FLANAGAN ENTERS U.S. CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS AS FAVORITE
By David Monti
(c) 2008 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved. Used with permission.

SAN DIEGO (14-Feb) -- At last year's U.S. Cross Country Championships in
Boulder, Colo., Shalane Flanagan had high hopes for victory. Her main rival, Deena
Kastor, was in the midst of heavy training for the Boston Marathon, and Flanagan
had been flying on the track, just setting an American indoor record for
3000m: 8:33.25.

But Boulder's mile-high altitude played to Kastor's favor (she was one of the
few athletes who actually came down from a higher altitude to race in Boulder),
and Flanagan was soundly beaten by about about a minute over the 8 km course.

"Boulder was really tough for me," said Flanagan recalling the race on a
teleconference today. "I felt really ill afterwards. Maybe it was altitude or just
the effort of the race. There were a couple times on the course when I
literally considered throwing myself off the course. I was completely exhausted and
it took me a few days to recover."

Kastor, who won two individual silver medals at the IAAF World Cross Country
Championships, isn't entered in Saturday's 8 km race here in Mission Bay Park.
But Flanagan, who just finished a stint of high altitude training in Mexico, is
now the one coming down from altitude, and she will be tough to beat.

"The 8-K is no joke," said Flanagan the USA record holder for 5000m (14:44.80).
"I think this year it'll be a little different because it's not at altitude
and the weather should be a little bit kinder. I do like cross, I've always
liked it, but last year was very tough."

Flanagan, 26, competed in the 5000m in the Athens Olympics, where she did not
advance out of the heats, and the 2005 and 2007 IAAF World Championships. At
last summer's world meet in Osaka, she finished eighth in the final. She's
looking to improve on that result in Beijing this summer, in part by building a
bigger endurance base this winter.

"I guess I didn't have the strength that I had hoped towards the end," she said
of her effort in Osaka. "I still had a decent amount of speed, but after a
while there are only so many races you have within a season, I believe, I was
just kind of running out of races and it had been a long year emotionally and
physically, a great year. I feel like to be at my best for the Olympics, kind of
gotta take a little bit more of a long-term approach here."

Here in San Diego, Flanagan's main challengers will be Lauren Fleshman, Katie
McGregor, Blake Russell, Sara Slattery, Molly Huddle and veteran Colleen De
Reuck. De Reuck, 43, the individual bronze medalist at the 2002 IAAF World Cross
Country Championships, has a clear opinion of where Flanagan stands ahead of
Saturday's race.

"Yes, I see her as the favorite," said De Reuck on today's teleconference.