Sara Slattery

Sara Slattery (formerly Gorton), the 2005 NCAA 10,000-meter champion while at the University of Colorado, will run the 8K and 4K races at the USA Cross Country Championships on February 18 and 19 at Van Cortlandt Park in New York. Slattery opened her season with a 15:37.58 for 5000 meters at the Reebok Boston Indoor Games, taking third behind the Dibaba sisters from Ethiopia, Tirunesh and Ejegayehu. She also won the Emerald Nuts Midnight Run Four-Mile on New Year's Eve in New York in 21:36. She was also a 2003 indoor NCAA 5000-meter champ and part of two Colorado NCAA Cross Country championships teams. Slattery has run 15:24 for 5000 meters, 33:02 for 10,000, and 4:14 for 1500. She and husband Steve Slattery, a 2005 World Championships steeplechaser, reside in Boulder, Colorado but have been training part of the winter in Sara's former hometown of Phoenix.

Runner's World Daily: In your 5000 at Boston, there was a world record effort up front by the Dibabas. But you must have had your own plan for a sort of "race within a race." What were you looking for when you went into that?
Sara Slattery: I just wanted to have a good opener. It hard for me to decide what race I wanted to run, a 3K or a 5K. I plan on doing the 8K and the 4K, trying to do both at (USA) Cross Country, so the 5K kind of fit between, so it was a good distance. I knew that both races (the 3000 and 5000 in Boston) were going to have people attempting world records. You kind of have to go in, like you said, with your own race plan. And this summer, I had been in Sheffield (England) in a similar situation where both of the Dibabas were going for a world record, and I had made some mistakes in that race. It wasn't trying to go out with them, but it was just hard to focus on your race tactics when there are other races going on. It's kind of more like a time trial. I kind of learned from that, so going into this race I was just trying to focus on what splits I needed to hit. It was helpful that we did have a rabbit who was trying to hit 74 pace (per 400). She did a pretty good job. It was nice that there were some other Americans in the race, too, like Missy Buttry. It was a little difficult because it's a really intimate environment on that Boston track; you can really hear the crowd going. You could hear people cheering for the other race (the Dibabas) and it was hard to see some of the times. We've been doing a few pace workouts, so I focused on trying to stay relaxed and hitting the splits. Even though I couldn't see the pace (the posted splits), I knew kind of what it felt like. There were times when it got difficult, but you just had to focus on what you were doing.

Today's Top Stories?
SS: Yeah, I thought I was in about 15:30 to 15:40 shape, and I wanted to run something in-between there. I thought it was a pretty good opener and I felt really recovered afterward. Normally in the past when I've run indoors, about 15:39 or 15:40 before, it was a lot harder. And to have my first race feel so easy--and I felt so fresh afterward--it was a good indication. I think I can run a lot faster. It was a good test of my fitness.

RWD: Leading Edge: Sara Hall?
SS: Yeah. My main goal this fall and winter was just to get really strong. Last year, I didn't really have a base. I didn't get to start training until March. I plan, every year, on really getting strong through the winter. I've been pretty good at cross country, but I seem to struggle a little bit more than I do on the track. I want to make the teams this year (for the World Championships), so I really wanted to get strong for that.

RWD: Have you made the team for World Cross Country before?
SS: I've been on the junior team, and I've been seventh or eighth twice. I haven't made the senior teams yet. Mark (Wetmore, her Colorado coach) let us run it in college and I got seventh and eighth.

RWD: Did you go to the World Juniors?
SS: Yes, I did. It was in Belfast, in 1999. I was 70th, I think. Not very well. I think I was shocked at the level of competition when I got there.

RWD: So you've decided to do both races at USA Cross Country in New York. Is your attitude that you'll do the 8K first and then just see what you have left for the 4K?
SS: I've been doing so much strength work that I think I can do well in the 8K and feel strong. I've done the four in the past and I think I'm good at the 4K. I think I can do either one, and it will be a good test to see how I double back.

