her training partners. "The [New York] running community is very supportive," she says.
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