Interview with Amy Yoder Begley

By Makenzie Lobby

On Friday, June 27, 2008, at 9:20 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time, the gun fired to start the women’s 10,000-meter final at the U.S. Olympic Trials – Track and Field. It was the first night of competition. The sun had set, but you wouldn’t know it sitting in the stands at Hayward Field in Eugene, OR. The crowd lit up, along with the stadium lights, as the race that would produce U.S. track and field’s first 2008 Olympians began.

The next 31 minutes and 43 seconds had the fans on their feet cheering for a surprise front-runner. Amy Yoder Begley, 30, has shown great promise in her running career for a number of years, but she was not a favorite to make the Olympic team.

Yoder Begley had jumped on board with the Nike Oregon Project in January 2007 in hopes of reaching her full potential, and she did exactly that on the first night of the Trials. The shoo-ins Shalane Flanagan and Kara Goucher were almost certain to finish first and second, but the third spot was up for grabs. Yoder Begley seized that spot, even leading for part of the race. She had to: She needed to achieve the Olympic “A” standard in this race or she would have no chance of competing in the Games, even if she finished in the top three.

Flanagan and Goucher pulled away in the last few laps, and the crowd willed Yoder Begley to the line. She held on for third—and her time of 31:43.60 was one and four-tenths seconds under the standard. She fell to the track, overcome by emotion as much as exhaustion.

NYRR chatted with Yoder Begley after she’d had a couple of days to revel in her Olympian glory. She talked about her race, her relationship with running, and the miles and miles of ground she has covered to get where she is today.

New York Road Runners: You ran an inspiring race and put on a great show for the fans at Hayward Field at the Olympic Trials – Track and Field. A little less than a week later, have you been able to take in the fact that you are going to be an Olympian?
Amy Yoder Begley: It’s funny--all the texts and e-mails I’ve gotten say “Hey, Olympian!” or “How does it feel to be an Olympian?” My friends who are Olympians have said “Welcome to the club” or “Can’t wait to go to Beijing.” It has definitely sunk in. I finally crashed yesterday. I hadn’t really come down from the high of it all. Yesterday I was finally able to sleep. The first couple of days I kept wondering if it was a dream. Did it really happen? Am I going? It’s definitely unreal.

NYRR: This season, your best 5000-meter time was 15:46. You closed your 10,000-meter race at the Olympic Trials in 15:33 [the first 5K was 16:10], and you dropped your 10,000-meter PR from 31:59.46 to 31:43.60. What got into you?
AB: That 5K I ran earlier was one of my first races back from being injured. We were in full training mode and hadn’t tapered yet. After that 5K we immediately went and did a five-times-1K workout. That race was just to get the cobwebs off and get ready to run the 10K the next weekend. So yes, it was my best time this year, but it was just a 5K for training. This was actually the first time I really raced all year long.

NYRR: Going into the last lap, did you realize how close your time was going to be to the Olympic “A” standard?
AB: With 600 meters to go I noticed I needed to run a 1:46 to make the team. At 400 meters I knew I needed to break 70 seconds to make the team. At 200 meters to go I didn’t even want to look at the clock because I didn’t want to panic. I just kept running as hard as I could and thought, “You know what, if this doesn’t do it, I’m giving my all and what more can I do?”

NYRR: Did you see the clock when you crossed the finish line in third place?
AB: They stopped it for Shalane [Flanagan] at 31:34 so I no idea what I had run. I thought I heard the announcer say that I had missed it and I was devastated. I just dropped down on the track thinking, “How did I not run sub-70 seconds? I felt like I was flying. How did I not finish sub-70?” Then someone came up and patted me on the back and said, “You made it! You made it!” I didn’t know what to think. So I looked up at the scoreboard and my time popped up and it said 31:43. Kara [Goucher] came over and we both realized that our dreams had finally come true and we were both going to Beijing together.

