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Sara Slattery is Working Her Way Back From Injuries to Top Form
By David Monti (c) 2011 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved.Used with permission.
August 15, 2011
Photo by www.photorun.net: Sara Slattery was the top American female (33:37, sixth overall) at the TD Bank Beach to Beacon 10K on August 6 in Cape Elizabeth, ME.It was a magical year in 2006 for Sara Slattery. Just out of the University of Colorado-Boulder the year before, where she had won the NCAA 10,000m title and then landed a sponsorship deal with adidas, Slattery made the USA team for the IAAF World Cross Country Championships, ran her still-standing personal bests of 15:08.32 for 5000m and 31:57.94 for 10,000m, finished second at the USA Outdoor Championships at 10,000m (32:29.97), and won the Bolder Boulder 10K. She was just 24.
Although her next two seasons would have their highlights--like a 2007 Pan Am Games gold medal at 10,000m and a fourth place finish at the 2008 USA Olympic Trials at 5000m--Slattery began to struggle. She barely raced in 2009 and 2010, bothered by injuries. She moved with husband Steve, a steeplechaser, to Mammoth Lakes, CA to train with the Mammoth Track Club, but that didn't work out. She lost her adidas sponsorship, was picked up by Nike, but lost that deal, too. Running just wasn't fun anymore.
"I've been on the mend (after) a year, year and a half of injuries," Sara Slattery told Race Results Weekly after the TD Bank Beach to Beacon 10K on August 6, in Cape Elizabeth, ME. "I'm just building back. I wanted to do track this summer. But after nationals (she finished 13th in the 5000m, 15:54.21, on June 24), we just decided I wasn't strong. So, this summer I'm doing a lot of base training, and long intervals, and the boring stuff. But, it's the stuff that makes you strong."
Note: In 2008 at the USA Olympic Team Trials, Sara Slattery placed 7th (32:46.60) in the women's 10,000m on June 27, ran the women's 5000m semifinals (15:40.24) on June 30, and placed fourth (15:18.88) in the women's 5000m finals on July 4. She had missed making the Olympic team by 17 seconds in her third race within one week. In 2009, Sara Slattery placed ninth (1:13:23) in the USA women's half marathon in January, and was 11th (15:54.76) in the USA women's 5000m in June.
Looking to go back to what worked before, the Slatterys have returned to Boulder, CO. Just being in Boulder again has lifted her spirits, she said.
"There are always people to run with in Boulder. It's great to be back there. I love training there, the trails."
Sara Slattery's worst problem, a grade-four stress fracture of her left tibia [lower leg bone], hit her in February of 2010. She was unable to run at all for eight months.
"I had some posterior tib problems, then I had a stress fracture, like a grade-four [the most serious of 4 grades]," she explained. "I was having trouble with my right leg. You know, when you have one injury, it turns into a couple right after that." She continued: "I wasn't able to start running until November 2010. I started racing right away, but I wasn't very fit, so I was training/racing through that. I probably should have just been training."
At the TD Bank Beach to Beacon 10K, Sara Slattery showed some of her old form. She ran 33:37, good for sixth place and was the first American finisher. She said she could have finished higher if she wasn't so tentative in the final kilometers. She called the race "a step in the right direction."
"Benita (Willis) went by me and I could have been a little bit more aggressive the last mile," she said, clearly excited to be racing well again. "But, I had been fading in some of my races because I was going out too hard, and I was a little bit nervous. Now I know for the next race, I can push it a little bit more. It's fun; I'm excited to run again."
Sara Slattery ran all of her best track times in 2006, and since then the competitive landscape for USA women in the 5000m and 10,000m has changed dramatically. The bar has been raised by athletes like Shalane Flanagan, 30; Kara Goucher, 33; Molly Huddle, 26; Jen Rhines, 37; Desiree Davila, 28; Magdalena Lewy Boulet, 38; and Amy Begley, 33. But 29-year-old Slattery said this motivates her.
"I think it's great," she intoned. "I feel confident. The bar's been raised, but I've been there before with those girls [in races]. It's exciting, and there is no reason I can't be up there with them [again]."
Can she recapture the magic of 2006?
"Yeah, definitely," she said, leaning forward. "I feel like my workouts are getting back to where they were in 2006 and 2007. I feel like there is no reason why I can't [improve further]."
Sara Slattery had hoped to run the New Balance Falmouth Road Race on Sunday, August 14, but the organizers didn't accept her into the elite field. Looking ahead, she has planned a fall season where she will follow the USA road running championships at 5K on September 18, 10 miles on October 2, and 10K on October 10. She sees this as a prelude to getting back on the track again in 2012 with elevated aspirations.
"My vision for 2012 is to get through this winter, just building a strong base," she reasoned. "And my goal is for the 10,000m next July at the USA Olympic Team Trials-Track & Field. So, I'd like to get back to where I'm PR'ing on the track next spring. The way to do that is to get as strong [in endurance] as I can through this winter."