"Once," Denise Knickman told me, "some friends at work gave me a turtle as a gift because they said I was so slow." This physical therapist specializing in foot and ankle injuries may be deliberate when taping a patient, but once she toes the starting line at a road race a different persona takes over.

And toe the line she does. Denise races almost every weekend throughout the year. She began her running career when her gym teacher at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt encouraged her to join the cross-country team during her sophomore year. She won the mile and two-mile races at the state meet her senior year, then went on to the University of Maryland. Coach Dave Rincon heavily influenced her in her early years both in high school and later at College Park. She still contacts him on occasion for tips, advice, and motivation.

Denise rarely takes off. "I don't ever want to get out of shape again," she chuckles. She does a track workout once a week, usually Tuesday evenings, and races almost every weekend. During the rest of the week she will run for approximately an hour, and varies the intensity based upon how she feels that day. The Saturday before a race is usually punctuated by a light thirty minute run. She also finds time to bike three times a week, and swims about twice a week.

Why does she race so much? "I really enjoy the competition," Denise says. "It's fun and it makes you stronger." Her favorite events are the 5Ks on the roads and track events. What makes these so special as opposed to ten milers and marathons? "Because they're over," she replies with a demure smile.

One of her tendencies is a penchant to go out too fast on that opening mile, as epitomized in her recent 17:36 PR at O'Doul's 5K. Her fastest mile on the track last year was a 5:15, and in March she went through the opening mile in 5:11. "Well, it was downhill for about half of it," she protests, "and I'm not sure the split guy was standing right at the mile marker, or maybe I stopped listening before I got to him." Have you ever considered running even splits? "Oh, yes, I've tried that a lot. I go to a race planning to run 5:40 to 5:44 in the first mile, but I always get caught up in the excitement and the competition and end up running 5:25 or so, then slowing down later."

Caught up in the excitement and the competition? To see Denise at a race is to witness the ultimate in quiet, reserved stoicism. While many other people are noticeably hyped up at the start, and ebullient at the finish, Denise is almost unnoticeable except in the time between the gun and the finish. After the race, she will cool down and then patiently and quietly await the awards ceremony. She is extremely shy and unassuming, but when the race is on she has a fire in her eyes. Dave Lowe was on her Hood-to-Coast Relay Team last year and recalls the competitive intensity on her face as she ran down legions of staggering runners during her final leg. "She was incredible," he allows, "and merciless."

Still, there is plenty of room for compassion in her heart. Two years ago at the Bottle & Cork Ten Miler she intentionally tied with another woman at the end. "It was so hot and humid, and we had pulled each other along so much earlier during the race that I didn't feel like it would have been the right thing to do," she allows.

Although she claims to prefer 5Ks, Denise is frequently spotted at all distances up to the half marathon. She tried the marathon a few years ago (3:00:53) and decided that the distance was too far. She enjoys the camaraderie in club team events such as Cherry Blossom, the Philadelphia Half Marathon, and the Army Ten Miler. She supports the DC Run for Shelter 5K each year. She is looking forward to the Avon Global Women's Running Circuit this summer, and has plans to return to Hood-to-Coast in August. Other than that, she picks her next race by whatever happens to look good on the calendar for that particular weekend.

Denise repairs broken-down athletes at Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore when she is not running.