Thweatt, 23, is a Durango native and has been part of the Colorado running scene since she was a high schooler. While she began her running early in middle school, she started competing more seriously in high school and laid down solid times from the get-go as a prep. Always a steadily progressing performer, during her time at Durango High School she was a two-time 5A Regional champion, earned a handful of All-State titles, and finished with an 18:33 5k, 11:03 two mile, and a 4:54 mile on her resume’.
Choosing to stay in-state after high school, Thweatt signed on to run for the University of Colorado Buffaloes under Mark Wetmore and continued her progress as a runner while in pursuit of a degree in Sociology. During her time as a Buff and running a part of an incredibly talented squad that had the likes of Jenny Barringer, Allie McGlaughlin, Emma Coburn, Laura Tremblay and others, Thweatt was a part of the victorious Mountain Regional championship team in the 2009 cross country season, and helped the Buffs to a 6th place finish at NCAA’s in 2010. During that time, she also earned a handful of Big 12 and Mountain Region accolades individually both in cross country and on the track.
Thweatt polished off her time running with the Buffaloes with a 15:57 5k and 33:49 10k P.R. to her credit. Her final track season left a bitter taste in her mouth, however, and left her questioning whether or not to continue running competitively beyond college.
“At track Regionals the night before the 10k I got food poisoning or some other kind of stomach bug,” she explained. “I didn’t have a good 10k and didn’t really rebound very well in the 5k after that either. It was my goal to make it to nationals, and I believe that I had the capability of advancing to NCAA’s, but it sort of got ‘taken’ from me.”
While Thweatt had always planned to attend graduate school to earn a Master’s in Guidance Counseling, she opted to stay in Boulder and take a year off from school immediately following undergrad whether she was training and competing or not. As it happened, fellow Buff teammate Matt Tebo had gotten involved with the recently launched Boulder Track Club and got Thweatt looking in that direction as a potential option to continue competing.
“I wasn’t really sure at that time if it was really worthwhile or realistic to continue to try and train and compete at a high level,” she said. “I didn’t really know how I would do it, I didn’t know what kind of options there were, and I also knew I couldn’t coach myself.”
Eventually taking a leaf out of Tebo’s book, Thweatt connected with Boulder Track Club coach Lee Troop and got on board with the team. She now had structure, guidance, and despite training mostly with men, she had new teammates. After a short hiatus from running following her final season as a Buff, she began her training with the Boulder Track Club under the tutelage of Troop and after an initial break-in period getting used to higher mileage paired with intense workouts, she found herself stronger than she had ever been.
“I feel like CU’s training prepared me really well for what I’m doing now, it‘s a great program. The training at CU and the training that I do now are similar in a lot of ways, the biggest difference is really the higher mileage that I’m doing now,” Thweatt explained.
Tough and durable, the added workload has only served to make her stronger.
“I feel fitter than I’ve ever felt,” she explained, “especially in races. I think it’s just a byproduct of having put in the workouts on top of the longer runs and added mileage on a consistent basis. I feel really strong and I’m doing things now that I couldn’t have imagined myself doing last May.”
On top of that, without the added stresses of academics and college life in general, Thweatt is able to pour all of herself into her running. While she does work part time selling running shoes at Louisville’s Runners Roost in addition to coaching track and cross country at Monarch High School, she has more time to focus solely on her running and taking extra necessary steps to promote recovery and most importantly, stay healthy.
“In college you always have one thing or another to get to right after practice, now I can do the re-hab and the drills and I can do the stretching and all of that makes a huge difference,” she explained. “I‘ve got this entire year right now to really see what I can do when I‘m 100% invested in it.”
After her outstanding international debut in Scotland, Thweatt has an eye toward the track this spring.
“I don’t have an actual race schedule mapped out yet, but I’m hoping to earn a Trials qualifier in the 5,000.”
While she doesn’t see herself racing the longer distances on the roads anytime in the near future, she’s not counting it out.
“Maybe I’ll eventually look to move up to the marathon,” she said, “I like the track, but I’ll probably do some longer things on the roads at some point. I hope that I’m always out there racing something.”
In the meantime though, Thweatt has far bigger aspirations than just a Trials qualifier and hopes to earn the privilege of representing the U.S.A. once again at Rio in 2016.
“Everyone wants to make the Olympics obviously so it’s always an outside shot,” she explained, “But I think eventually I could have a chance at making the team. I really believe in the training that I‘m doing and that it can get me there.”
With her talent, work ethic, level head, and competitive drive, there is every reason to believe that the best is yet to come for this rising star. With big dreams on the horizon and no doubt the capabilities to fulfill them all, the sky’s the limit for Laura Thweatt.
Without Limits
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