Through five years of triumph and trial at the University of Colorado, Sara Slattery envied the elite athletes in the Bolder Boulder’s International Team Challenge. Today she will be one of them.
The two-time NCAA individual champion in track who ran on two NCAA champion cross country teams for the Buffs will run on the U.S. women’s team. Her teammates – defending champion Elva Dryer, a Durango native who lives in Albuquerque, and Jen Rhines of Mammoth Lakes, Calif. – are two-time Olympians.
“I’m really excited to be part of this team,” said Slattery, who turned pro a year ago after closing her CU career by winning the 10,000 meters at the NCAA outdoor championships. “For a Boulder person, outside of the world championships and the Olympics, this is one of the biggest races you can run. I have a lot of excitement and butterflies. I think we have a great team.”
Because running is a quintessentially individual sport most of the time, most top runners cherish their rare opportunities to run for team titles. Slattery said her team titles in cross country at CU mean more to her than her individual crowns.
Today she will be running for her country as well. Because the shoe companies want their runners to wear uniforms touting their brands instead of USA Track & Field singlets, the U.S. women will be wearing red, white and blue ribbons in their hair. Slattery also will be wearing temporary CU Buffalo tattoos.
“I think the team competition makes me more competitive,” Slattery said. “When you start to get that question in your mind, when you’re starting to hurt, you want to put it all on the line because your teammates are right there next to you. You don’t want to let those people down.
“And you’re out there running for your country. Whenever you have an opportunity to run for your country, you want to represent (it) well.”
Slattery, whose maiden name was Gorton, married CU steeplechaser Steve Slattery in 2004. As a freshman in 2000 she was on the CU women’s team that captured the school’s first NCAA cross country title, but her career got sidetracked in 2002 when she twisted her ankle running on a trail.
Because it was initially diagnosed as a sprain, she continued to run on it for nine months, managing to win the 2003 NCAA 5,000-meter indoor title. In reality she had torn tendons in her foot, which became frayed as she continued to run. Slattery had surgery in September 2003, missed the cross country season that fall and wasn’t fully covered until early 2005.
CU coach Mark Wetmore expects her to have a long professional career and compete in the Olympics. Slattery and her husband train in Boulder most of the year, but they have a condo in London, which they use as home base during the summer track season in Europe.
“It was difficult last summer,” Slattery said. “I went over to Europe for the first time and I learned a lot of valuable lessons. It’s just going to the next level, like going from high school to college. You learn how to compete with the big girls.”
It helped that her husband had made the transition to the pros before her.
“Without Steve the past couple of years it would have been a harder transition for me,” Slattery said. “I’ve been lucky to have him go through these things two years before me.”
The details
What: The 28th Bolder Boulder 10K Memorial Day race will be run today, regardless of weather.
Field: Current projections indicate about 46,500 will register. Last year 46,481 entered and 42,402 finished.
Registration: Race-day registration is near the starting line at 30th Street and Iris Avenue in Boulder.
Cost: $39 (race only), $47 (short-sleeve T-shirt), $52 (long-sleeve T-shirt).
Waves: This year’s race will be segmented into 76 waves. A qualifying time is necessary for the first 24 waves.
Times: The professional wheelchair race will begin at 6:55 a.m. The first citizens wave goes off at 7 a.m. and the last at approximately 9:08 a.m. The Memorial Day activities at Folsom Field begin at 11 a.m. The pro women’s race begins at 11:30 a.m., the men’s at 12:20 p.m.
U.S. women’s team: Jen Rhines, Elva Dryer, Sara Slattery
Team Colorado women: Carrie Messner, Stephanie Bylander, Faith Byrum-Erik
U.S. men’s team: Ryan Shay, Brandon Leslie, Celedonio Rodriguez
Team Colorado men: Clint Wells, Matt Levassiur, Christopher England
Bolder Boulder website: www.bolderboulder.com.
