Unlike the other runners entering the 2000 Olympic Trials Marathon, Chris Clark wasn’t sponsored. She was a working mother of two young boys. She was 37 years old. And around mile 20 she moved into first place. OnlyAGameNPR
Chris Clark shaved seven minutes off her fastest marathon time to win the U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon back in 2000.
"After college, I went to medical school and basically just did recreational running, what time allowed for," Chris says."My husband had qualified for the Boston Marathon. And he cajoled me into training for my first marathon." "And we were doing local running races. Anchorage is a very active community. It’s sort of a truncated running season, just because we have a very long winter here. But, at some point, I got reconnected with running marathons again."
Chris's best marathon time was 12 minutes slower than the top qualifier. Also, the trials were in February, and Chris lived in Alaska. She spent a lot of time training on the treadmill at home. The temperature climbed to over 80 degrees. It was humid. But Chris remained steady. She stuck to her 5 minute, 47 second pace, as other runners began to fade. By mile 17, there was only person ahead of her: former Olympian Lauck, who’d been on a solo flier since around mile four.
Chris had gone into this race hoping for a top-20 place, maybe top 10. And she’d finished first. She’d improved her fastest marathon time by over seven minutes, in tough conditions, and she’d won a spot on the Olympic team."I think I was just bawling there for a little bit, because, like I said, I was this kid who grew up watching the Olympics every four years," Chris says."And then, all of a sudden, it was me going. And no one ever thought it was going to be me going.
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