Thomas, 33, of Windsor, mom of two young boys and wife, along with Colorado Springs runners Williams, 29, a CPA, and Chouinard, 28, a part time financial advisor and part time employee at the Boulder Running Company-Colorado Springs, have been a part of the Colorado race scene for some time. Up until last summer, the three were each training under the guidance of different coaches throughout Colorado with different goals in mind for the past few years. Chouinard had been in pursuit of a Trials qualifier in the marathon since wrapping up her college running days at Michigan’s Grand Valley State in 2007. Williams had already established herself on the national running scene since her time at Western State, where she had a decorated college running career with multiple national champion titles to her name on the track, and an Olympic Trials berth in the 1500 as a junior. Thomas, on the other hand, was relatively new to the competitive running picture in Colorado, having really only competed seriously for the last couple of years.
Just last June, the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center played host to the American Distance Summit, an open to the public presentation featuring world-renowned coaches Joe Vigil, Scott Simmons, Renato Canova, and biomechanist Jay Dicharry. Training theories and methodologies were discussed, and the idea of launching Simmons‘ and Canovas‘ American Distance Project was presented. Having heard about the presentation through various grapevines within the running community, Thomas, Chouinard and Williams were all in attendance in the hopes of learning more about what they could do to further their own running and perhaps reach new levels.
Upon leaving the lecture, Canova and Simmons had offered interested athletes the opportunity to be interviewed to see if they might fit the mold for the up and coming American Distance Project, a marathon group that the two were hoping to form in the Springs with the collective goal of competing at the Olympic Trials. While Canova already had a number of Kenyan and other international runners under his guidance, he planned to team with Simmons to get the project off the ground with only American athletes. With their joint coaching philosophies, available resources via the Olympic Training Center, and the potential opportunity for American athletes to train in Kenya during the winter months in the U.S., and Canova’s Kenyan runners to train in Colorado during their rainy seasons, the two thought they might just have the possibility to make some great things happen.
“Renato and Scott didn’t see why Americans couldn’t be as good as the Kenyans in the distance events,” Chouinard explained. “He thought it was simply due to the culture and the way that Americans trained their distance runners that was holding us back.”
With that hypothesis in place, Canova and Simmons collaborated to set up a joint coaching system with both of their theories put into practice with American athletes in the hopes of ultimately getting them back up to par with international competition on the distance running scene. The idea was to get a marathon group together in Colorado Springs to train for the upcoming Olympic Trials and future national and international events.
Despite their acceptance into Canova and Simmons’ up and coming group along with some other bigger name runners, all three were initially hesitant to start with, and even just plain stunned that the two big-time coaches had seen within them the ability to become something great.
“I thought, ‘what in the world are they going to do with a 2:49 marathoner?” Chouinard joked. “They want people with REAL talent!”
While she may not have believed that she had “real” talent, Chouinard had the work ethic, no doubt about it. She had, after all, self-coached her way to that 2:49 just a couple of years out of college. Thomas and Williams were also no less willing to put in whatever it took to get to the next level and got on board in the hopes of making it to a higher echelon in the running world.
“I had seen his training that he (Canova) had for his athletes leading up to Boston. I thought it was crazy. Insane. I thought he had to be kidding!” Chouinard added, “I really thought that he would end up having us do things a little differently, but he didn’t.”
The “insane” training that Renato and Simmons had mapped out for their athletes included weeks up to 130 miles in volume, double workout days, and some days logging up to 32 miles a pop. A daunting task to say the least. But Williams, Thomas, and Chouinard, despite some initial trepidation on all of their parts, sensed a once in a lifetime opportunity, decided it was a risk worth taking, and took the leap of faith, putting their running in the hands of Simmons and Canova to see what they might become.
“When you sit down and talk running with Scott and Renato, you will walk away willing to do whatever they say. They have this passion and knowledge that I have never experienced,” Thomas said of her coaches. “I used to think that I was working so hard before, but when I got Scott’s plan I realized there was so much more that I needed to be doing just to get to the next level. They told me I could be a 2:35 marathoner and I thought it was ridiculous. But the numbers that they were throwing out got me so excited.”
