Despite Late Start, Tollefson Still Hoping for Beijing Brith Tonight at Reebok Games
By David Monti
(c) 2008 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved May 31, 2008
Carrie Tollefson traveled a rough road to make the USA Olympic team for
the 2004 Games in Athens, and it looks like her path to this year's
Beijing Olympics won't be any smoother.
Tollefson, 31, made it to the 2004 Games in the 1500m when she won a
four-way sprint at the USA Olympic Trials over Jen Toomey, Amy Rudolph
and Jenelle Deatherage. Just 39/100ths of a second separated the top
four women in a race Tollefson was essentially forced to run after
finishing only sixth in the 5000m final, her primary event.
But things got even weirder after that. Not a single finisher in that
1500m final had achieved the Olympic Games "A" standard of 4:05.80.
Suzy Favor Hamilton had the time and ran in the prelims, but a
hamstring injury forced her to scratch from the final. That meant that
Tollefson had to achieve at least the "B" standard of 4:08.20 to get
herself on the team, and if she achieved the "A" standard she would
bring Favor Hamilton along with her (for two or more athletes to
compete in an Olympic Games discipline both must have the "A" standard;
only one can compete with the "B" standard).
Tollefson flew to Europe and ran 4:13.67 in Birmingham, 4:10.45 in
London, 4:06.30 in Heusden (a personal best) and 4:06.13 in Zürich
(another personal best). With the "B" standard in hand, she made it to
Athens where she advanced into the semi-finals before being eliminated.
Fast forward to April, 2007. Tollefson's training wasn't going well.
She's was suffering from several related problems in her abdominal
area, including a very painful condition called osteitis pubis, which
the website emedicine.com
describes as "a noninfectious inflammation of the pubis symphysis
causing varying degrees of lower abdominal and pelvic pain."
Translation: she was hurting and surgery was the only answer.
"April 11 I had my big surgery," Tollefson recalled in a telephone
interview last Thursday. "They did an adductor release. They cut the
muscle sheaths. They reattached my abs to the bone."
The surgery only took about 45 minutes, Tollefson said, but it was a
serious matter. "Reattaching your muscles to the bone is pretty
intense," she said. "It's taken me a long time to feel my strength in
my quads."
Tollefson's core region was extremely weak after the surgery and her
recovery was slow. "I'm kind of a crazy girl," she said. "I like to
laugh. I was having a hard time even sneezing."
But Tollefson's pretty smile masks hides an inner toughness few
athletes possess. With constant encouragement from her coach, Dennis
Barker, and her Team USA Minnesota teammates, Tollefson made
rehabilitation her job. Barker's role was particularly important,
especially in keeping her spirits up.
"He knew this has been tough," Tollefson said. "It's hard to deal with
athletes at our level when you want to be so good but you can't get
your body to work with you. I couldn't do everything. I would get
really tired or sore."
But Barker stuck with Tollefson; his encouragement was unflagging. "He
calls and says, 'Hey champ.' When your coach knows you're a champion
it really means a lot. Just those little things. He's that kind of
guy. He loves us more as people than athletes."
By last fall, Tollefson's training was beginning to come around.
During the cold Minnesota winters, when all of her quality work is
done indoors, she began to feel she could do her old workouts. "I ran
58 for a quarter in practice," she said "I got pretty excited, but it
kind of came crashing down."
While last year's health problems were behind her, new ones were
emerging. Her blood iron was very low; she had a car accident; then
she got a bad case of bronchitis which had spread to several of her
teammates. Her case developed into pneumonia.
"I had seven days of no running in there," she said. "People wondered
why I ran 4:19 at adidas (adidas Track Classic on May 18). I'm not
making any excuxses. I don't like to be a Debbie Downer."
Today, at Ichan Stadmium in New York City, Tollefson will be looking
for a different kind of qualifier. She needs an Olympic Trials
qualifying time of 15:28.00 or better to assure her spot on the Trials
Starting line in June in Eugene, Ore. She feels good enough to run
that time, giving herself a "six or a seven" out of ten for fitness.
She's trying to be realistic.
"I'm confident in the training that I'm doing," she said. "I've run
15:04 before." She added: "For me right now the thing is getting to
the Trials."
At the Trials she'll face still competition in the 5000m, including USA
record holder Shalane Flanagan and her former Villanova teammate, Jen
Rhines, ninth in last year's world championships. Tollefson may also
compete in the 1500m there; she hasn't decided yet. She plans several
1500m races between today's meet and the Trials. She needs Olympic
Games "A" qualifying times in both disciplines (4:07.00 and 15:09.00).
Tollefson doesn't relish her role as a comeback kid. A little smooth
sailing would be appreciated. "I don't want people to think of Carrie
Tollefson as the injured kid who keeps on trying," she said. "That's
the hand I've been dealt. I don't think it's time to hang it up. I
know we have to share this stuff because it's important for people to
know you can get through this stuff."
Photo of Carrie Tollefson competing in the Continental Airlines Fifth Avenue Mile in 2006: