Shannon Rowbury's Amazing Comeback

DURHAM, N.C. ? For Shannon Rowbury, the 2007 calendar year offered the best of times followed by the worst of times followed by plenty of trying times.

It's still too early to pin a label on Rowbury's 2008, but so far you'd have to say it's been the fastest of times.

The Duke alumnus and multiple All-America runner recently delivered one of the most stunning performances of the young outdoor track season when she won the 1,500 meters at the Adidas Track Classic in Carson, Calif.

Her time of 4:01.61 not only blew away her personal best in the event, as well as the strong field of runners behind her, but also stood as the fastest 1,500-meter time in the world this year ? and the fastest by an American in six years.

Only four American women have ever run the 1,500 faster than Rowbury did on May 18 ? Mary Slaney, Suzy Favor Hamilton, Ruth Wysocki and Regina Jacobs.

Rowbury held the title of fastest 1,500-meter woman in the world this year for just a week, as Romania's Liliana Popescu clocked a 4:00.35 in Bucharest on May 24. But the performance nonetheless stamped the former Blue Devil star as a legitimate Olympic contender, with the U.S. Track & Field Trials approaching in a month.

Having already bettered the qualifying standard, Rowbury will take aim at a top three finish at the Trials to secure a place on the U.S. team and a trip to Beijing in August.

“You never know what can happen, but you have to stay healthy above all,” Rowbury said. “I learned in the last year that you can be on such a high, but there is always the opportunity that it can be taken away from you.

“It will help going into the Trials knowing that I do have the ability to run well and that I have run well. That will help me get into that race and stay focused on what I need to do, which is be in the top three. It's definitely nice knowing I have the ability to be in there. It gives me more confidence.”

Only a year ago, it would have been difficult to forecast Rowbury's ascent to world-class status in time for Beijing. One of Duke's greatest middle distance runners ever ? with All-America honors and championships in cross country, indoor track and outdoor track ? Rowbury last spring was trying to deal with the premature conclusion of her college career due to a serious injury.

In February 2007, competing as a fifth-year performer pursuing a master's degree, Rowbury won the NCAA indoor championship in the mile run and placed second in the 3,000 meters. It was looking like her decision to redshirt the 2006 track season to train toward national prominence in '07 was paying off, as she was regarded among the favorites for more national and regional titles during the approaching outdoor season.

But Rowbury felt some tightness in her hip following the NCAA indoor meet and it wouldn't go away. Three weeks of continued training for the outdoor season left her limping after one memorable practice. Finally, in April, she went home to her doctor in San Francisco and was diagnosed with a stress fracture in her hip. The outdoor season that she had planned for so meticulously was over before she ran a single race.

“I was really fortunate in that if it had been any worse and it had fractured, I could have had a hip replacement or pins in my hip and never run again,” Rowbury noted. “Luckily I didn't have to have any surgery. It was just a matter of taking time off, cross-training, strengthening and unwinding my body.”

Much of that rehabilitation and recovery was guided by John Cook, a former track coach at George Mason who now coaches athletes for Nike. Rowbury started working with Cook last summer, alternating ground workouts with time on the treadmill, plyometrics and other strengthening exercises. By September she graduated to full running on the ground, and on Thanksgiving day she made her official pro debut by taking second place in the Seagate Elite 5K, a road race in San Jose.

Cook, who has coached several Olympians and a men's world champion in the 1,500 (Abdi Bile, 1987), is considered a middle distance specialist. Along with Rowbury, he is also coaching two former UNC stars ? Shalane Flanagan, who recently set the American record in the 10,000 meters, and Erin Donohue, who ran the 1,500 at the world championships last year. Flanagan lives in North Carolina, Donohue in New Jersey and Rowbury in California, but the three ex-ACC all-stars have formed a tight circle as training partners under Cook, who works out of Sarasota, Fla.

In preparation for the 2008 track season, the trio spent seven weeks in January and February training at a high altitude center in the mountains of Mexico, a couple of weeks doing speed work in Sarasota and three weeks at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. When the three are training on their own, Cook emails workouts and gets feedback via telephone.

“It's always better when he can be there watching us, but it works out well because each one of us is very self-motivated and disciplined,” Rowbury said. “He doesn't have to worry that we are getting the work done and doing the things we need to do on a daily basis.

“For me, it's great to be around Shalane and Erin and learn from them because they've been running professionally for awhile and can give me tips on things I wouldn't even know I needed. And Coach Cook has a great personality. From talking to us, after just a few words he can tell from the tone of our voice if it's a good day or a bad day. He's a great motivator. It's a unique situation. I don't know if it would be right for everybody, but it seems to be working for our group.”

There is more focus on training than racing, but the results have shown Rowbury that the approach does indeed work. She's competed in just four races this year, and all have been noteworthy:

? In her one indoor race, at Boston in February, she won the USATF indoor national championship in the 3,000 meters, breaking the nine-minute mark and pulling away from the field with a strong kick.

? In April she came to Durham to run the 800 ? her old high school specialty ? at the Duke Invitational and won it with a time of 2:02.76, the third best in the U.S. this season.

? She tried her first 1,500 meters in two years at the Cardinal Classic at Stanford in May and won that with a time of 4:07.59.

? Then two weeks later came her breakthrough time of 4:01.61 at Carson, bettering the Olympic “A” qualifying standard in the 1,500.

Cook, who checked with other ACC coaches before bringing Rowbury into his circle, says she may be the most disciplined athlete he has ever coached.

“She has real powerful legs, has incredible range of motion and she's very ballistic,” Cook told WCSN.com. “It takes a tremendous amount of discipline. Sometimes our sessions last two to three hours. She's very focused.”

Rowbury plans to run just one more race before the Olympic Trials. She'll do the 800 meters at this week's Nike Prefontaine Classic (June 8) in Eugene, Ore., as another step toward working on her emergent speed for the 1,500.

“At Duke my training became more strength- and distance-based because I did cross country and track. I think the speed was always there, I just never developed it as much,” she said.

“I don't think any one thing has made the difference, we just have put a little more emphasis on speed. We kind of do speed work all year round. Not intensely, but we still do it. Plus, not racing as often, you can work harder in training and work on that kind of stuff.

“Also, Coach Cook's routine has a lot of general strength training and weights that I feel have made me into more of a complete athlete. I'm stronger overall and have worked on developing more explosiveness. It's nothing major, just a different approach to training with more focus on the middle distance events that has allowed me to bring that speed out.”

To make the Olympic team, Rowbury will have to survive a grueling schedule at the Trials ? three races in four days. The 1,500 quarterfinals are on July 3, the semis on July 4 and the final on July 6. The meet will be held in Eugene.

“It will be crazy, because in an Olympic year people pull things out of thin air, it seems like,” said Rowbury, who completed her master's degree this spring. “I'm sure some people think my performance (at Carson) came out of thin air. You just never really know what's going to happen. You have to bring your A game to everything, all those races, even the first round of the Trials. You can't think anything is going to be easy, because it's not. But I'm excited to be in the position where I'm really contending to be on that team, and then hopefully if I make the team to go as far as I can.

“There are other amazing women across the world so I'm not expecting my time to stay as the fastest. I know I need to just keep working my butt off to be able to compete. It's my goal each year to get a little bit better and get so I'm competitive on the world level and represent my country well. I try not to think too much about all that kind of stuff, because at the end of the day it's the grunt work and all the little things you do that make you achieve. I ran the time I did, not because of anything special, but because day in and day out I worked my butt off, so I'm never forgetting that.”

Shannon Rowbury's Amazing Comeback

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