Anyone who knows running knows that it’s a big-picture, long-term, process devoid of shortcuts and magic bullets, the only surefire way to get results is to put in the work. All three had to make adjustments in their own lives to accommodate their new, more extensive, training schedule. Williams and Chouinard found themselves often logging up to 24 miles before heading to work, then putting on a headlamp or jumping on the treadmill at nights in order to do second runs after the workday was over. Thomas also found whatever opportunities she could to get in training between the school and sports schedules of her two boys and other family obligations, sometimes squeezing in her doubles in as little as an hour apart.
Chouinard, with an ability to handle bulky workouts and high mileage without breaking down, had always gravitated towards the marathon. After 4 months of guidance under Simmons and Canova, she laid down her Trials qualifier at the Chicago Marathon that October, with a time of 2:45.36. Besting her previous PR by over 3 minutes.
Thomas, since running a half marathon in Arizona a year prior, took a little more coaxing to move up in race distance. After her Arizona race, she had since had it in her mind that, “Marathoners were sick in the head and I didn’t really like racing anything longer than the 10k.”
Williams, however, was the most dubious when it came to pursuing the marathon, preferring the shorter, quicker distances on the track, which despite her amazing range in terms of distances she races effectively, were her specialty.
“Preparing for the marathon was really going to be preparation for the track season, that’s sort of what I got going into it,” Williams explained. “We had the intention of hitting the Trials qualifier in the marathon, but really it was all going to be to get ready for track season.”
Williams’ and Thomas’ mindset didn’t last long though. The two went up to Canada to race the Edmonton half marathon last August in an attempt to qualify. While Thomas narrowly missed the standard, Williams just squeaked in with a 1:15.00.
In spite of her initial hesitation, after laying down her qualifier at Edmonton Williams admitted that, “I was really excited. Qualifying was a goal, and you’re always excited when you achieve one of your goals. But after it sank in and I realized that I would have this marathon to run, I was like ‘what did I just sign up for?!’”
Thomas rebounded quickly from Edmonton and punched her ticket to the Trials the following month at the Philadelphia Rock and Roll half marathon, clocking a 1:13.46. All three were now on the same page and set their sights on Houston.
Before January however, both Thomas and Williams both had the privilege of donning the USA singlet to represent the country at the Ekiden Relays in Japan last November. Williams then followed up her debut international performance with a trip to Scotland as part of Team USA to compete at the Bupa Great Edinburgh Cross Country race. Along with Chouinard, the three also helped the Boulder Running Company/Adidas women’s team to a 2nd place finish at the USATF Club Cross Country Championships last December.
With all of that behind them, on January 14th ,Thomas, Williams and Chouinard at long last got to see the fruits of their labors as they toed the line at their destination, the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials.
For Thomas and Williams, any doubts that they may have ever harbored concerning a daunting distance that they had never raced before, were shot down as the two ran astonishing marathon debuts of 2:34.35 and 2:35.09, taking 12th and 14th respectively. Incidentally a PR for both of them.
“After the first loop Ali and I found ourselves together with a good group,” Thomas said of the race. “We talked and decided even though the pace was a little faster than we wanted, we needed to stay with them and work together. We got a little carried away around 18 when we realized we were picking off some really good women, but we were working well! I crossed the finish really happy though, I’d run faster than I thought I could on a perfect day.”
Chouinard continued her steady climb through the pack, chipping away at her previous marathon best to cross the line and be rewarded with a new PR of 2:44.06 and 67th.
Already looking ahead, Williams has her sights set on an Olympic Trials berth in the 5k and 10k on the track this summer.
“The marathon was an amazing experience, it was actually really fun and I would be open to doing another one, we‘re thinking about one later on this fall,” she said. “Track has always been the focus though and the marathon Trials were just icing on the cake.”
Choiunard, after 10 solid months of marathon training, also has plans to move down in distance over the coming months, looking at the Gate River Run 15k, the U.S. 25k Champs, and bringing down her 10k times. Thomas also has the Gate River Run on her radar along with the Bolder Boulder, and also hopes to earn her qualifier for the 10k on the track this summer.
Whatever these three are in pursuit of, they’ll be ones to watch.
Without Limits
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