Interview with Sara Slattery

By Shannon Martin Morehouse

Residing in Boulder, CO up until January of this year, Sara Slattery and her husband Steve Slattery had been coaching themselves. Looking at Sara Slattery’s accomplishments, one would conclude that she was successful at coaching herself—she has achieved PRs of 15:08 for 5000 meters and 31:57 for 10,000 meters. This past summer, she won the 10,000 in the Pan American Games, in the record-breaking time of 32:54.41, and she placed sixth in the highly competitive Cigna Falmouth Road Race (7 miles) in a time of 37:28. In 2006, Slattery placed second in the 10,000 meters at the USATF Outdoor Track and Field Championships. In 2005, she was the Bolder Boulder champion.

For Slattery, 26, her professional career is about to get even better. After over three years of self-coaching, she and her husband have joined Team Running USA, based in Mammoth Lakes, CA. There, Terrence Mahon coaches them. Slattery will be competing in the USA Cross Country Championships on February 16 in San Diego, CA. In her rust-buster race at the University of Washington Invitational on February 2, Slattery won the 5000 meters in a time of 15:32.28.

New York Road Runners: Why don’t you start out by telling me a bit about your weekend? I know you had quite the busy weekend of travels and in the midst of that you won the 5000 meters at the University Of Washington Invitational.
Sara Slattery: Yes, Steve and I have been pretty busy with traveling for the past month. We moved out to Mammoth on January 10, and then this weekend, we traveled to Seattle to compete, and then flew back to Reno, [Nevada, the closest airport to Mammoth Lakes], and then drove up to Mammoth, and now we are down in San Diego for a month training at the [Olympic] training center, so we’ve kind of been on the go, but it’s good and I’m glad to be down in warm weather right now.

NYRR: How has it been with the Mammoth group so far?
SS: It’s been really great. For the past couple of years, Steve and I have wanted to work with a coach. We’ve been coaching ourselves just because we hadn’t found a coaching situation that we really wanted, and then the opportunity came up to join the Mammoth group, and we jumped at it. We’ve known Terrence and the members of the team for a while and really got along with them. We’re so excited to be a part of this group. We spoke to Terrence in the fall, and decided to move out here in January.

It’s so nice having Terrence as our coach and having a group to train with. It makes things so much easier than the situation we were in before. We both have full confidence in Terrence and feel that this is a much more professional approach than what we were trying to do before. We’re both looking forward to this year.

NYRR: Perfect timing with this being an Olympic year!
SS: Yeah, at first we were wondering why we didn’t do this sooner, but we’re glad that we finally got our act together and got here.

NYRR: Seeing as you’re in San Diego training, will you get the opportunity to preview the cross country course?
SS: Yeah, I think we’ll do a workout or two over there and check things out. I’ve never run a cross country race in San Diego, so it’ll be nice to look that over.

NYRR: Do you have any particular goals going into that race?
SS: I’d like to run a strong race. I always feel that cross country gets me really strong for the track season and I’d like to improve upon my fourth-place finish [at the 2006 USA Cross Country Championships in New York] a couple of years ago. It’s important to me to always give it my all every time I compete, so mainly, I’d like to just run the best that I can.

NYRR: Did you use the University of Washington race to gauge you current level of fitness?
SS: Definitely. I didn’t want to open up at the cross country championships. I wanted to get a race in before that as a rust buster. The 5K is a good distance because it’s comparable to the distance we’ll be running in the cross country championships [8K]. I would’ve loved to have competed in the 3000 this past weekend because it’s a little more competitive, but the 5K was a bitter fit to get me ready for the cross country championships. I wish I ran a little bit better this past weekend, but I was starting to get a cold when I was there, so I think that had something to do with it. It was good though just to get an indication of where things are going.

NYRR: Well, you did very well!
SS: I did, thanks.

NYRR: Beyond the cross country championships, have you started to plan out your race calendar at all going into the track season?
SS: Terrence and I have talked about it a little bit. My main focus is getting the Olympic Trials qualifying standard for the 10K. I’ll probably run the Stanford race [the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational] to get the qualification. Before that, I might do a road race and another track race. After the Stanford meet, we’ll probably do a couple of more track races. We haven’t made definitive plans, but we’re trying to space out the races so that I can get in good training for the 10K this year.

NYRR: Looking back on this past year, I’d classify it as pretty successful, from your gold medal at the Pan Am Games in the 10,000 to winning the Pearl Street Mile and breaking the course record there [in 4:44]. What are your thoughts on the past year and what would you attribute the success to?
SS: Actually during the past track season, things weren’t going very well, especially at the beginning. I had a bad experience at U.S. [Outdoor Track and Field] Nationals; I was sick right before and had been injured as well. Also, I think I was racing too much, when I should have been training.

During the summer, I had to refocus things and concentrate my training, and I also tried to pick the right races. That whole experience opened my eyes to the fact that I needed someone to coach me.

As for the summer, I felt that it was an okay season. I was happy with how I performed at the Pan Am Games, but where I really wanted to be was at the [IAAF] World [Track and Field] Championships. It upset me that I wasn’t there, so I wanted to make my season as successful as I could this summer, and then I knew I needed to reevaluate things at the end of the season and that’s when Steve and I decided we needed a coach.

NYRR: And was Steve’s reasoning for wanting a coach similar to your reasoning?
SS: His reasoning was somewhat similar. He got hurt running the final [3000-meter steeplechase] at [the USATF Outdoor Track and Field] Nationals last year. If he had a coach, he probably would’ve learned that his foot wasn’t okay before the race, and could have done something about it.

Also, there are a lot of things in our training that we both felt that we needed guidance with. And having a coach also takes the weight of your shoulders that you are on your own, doing it all by yourself. We were both in the same boat with that aspect. We’re both extremely happy that we have the opportunity to be here with the Mammoth group.

NYRR: Aside from your cold, do you feel healthy and set for the upcoming track season?
SS: Yes, aside from my cold, I’m feeling pretty good, knock on wood. My training is coming along well and it’s been awesome just having people to train with every day. It makes running a lot of fun. Steve and I both really enjoyed being a part of the college system, and it’s like you’re on a team again. Everybody supports one another. It’s a true experience of “All for one and one for all.”

NYRR: It must be inspiring too, just seeing how well your teammates perform. There’s a lot of talent on Team Running USA.
SS: Definitely! I watched Sara [Hall’s] race [the women’s mile at the Millrose Games in New York City] before mine on the TV this past weekend. I was screaming for her on the television. She did so well. If any of your teammates do well, it makes you want to do well. It’s awesome. Also, having Deena [Kastor] on my team is very humbling. You realize that you’re training with the best in the world and that you have a ways to go, but you can get there if you just work hard.

Interview conducted February 6, 2008, and posted February 12, 2008.