When Wendy Thomas began running, she just wanted to lose some extra weight. Four years and more than a few pounds later, she got 12th place in the Olympic marathon trials. Though she won't be going to London, her story is a surprising one, and she owes much of her success to her training with the American Distance Project.
The nonprofit ADP was founded in 2006 and began its American Marathon Trials Training Camp in 2011. The project's mission is to develop America's distance runners to be internationally competitive. As the number of Americans running sub-2:20 marathons decreases, the number of Africans achieving this time has exploded in the past 15-20 years. ADP coaches Scott Simmons and Renato Canova wanted to figure out why, so they spoke with each of their runners individually.
"Both of us realized that they were training to 75% of their potential," Simmons said. "They were good because they were talented and they were motivated; it wasn't necessarily because they did the right work."
The project focuses its training on the individual. Runners are not recruited to the program. They "recruit themselves" -- and many have seen their times improve. Examples are Alicia Williams, who finished 5th in her Olympic trial debut for the 10k after being a 1500-meter runner in college; Joseph Chirlee reduced his time for the 10,000-meter by almost one minute this year, going from a time that didn't even qualify for the trials to an Olympic "A" standard; and Wendy Thomas, who also achieved an "A" standard in her debut, running the marathon in 2:34:25.
"I never thought in a million years I would actually get put on the American Distance Project, just being so new," Thomas said.
Now that she is a part of it, her training has changed a lot. The biggest difference is the amount of running she now does. Longer runs, higher mileage and increased intensity are the three things she described. Although her work with ADP is important and she is honing her talent, this Olympic-worthy runner has other obligations -- specifically, two children.
"It's pretty hectic," she said. "We're pretty big believers in keeping the kids active, so they play pretty much every sport there is...There's a lot of juggling."
Thomas and her husband work together to get the kids -- ages six and eight -- to practice on time, and sometimes she runs laps around whatever court or field their practice happens to be on. This doesn't always work out.
"Yesterday for example, my baby-sitter came over but I didn't have enough time to get to the track and back, so I had to do it outside of my house," she said.
The schedule is tough but she isn't the only ADP runner with other responsibilities, and probably isn't the only one what has had to resort to marathons around the neighbors' houses. Most ADP athletes have full-time jobs that have nothing to do with running. Accountants, teachers, engineers, moms -- the project has seen them all.
"They all had their lives already, so this is kind of supplemental," Simmons said, though he pointed out that the younger athletes that join
are recent graduates with no careers and more time to train.
"You should be doing this so you improve as an athlete and you improve as a person," he said. "With every athlete we have that's the investment, and it's great because...we're on the same page."
Thomas is dedicated to improving her running. When she ran the marathon in the trials, she believes that she found her niche in the sport, and she hopes to make some U.S. teams this year and qualify for the 2016 Olympic trials.
"For me, it works best just to have a couple goals out there, even if they're goals that are unreachable. It just kind of keeps me going and keeps me motivated," she said.
At the same time, Thomas has priorities aside from running.
"Because I do have a family, it's important to me that my coach and my teammates know that my family is my number one priority. I'm a stay-at-home mom. Running is just something I do...I guess I'll call it my hobby," she said.
When she first joined, Thomas sat down for a meeting with her husband and Simmons. The coach explained the program to the couple and made sure that Thomas' husband understood it and the commitments that it entailed.
"For me, that's huge," Thomas said. "My husband is my biggest supporter, and without his support there's no way I could do it."
She may have begun running just to lose some weight, but she stresses that the skinniest one at the starting line is not necessarily the fastest. While she did lose that weight and then some, what she has gained with the help of ADP is even more important -- experience and big dreams for the near future.
Related Coverage
