Boulder – America’s top three female distance runners will represent their country in the Bolder Boulder’s International Team Challenge 10K on Memorial Day.
The trio who wore USA singlets in the 2004 Athens Olympic marathon – bronze medalist Deena Kastor, longtime Boulder resident Colleen de Reuck and Pennsylvanian Jen Rhines – will be reunited. Kastor is a three-time Bolder Boulder women’s champion.
“I can’t wait,” Kastor said from her home in Mammoth Lakes, Calif.
The same three women represented the U.S. in the 2002 Bolder Boulder, the first time the U.S. women won the International Team Challenge. Kastor, De Reuck and Rhines finished first, second and fourth respectively then.
Race officials are still working to assemble the U.S. men’s team.
Lafayette’s Alan Culpepper, who recently finished fourth in the Boston Marathon, has ruled out the Boulder race this year.
So has Boulder’s Dathan Ritzenhein, the lone American in the men’s Olympic 10,000 meters last summer. Ritzenhein decided to concentrate on qualifying for the biennial world championships, scheduled in Finland in August.
“I thought about (the Bolder Boulder) this year, but it didn’t work out because I’m trying to focus on the track,” said Ritzenhein, a former NCAA cross country champion at Colorado. “I would love to do the Bolder Boulder on my home turf, in front of the home crowd. That would be awesome.”
Kastor, a former Alamosa resident who holds American records for the marathon and 10,000 meters, has long considered the Bolder Boulder one of her favorite races, but she decided to skip it last year because it didn’t work in her Olympic training program.
De Reuck, who has finished second three times in the Bolder Boulder, won her second consecutive U.S. cross country title in February.
“It’s a thrill to be on their team,” said de Reuck, a four-time Olympian who won the 2004 Olympic marathon trials. “It makes me a little more nervous, because I know how good they are. I have to keep up my end of the bargain, but it’s exciting.”
Kastor had a grueling year in 2004, running the Olympic marathon trials in April, the Olympic marathon in August and attempting to run the New York City Marathon 10 weeks after Athens.
She dropped out of the New York race at 16 miles with knee pain. Her plans this year are to run the 5,000 and 10,000 meters at the U.S. championships in June, the 10,000 at the world championships and the Chicago Marathon in October.
“Last year really took its toll on me as far as putting in such long mileage, week in and week out,” Kastor said. “I decided to take this spring off (from marathons) and really focus on my speed, hoping in the long run it will help my marathon as well.”
John Meyer can be reached at 303-820-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com.