RWD: Race Times Predictor?
SS: I had had surgery a couple of years ago on posterior tibial tendon. I had torn my tendon in the summer of 2001 and ran on it for a year, torn, before I knew, and then I had surgery. It took a long time for it to heal correctly. I ran cross country in the fall (of 2004), and then right after cross country, it started acting up again. I was trying to see a lot of people about it and then finally got orthotics that worked for me at the end of February. I started training again in mid-March.

RWD: You were the NCAA 10,0000 champ last year. You'd done 5000s before that. Was your thinking that the 10,000 might be a better fit because you hadn't been able to get in much speedwork?
SS: Yeah. I had done a lot of cross-training and had a pretty decent aerobic base from that. Coming back, I didn't want to jump into speed right away. We knew we could do the training we needed to for the 10,000 and not really risk as much injury, and that we could probably get fit enough to do well. And then this summer, I worked toward more speed and the shorter races. So the 10K just fit a lot easier (at NCAAs) than a 1500 or 5000.

RWD: Now you've managed to get in a good base. How much mileage are you doing, and what are some of the key features of that training?
SS: I average between 80 and 90 miles a week. I'm doing at least one tempo run a week, and at least one-hour-and-a-half long run, up to an hour and 50 minutes. We've been doing a lot of long interval repeats, like six by a mile or ten by 1000 (meters).

RWD: What would you be hitting the mile repeats in?
SS: It just depends where we're at. We've been training in Boulder and Phoenix, so it depends on whether we're at altitude or sea level. Nothing blazing. I haven't been doing anything blazing yet.

RWD: U.S. Track and Field Olympic Trials Results?
SS: We do a lot of easy runs together. We warm up together for workouts; it's nice to have someone at the track. We just do our (own) workouts and then cool down. Probably about 40 to 50 percent of our easy runs, we do together.

RWD: And you've escaped a bit of the winter to go to Phoenix.
SS: It's perfect here for training. We drove out for a week before Boston so we could do some track workouts. Now we're going to stay here until cross country (Steve will do the 4K).

RWD: As a post collegiate athlete, you don't have classes to go to and you don't have to do so many races. Is having the freedom to make your own moves incredibly liberating and a very different experience?
SS: It's nice because we have the freedom. We don't have anything holding us back as far as where we want to be and what we want to do for training, and we can do the races that we want. It's been an adjustment because I've changed my training a bit from what I did in college and I'm just getting used to that. I've really enjoyed it so far. The main thing that has been difficult is that some days it's nice to have other girls to run with. Now, I've been able to meet up with Renee Metevier a little bit, and I'd run with the CU team on long runs some time, but I have been doing most of my stuff by myself. Just getting used to that is a little bit different, but I seem to recover a little bit better because I'm running the pace that I need to run.

RWD: Who's coaching you at this point?
SS: I'm not working with Mark (Wetmore, her University of Colorado coach) anymore, just because he has so many college athletes. I think it's difficult to do both. We still have a good relationship, but I'm working with Sabrina Robinson, who was my high school coach. She moved ten miles outside of Boulder. She and her husband live up there.

RWD: What will you be looking to do outdoors? You'll certainly have a chance to run some serious 5000s and at least one serious 10,000.
SS: We haven't really decided on the races yet, but I'd probably like to do a 10,000 at the beginning of the season sometime, and a 5000 or two before the U.S. nationals. But this summer I really want to work on my speed and get some good 1500s as well. I think I need to get my 1500 time down to be competitive at the big races.

RWD: Day 2 U.S. Track and Field Olympic Trials Results?
SS: I think I can be competitive in both. I really like the 5k a lot, but I think I probably will be a 10k runner. I'm not really sure, because I really didn't get to train for the 10k last year. I think my time has a long way to go (down) and I have a lot of improvement left in that. But I also feel that way about the 5k.

RWD: It's got to be a pretty nice life at this point. You're young. You're just out of school, you're running well, you're married to someone who understands what you're involved with, and you can go where you want to go. It sounds like the ideal life.
SS: I'm really enjoying it, and I feel lucky to be able to do this. I'm very lucky to have Steve. We're able to do the same thing together and spend our time together. It's nice because he understands everything and he's been very helpful for me this year, because he's been doing this (professionally) for a couple of years now and has been able to help me with questions on training and different things. We're both really enjoying this and hope that we can do this for a long time.