A pair of two-time Olympians and a young talent hoping to emulate their success will comprise the U.S. women’s team in the Bolder Boulder’s elite race on Memorial Day.
Defending Bolder champion Elva Dryer and two-time U.S. champion Jen Rhines will be joined by former University of Colorado runner Sara Slattery, who won the 2005 NCAA 10,000-meter title. Slattery, whose maiden name was Gorton, is married to former CU runner Steve Slattery.
Race officials said the prize purse of $110,600 will be the world’s largest, excluding marathons.
Dryer, a native of Durango who ran for Western State and lives in Albuquerque, led the U.S. women to victory in the race’s International Team Challenge last year with a time of 32 minutes, 51 seconds, the fastest women’s time since the criterium course and international team format were introduced in 1998. She ran the 5,000 at the 2000 Olympics and the 10,000 at the 2004 Olympics.
Rhines, who won three straight NCAA 5,000-meter titles for Villanova in the early 1990s, was on two of the three winning U.S. women’s teams in the Bolder Boulder, most recently last year, when she finished third. A resident of Mammoth Lakes, Calif., she ran the 10,000 at the 2000 Olympics and the marathon at the 2004 Olympics.
“This is a talented and experienced team,” said elite athlete coordinator Rich Castro. “The U.S. women have proven they can win here, and being led by two athletes that have experienced great success in Boulder in Dryer and Rhines will give them the chance to repeat as champions in 2006.”
Castro promised the deepest field the race has assembled, with teams from Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco, Mexico, Romania, Russia and Japan in the mix.
“History tells us the Africans will provide the stiffest challenge for the Americans, but Mexico and Romania both return with past champions as their team leaders,” Castro said. “Whatever happens on the floor of Folsom Field on Memorial Day, it will be a race to watch.”
