Lots of kids get into running because their parents run, but Shalane Flanagan boasts a lineage that a thoroughbred could be jealous of.
Her father, Steve, was a member of three U.S. World Cross Country teams back in the ‘70s. Her mom, Cheryl bettered that tally by one, and also set the American record in the marathon in 1971, running 2:49:40. But growing up in the running mecca of Boulder, CO, Shalane "just thought they were runners—no one told me how good they were."
Neither pushed Shalane into following in their footsteps, and when she finally began running in seventh grade both were supportive without being pushy. "I could come home from practice and ask for advice, but they definitely weren‘t the overbearing type of parents."
Shalane has had her share of running ups and downs. She won the Millrose Games high school mile in only her second indoor track race. "I‘d never been on a small, banked track before," she recalls. "I found out about tactics pretty fast." Obviously a fast learner, Shalane beat a strong field in 4:54.84, then capped her indoor season with a second place (first American) in the National Scholastic Indoor meet, in a season-leading 4:46.91.
In cross country, she won the Massachusetts Division II title three times, but never made it to the Foot Locker nationals. Her sophomore year, a broken foot kept her from going to the regional qualifier. In her final attempt to qualify, she went out at breakneck pace at the regional meet at Van Cortlandt Park, and failed to finish.
That setback provided the impetus to run in the Junior National Championships in North Carolina, and over a sloppy course Shalane won, thus becoming the third member of her family to make a World Cross team.
The championship race in Portugal was "the hardest race I‘ve ever run" according to Shalane. "I was hurting so bad, especially coming from the cold and snow to really hot conditions." The only high schooler on the U.S. squad, Shalane placed 29th over the 8K course as the second member of the sixth place American team.
"The whole experience was great," she recalls. "Amy Rudolph gave us a pep talk the night before our race. The best thing was just meeting and hanging around with the elite runners I‘d only read about."
Even if she‘d spent her whole life living with two of them.
