Trotter dominates; Odlaug second on guts

By Parker Morse

Trotter cruises to an amazing win. (Fast-Women.com Photo)

It could almost be boring, if it wasn't such a big meet. Another race, another field, another scorching first mile, another course record. Amber Trotter has the routine down cold.

This week the race was the Nationals, and the course record was Sara Bei's 16:55 from the 2000 race, but Trotter demolished it thoroughly and completely, lopping more than half a minute off. She bolted from the pack at the gun, established a ten-meter lead before the course narrowed into the woods, and then built on it. At the first mile marker she was 5:04, with twenty-two seconds on the field. At the second, reached in 10:23 (a 5:19 second mile), the gap was up to thirty seconds. At the finish, forty. In 16:24.0, Amber Trotter was national champion and course record holder. It was as if the smothering Florida heat and the formidable field just weren't there, because the pre-race focus had washed it all away. What was left was one of the most dominating races since Melody Fairchild's 59-second win in 1990, and easily the fastest cross-country 5k run by a high school girl in the United States.

"My strategy was to get out quickly," said Trotter, "because I don't have much of a kick. I didn't want to get out-kicked. I wanted to get out quickly, but not that quickly!"

"I was trying to be focused on me, I wasn't trying to focus on winning, and I wasn't trying to focus on any kind of time, I really hadn't thought too much about the course record at all, I really tried to focus on, Wow, I'm lucky to be here. I actually was focusing on the course, I was trying to cut tangents and hit the hills right, that was what was going through my head. You don't really think much when you're in the zone."

Behind, now, that was the war. Firsts and seconds from all three regionals were in the pack, and two undefeated champions were behind, waiting for Trotter to come back. Natasha Roetter, the Northeast champion, seeing her first competition of the season, led the pursuit, trying to drop everyone else early. Together with regional runner-up Molly Huddle, she started to pull away at the mile, and by the second mile she was seven seconds up on Huddle in third. She was running smooth, smiling a little and once or twice waving to someone in the crowd. But Erika Odlaug, also undefeated, had a lot of power left. Moving up from fourth at the two-mile, she closed the gap on Roetter until, entering the final straightaway, she just put her head down and charged.

"I wanted to win," said Odlaug. "Top five in the nation, you have to be happy with that, but how's it feel to be second best? Second best isn't the best. I didn't think I had [Roetter]. You get that 'give up' kind of feeling, when your body's telling you no, and I really had to dig for the last quarter... I just shut my eyes and went."

In the end it was Odlaug by less than a second, with Roetter in third (17:05.1 to Odlaug's 17:04.3) and Huddle, fourteen seconds back, taking fourth. The finish area was crowded with wilted runners whose energy to stand had been leached out into the humid air.

"I didn't know they were close," said Roetter. "I just knew somebody was behind me. I was just really tired. It's really hot, the heat's really getting to me. I felt pretty warm before the race started. Right around two miles I could really feel the heat.

"I didn't really think about [Amber] that much, to tell you the truth. I couldn't see her, so going after her wasn't really a consideration of mine."

The regional scoring was won by the West, let by Trotter. Behind her the West scored 6-7-9-10 with Felicia Guliford, Jackie Zeigle, Amber Harper and Heidi Lane. The Roetter/Huddle lead pushed the Northeast into second, with the Midwest third and South fourth.