As many of her peers prepared to increase the pace of their running lives, Michelle Lilienthal decided it was time to slow down. A lifetime of distance running had left her eager to experience life off the roads and off the clock when she graduated from Wisconsin in 2005.
She changed her mind once she tried the magical challenge of 26.2 miles. This morning, Lilienthal will attempt to make her first Olympic team when she lines up in Boston for the start of the U.S. Olympic trials for the women's marathon. Her time of 2 hours, 35 minutes, 51 seconds in the 2006 Twin Cities Marathon made the Iowa City native the sixth-fastest qualifier competing in the trials, and her time with the Team USA Minnesota distance-running group kept her strong despite injury problems.
Deena Kastor, the 2004 Olympic bronze medalist, enters the race as a heavy favorite to claim one of the three spots the U.S. women will have in the Beijing Games marathon. Behind her, it's a wide-open race.
"I thought I'd be a recreational runner at this point in my life," said Lilienthal, who has lived in Minneapolis since joining Team USA Minnesota last August. "At Wisconsin, I knew a lot of people who were signing shoe contracts [to run professionally], and I thought, 'I'm so glad that's not me. What a pressure-filled life.' I was ready to relax and run for myself.
"Then I ran a fast time in Boston in 2006, and I knew I could do this for a living if I wanted to. I was really enjoying it again. Once I took a step back from competitive running, I rediscovered the passion I had for the competitive part of the sport, and I didn't have to think twice about what I wanted to do."
A seven-time Iowa high school champion in track and cross-country, Lilienthal competed in both those sports with the Badgers and became an All-Big Ten athlete. She moved to Philadelphia in 2005 to attend graduate school at Drexel.
While pursuing a master's degree in higher education administration, Lilienthal decided to run the Philadelphia Marathon just for fun. She finished in 2:49:22 in her first try at the distance. Her second marathon was the 2006 Boston race, when she placed 16th in 2:40:23 and was the second American woman across the line.
She heard about the Team USA Minnesota program from Katie McGregor, who was Lilienthal's roommate at the U.S. 25K championships last May. McGregor, a Team USA Minnesota member, convinced Lilienthal that she would flourish with the coaching, training support, funding and superb environment the group provided. Lilienthal earned her master's in May and moved to Minnesota in August.
