By Bill Ward Tampa Tribune TAMPA ... Even when Caroline Annis was winning all those 3-mile races for
Plant High ... including four individual state championships ... the thought of competing in a marathon crossed her mind.
Considering she was one of the school's most dedicated runners and was coming close to logging the kind of mileage needed for a 26.2-mile race, it wasn't a far-fetched idea.
""She was probably 16 or 17 when she first mentioned she wanted to run a marathon one day, but I always told her she was too young and needed to wait
until after college,'' Plant coach Roy Harrison said. ""But I knew she had the discipline and an ability to run them. She's a natural.''
Annis proved Harrison right in her marathon debut, last week's California
International Marathon in Sacramento. Training almost exclusively on her own, Annis qualified for next year's U.S. Olympic marathon trials by completing the race in 2 hours, 47 minutes. That placed her 10th among female finishers and
58th overall.
Women running a certified marathon in 2:48 or faster meet the U.S. trials' ""B'' standard while those running 2:39:59 or better meet the ""A'' standard, a level that entitles the athlete to have their expenses paid for the trials, scheduled for April 3 in St. Louis.
Annis had no serious intention of using the race as a trials qualifier at
either standard. In many ways, it was more of a personal challenge to simply
complete it. She knew the minimum time for the trials, but it was only in the closing stages of the race that she began to think of dipping under that mark.
""When I came down the last straightaway and saw the clock, I was kind of
shocked,'' said Annis, 23. ""It was the biggest feeling of satisfaction I've
ever had in my running career.''
Considering all Annis has achieved in more than 10 years of competitive running, that's quite a statement. During her four years at Stanford, she won All-PAC 10 and All-America honors in cross country and qualified for the 10,000-meter finals at the NCAA nationals her senior year. At Plant, she won
four straight state cross country championships, a feat only one other runner in Florida has accomplished. She was a two-time Foot Locker national cross country qualifier and in track, won two 1,600-meter crowns and three titles at 3,200 meters.
Still, Annis says her first marathon was special because she did much of the preparation on her own.
""It was a tremendous feeling of satisfaction,'' Annis said. ""I did it without a lot input from other people, did most of my runs alone, and I'm working a full-time job.''
Annis also enjoyed the fact that several family members, including her mom, dad and brother, flew from Tampa to attend the race. They got to be part of her race by standing at several points on the route, shouting encouragement and split times.
""In college and high school, you're surrounded by teammates and coaches and when you do see family and friends, it's usually for only a brief time and off you go with your team,'' Annis said. ""But at the marathon, they got to be right there with me along the course and with me right after the race. That meant a lot to me.''
Annis graduated from Stanford with her bachelor's degree in human biology
last year but, through a graduate school program called ""co-terming,'' she had started working on her master's degree in epidemiology. She finished those classes in June and, after writing her thesis during the summer, graduated in August.
She took a job at the University of California-San Francisco Medical Center, doing research for breast cancer prevention. Even when she finished her studies at Stanford, Annis was running nearly every day. She kept it up after she landed the job and slowly began to build her mileage with the idea
of doing her first marathon later that winter.
About the only training advice Annis took was from a friend who ran for the University of North Carolina, Heather Tanner. Currently running for the Nike
Farm Team, Tanner is also training for marathons and shared some of her workouts with Annis. Difference was, Tanner was logging close to 100 miles a
week while Annis found she only had time for a little more than 70 ... and that was during the peak of her base training.
""With my job, there was just no way I could do the same kind of miles she was doing,'' Annis said. ""My work is a big priority to me, and I'm not sure
if I really want to dedicate that much time to training.''
Living and working in San Francisco, Annis says she will likely ""step up
my training a notch or two'' in preparation for the trials. But she knows making the Olympic team is something that requires full-time training. <<Caroline2.jpg>> <<Caroline.jpg>> Only the top three finishers at the trials qualify for the team, and those athletes must have reached either the Olympic ""A'' or ""B'' standard for the marathon of 2:32 or 2:36, respectively. Annis hasn't ruled out trying to run
those kind of times some day, but for now, she's seems satisfied to have made the trials on her first attempt.
""We'll see,'' Annis said of future marathons and trials beyond 2004. ""I'm still pretty new to this marathon stuff, but I know you can only do so many of them a year. All I know right now is that I'm going to the trials and I'm sure it will be a great experience just to be there with all those great runners.''
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