Her stunning success on the track suggests she should stick to the track. Her extremely limited, but no less stunning, success on the road suggests she should stick to the marathon. Only one element of the debate is clear: She cannot, because of the proximity of the two races on next year’s Olympic schedule, do both.
Her performance Thursday might help to bring some clarity; she is expected to qualify easily for the August world championships in Daegu, South Korea, where she will forgo the marathon for the 10,000 race. Depending on her result Thursday, she might also compete in Friday’s 5,000.
“I love everything about the marathon: the training, the commitment, the passion,” Flanagan said during a phone interview last week. But “I don’t think I’ve reached my full potential in [the 10,000]. I think this summer will be a good indicator, give me a good indication that maybe I shouldn’t leave the track.”
But she very well may leave it anyway.
She plans to return to heavy-duty road training after the world championships to ready herself for the U.S. Olympic marathon trials in Houston in January. Her performance in that race — which precedes the U.S. Olympic track and field trials by five months — could decide the issue for her.
“When I think of London, I probably think of myself more so running the marathon than being on the track,” she said. The track “is a really difficult environment. The track is really intense. The people are right there on top of you in a stadium. Track racing is hard. It’s really painful.”
But, Flanagan added, “with the marathon, you have to have a lot of patience. In that event, the buildup is very draining, very taxing. It’s almost like, if it doesn’t go well, it’s like someone broke up with you. A bad break-up.”
If that sounds a bit dramatic, consider that Flanagan has an unusually emotional attachment to road racing. She grew up with marathon stars as parents and moved from one road-running hub (Boulder, Colo.) to another (just outside Boston) as a child. Some Bostonians dream of playing for the Red Sox or Celtics, or going to Harvard. Flanagan stood on the sidewalk during the Boston Marathon year after year and yearned to compete in that race.
Her mother, Cheryl Treworgy, once owned the American records in the 5,000 and three-mile events, and claimed the world record in the marathon after logging a time of 2:49:40 at a 1971 race in California. Her father, Steve Flanagan, hung out with the likes of Frank Shorter and notched a personal best of 2:18 in the marathon.
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