NYRR: Kara Goucher was the bronze medalist at the World Championships last year. Shalane Flanagan is the American record holder at 10,000 meters. How did it feel when you were in front of runners of such prestige, leading the race for five laps ?
AB: I just knew that I had to keep running as fast as I could because I needed that “A” standard. They didn’t need the standard. You have to be prepared to run your race plan but also to react to others. Everyone’s goal is to get into that top three. So if you want to make that team you never let the top three spots go, ever. The second thing is to have the “A” standard and I had to make sure I hit both of those goals.

NYRR: When did the Olympic Games first pop up on your radar screen and when did you start believing it was a realistic goal?
AB: When I was 10 years old I started running. I went back and looked at my journal and it said “I want to be an Olympian.” That’s been a goal but it has always seemed out of reach. I was always close, but I never got there. I’d make the Olympic Trials but get ninth or I wouldn’t run the “A” standard. This past year with our coach [Alberto Salazar], and sport psychologist, and Kara, I really started working on believing that I could do it and believing that it was within my reach. My workouts were getting better and everything came together. I just needed to learn to be a little tougher mentally. Physically I was there, but mentally I wasn’t quite there yet. With the way my workouts had been going the last couple of months I really thought that I had a good shot. The stars were definitely aligning.

NYRR: How long have you been working with a sports psychologist, and how has it helped you?
AB: I’ve been working with him for a year. He has helped me clear out the clutter, to get my brain to stop some of the negative chatter, and how to cue myself in races. I tend to drift mentally and he has helped me learn to maintain focus.

NYRR: So do you have a mental mantra that you use during races?
AB: I change it. For this race it was all about wanting to make the team and wanting to go to China. For me I’d think about how I wanted to go to China and I wanted to go see the pandas [laughs]. This whole Kung Fu Panda thing came up and that kind of turned into a joke. So during the race I’d say to myself “I’m a kung fu panda” or I’d sing the Kung Fu Panda [theme] song. When I had to take the lead, Bon Jovi’s It’s My Life came into my head and I knew I had to take control of my own destiny. The country song You Gotta Kick a Little came into my head near the end of the race. Things like that seem silly but they help when I need to just focus on what I’m doing and get through 25 laps.

NYRR: Do you plan on continuing to train and compete professionally through another Olympic cycle?
AB: I would love to continue training. Kara [Goucher] and I will probably move up to the marathon, so I’m sure our training will change as that approaches. I’d like to do one in the fall of 2009. I’m hoping in 2012 I could come back and do the marathon. That would be my next goal.

NYRR: In most cases, in order to be truly great at something, you have to be passionate about it. Can you explain your relationship with running, how it started and how it has matured over the years and brought you to make the U.S. Olympic Team?
AB: When I was 8 years old we’d walk our dog at this park and I’d always see this woman running and I just thought that I wanted to run too. My parents said I was too young and had to wait until I was 10. When I turned 10, I signed up for this Mother’s Day five-miler at the park. I ran and I loved it. I got second in my age group and got the red ribbon. I’ve been running ever since. My parents took me to places all over the country to run, all the AAUs and junior meets. They took me to races where I would get beat so I learned to race. It has definitely paid off. Running can be a really natural sport. It’s just you pushing your body to see how far you can go and how fast you can go. I really love it. As much as I’ve had my ups and downs, and as much as I’ve struggled, I still deep-down love it.

NYRR: Do you come from a running family?
AB: When I started running my dad was 40 years old and was a smoker. He decided that since I was only 10 he didn’t want me running by myself, so he quit smoking and started running with me. He began to love running as well. He’s run a bunch of marathons now and finally qualified for Boston this year. When he qualified he called me and said, “It’s our year. I qualified for Boston and you’re going to make the [Olympic] team.”

NYRR: Last question: I hear you allowed yourself one last dessert on Sunday night before you begin your preparations for Beijing. What did you have?
AB: I gave myself two nights to have dessert because I haven’t had dessert in about eight weeks. I had PF Chang’s gluten-free cake with raspberries and I had a frosty and a gluten-free brownie. It’s hard to cut myself off, let me tell you [laughs].

Interview conducted July 3, 2008, and posted on July 8, 2008.