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Los Osos' Aeron Arlin Genet qualifies for U.S. Olympic Track Trials By Jack Beardwood From The
Bay News, reprinted with permission
Taking two seconds off her personal record, Los Osos resident Aeron Arlin Genet clocked in at 4:15.73 to take third place in the women’s 1,500 meters at the recent Stanford Invitational – eclipsing USA Track and Field’s standard of 4:17.50 to gain entry into the U.S. Olympic Trials in Sacramento July 9-18. [Editor's note: Genet ran under the Trials "B" standard. The "A" standard, which she would need in order to guarantee a spot in the Trials is 4:10.00.] “It’s very, very exciting,” she said. “It’s something we were gunning for for a few years now and all the hard work is paying off.” When asked what it would mean to her if she made the Olympic team, she replied: “It would be a dream come true. I would be ecstatic. There is a potential I could make it. Of course, anyone could pop a good race if everything comes together. Who knows how far you can push the envelope? But if I could make it I would have a great season and it would be an incredible opportunity to be able to represent the United States in the Olympics.” Walking into the stadium under the U.S. banner would be the thrill of a lifetime, she said. “It gives you the chills thinking about it. When I was a little girl I’d be watching these runners – Mary Decker Slaney, she is one I’d always watch – and to see them with the flag walking around the track representing our country, oh my gosh, it’s overwhelming just to think about that.” A five-time All-American at Cal Poly (when the school was a Division II program), Genet took 11 years off from the sport. “I just started running with a local group of friends here and kind of got back into competing. We thought, ‘Well let’s see how fast we can do in the 1,500' and then it just kept getting more and more serious and this year with the Olympic trials it was like, well let’s try to go for it and we did it.” In order to qualify for the Olympic team, she must finish in the top three at Sacramento. “My goal is to make it to the finals,” she said. “I would love to make the top three, but realistically my goal is to make the final heat.” Despite being 36 years old – seen by many as the sunset years of athletic proficiency – she has been able to improve steadily. “I’m running faster now than I ever have before. I’ve been doing a lot more mileage than I ever have before. I’m on a real solid program. I’m coached here by (Los Osos resident) Joe Rubio and I think his program, along with just my dedication, my focus and dedication, has helped everything come together.“ Eight years ago Rubio qualified for the Olympic marathon trials. Genet said that while she was at Cal Poly an older athlete named Tina Colebrock (in her 30's) came to work out with Poly head coach Lance Harter. She also had the opportunity to watch Jani Johnson, who is now the head track coach at Cuesta College, work out. “I think having experience with older runners helped,” said Genet. “Sometimes you get caught in the mind set that you have to be young to be at your optimum potential. There’s a lot of top caliber runners, men and women, who are able to have their performance peak at an older age. “I just think it was good to have that experience when I was in college with these older athletes to kind of put that seed in your mind that you know this competition doesn’t have to stop after high school or college. You can continue. I mean I just love the sport of track and field. I like the pure competition where you are literally just toeing the line with a handful of other ladies and you have between the start and the finish, whoever gets there first is the winner. I hope that my doing it, and being around other younger runners, they will also get motivated to see how far they can go and how good they can be at the sport even after they go to college.” Genet
and her husband Marc moved back to the Central Coast four years ago.
Aeron is planning manager for the county Air Pollution Control District. Because she attained All-American status while Cal Poly was a Division II school, she said she didn’t consider herself to be a world class athlete until last year. “I felt like I was a national caliber athlete. And last year I had a big breakthrough in the 1,500. I was setting personal records last year, as well. And we started traveling. We went back east to Maine and New Hampshire. We went to Seattle to try to get into some bigger races to see if I could pop a good time and make it to the national meet. And I was really able to cut down a lot of my time and I had a great season, but committing to a really strong cross country season over the fall and getting some solid running training in has improved my strength and my speed and it’s just all starting to come together. I think it’s a matter of putting all this time and energy into a goal." Genet
has been running Asics Aggies Running Club’s cross country team,
which features athletes from San Luis Obispo County and the San Francisco
Bay Area.
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