Running Smart

Nicole Aish is a 31-year-old former track runner from Arvada who spent her college days running in Gunnison, where you have to beat the weather to get in your workout.

“There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about how that race is going to turn out,” Aish says. Running with training partners has also helped motivate Aish. She trains with several elite women in Colorado who she says are always encouraging. Aish also trains with her husband, New Zealand Olympian Michael Aish, and several other male runners.

 “They always keep me laughing. They help me forget about how much the wind is blowing and how the temperature is dropping during the runs. Running wouldn’t be as much fun without these folks in my life,” Aish says.

She qualified for the marathon trials in 2005 by winning the USATF women’s marathon championship at the Twin Cities Marathon. She ran her marathon qualifier in 2:40:21. Aish was a 10,000-meter runner at Western State College. So now, when she’s marathon training, she looks forward to the workouts where she gets to do 400 meters, 800 meters or 1K repeats on the track. Her goal for the Olympic trials is to get to the start line healthy and ready to run smart, things that have eluded her in previous race efforts.

Young and Fast

“Racing is definitely my passion in life and is probably my biggest motivator,” says Tera Moody, who lives and trains in Boulder. “In order to race your best, you have to put in the work and that helps get me out the door when I don’t feel like running.”

 The former CU Buffs cross-country team member once ran 25 miles on the treadmill and has no problem ticking off miles indoors if the weather is nasty. Moody also does yoga several times per week as a way to stretch her running routine. She qualified for the 2008 Olympic trials by running 2:46 at the 2007 LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon in 88-degree weather. She expects to run a huge marathon PR in Boston after qualifying in those extreme Windy City temps. Moody looks forward to her long runs the most, and she loves a good steak and potatoes as a recovery meal afterwards.

Training for the Boston Olympic trials could just be a warm-up for the next Olympic trials in 2012 for this motivated 27-year-old.

The Veteran

When asked what runner motivates Moody and Aish to run, they both sing enthusiastic praises for Boulder runner Colleen De Reuck. De Reuck qualified with a 2:33:18 finish at the 2006 LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon. This will be her second Olympic trials as an American. She won the 2004 Olympic marathon trials in St. Louis in 2:28 and went on to compete in the marathon at the Athens Olympics.

De Reuck, who is now 43 and a mother of two, ran her qualifying time in 2006 faster than she ran the marathon in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona when she ran for South Africa. De Reuck is one of only 19 women to qualify for this year’s Olympic trials at the A standard and she did it while she was pregnant with her second daughter—although she didn’t know she was pregnant at the time. She has another daughter who is 13. In between training and being a mother, De Reuck also works as a running coach in Boulder with her husband Darren De Reuck.

Many of Colorado’s elite women runners train with De Reuck, and on her long runs she sometimes has over a dozen runners join her. As for what motivates De Reuck, she says Deena Kastor is her running inspiration. Kastor, a 35-year-old runner from Mammoth Lakes, Calif., has won the Bolder Boulder three times and holds the U.S. women’s marathon record (2:19:36) and has the fastest qualifying time for 2008. De Reuck says she admires Kastor’s intensity and her ability to focus so completely on her running goals. De Reuck and Kastor competed together on the U.S. Olympic marathon team in 2004. De Reuck’s goal for Boston is to run between 2:30 and 2:32, which could place her in the top ten.

“The Olympic trials are a good goal for me and have really motivated me. The runners will be showcased at this year’s race and it feels like we will get some thanks for all the hard work we have done,” says De Reuck.

She applauds the USATF for running the race on a spectator-friendly course the day before one of the biggest marathons in the country. She believes it will be a huge event and a tremendous motivator to get other runners psyched to run their own marathons.

Shelley Downing is a sports and travel journalist in Boulder. She often sees Colorado’s elite women runners out training in south Boulder, which motivates her to run just a little faster.