Meeting an Olympian

Thanks to Pacers Running Store in Alexandria, I had the privilege of meeting 2008 Olympian Magdalena Lewy Boulet.  She did a talk on injury prevention and about her training for the Olympics, training through pregnancy, and working on form and making the little tweaks that have helped her to continue to PR at age 38!

I had heard about this talk almost a month ago, and I was just so excited.  Once i got into the world of running, I became so immersed in all of the elite runners: their stats, their background, upcoming races, etc.  Naturally, I had read a lot about Magdalena, and was very excited to meet her.  She is an Olympian and one of the fastest female American marathoners of all time.  Opportunities like that don't come along all of the time, so I was just thrilled.  She gave her talk, and then there was an opportunity for meet and greet after.  We chatted a bit about California (she lives in Oakland and also was in Santa Cruz for a race this summer), and then I asked her a couple of questions about her favorite pre-race workouts:
For the marathon: 8 x 1 mile 15 seconds faster than goal marathon pace with one minute recovery in between
For 5ks, 10ks: 8 x 1k at 5k pace with equal recovery (so, if you run the 1ks in 4:10, recovery for 4:10).

She was so nice and even agreed to take a picture with me.  I tried not to gush too much, but when you meet someone who is at the top of the sport, who has dedicated her life to training and becoming the best, it is hard not to be in awe.  I have my role models in my field of history and I have my running role models, and she is definitely one of them - it was very cool to meet her.
Good luck as you get ready for Houston (and hopefully London!) 2012!