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Michelle Lilienthal on her way to a 16th place finish at the 2006 B.A.A. Boston Marathon.
(Photo by Cheryl Treworgy - www.PrettySporty.com)

Interview with Michelle Lilienthal

Posted on April 26, 2006, Interview conducted April 25, 2006

By Alison Wade

Michelle Lilienthal, a native of Iowa City, Iowa, was a seven-time state champion for Iowa City High School, and the sixth-place finisher at the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships in 1999, the fall of her senior year. She went on to attend the University of Wisconsin, where she earned All-Big Ten honors and recorded personal bests of 9:35 (3,000), 16:47 (5,000), and 35:53 (10,000). She graduated in the spring of 2005, with a double major in Communications and Spanish, and moved to Philadelphia to attend graduate school at Drexel University. Lilienthal, 24, is now in her first year of a two-year master's program in Higher Education Administration, and she works full-time as an assistant in Drexel's sports information department.

Lilienthal, 24, made her marathon debut in November, 2005, when she finished third in the Philadelphia Marathon in 2:49:22. It was her second marathon, however, that really turned heads. She finished 16th overall and was the second U.S. finisher at the 2006 B.A.A. Boston Marathon on April 17, with a time of 2:40:23. We spoke with her eight days after her impressive run.

How did you decide that you wanted to get your Master's in Higher Education Administration?
I knew I wanted to stay in the athletic arena somehow, and I thought that being an administrator within an athletic department would be something I would enjoy. I have dabbled with the thought of coaching as well; I thought it would be a good thing to go into if I wanted to do both.

What were your running plans when you graduated?
Just to keep doing it. I figured I would be done with racing on the track and I would move to road racing. I've always liked road races; I like the relaxed atmosphere. I didn't really have a plan when I graduated, I just figured I would take the summer after I graduated kind of easy and just do base running. I was excited to be done with the stress and pressure of collegiate running. I wanted to just do it for myself and fit it into my schedule, so I didn't really have a plan.

Would you have ever thought about joining one of the post-collegiate training groups, like Hansons or ZAP Fitness?
I don't really know that much about them. I haven't looked in to doing that at all, but I wouldn't be opposed to it.

Would you consider being a professional runner if the opportunity arose, or are you just looking to keep running as a lower priority?
I would definitely consider it if the opportunity arose. Right now, I just want to finish my degree, so for the next year I want to stay here and finish school. I would consider it if something came about, but I also don't really know how to approach that and how to go about getting a contract. That is something I will need to chat with old teammates and coaches about to see if it really is realistic.

Are you training with the Philadelphia Track Club?
Yes. I just started running with them in January.

Do you have a lot of people on that team who you can do your marathon training with?
There are plenty of girls to run with, but I did a lot of my workouts on my own. I was doing a lot of training with a girl who injured her Achilles, so I was on my own in workouts from February on. There are a few girls that I'll do workouts with, but they're all training for shorter races, so those types of workouts aren't really ideal for marathon training. There are a couple of girls who are training for marathons, but we're just on different schedules. I was training for Boston, one is racing a marathon this summer, and one is taking a break from racing, so I mainly ran with them on base days.

Did you do your long runs by yourself?
No, I would do those with the team, and if I had to go longer I would add on.

Do you have a coach?
No. I'm in contact with my high school coaches though, Tom Mittman and Steve Sherwood. I'll get advice and tips from them. But I'm pretty much just making up workouts on my own and doing workouts that we used to do at Wisconsin.

Do you use any books to get ideas?
No. I get workout ideas from my coaches and from people from the Philadelphia Track Club. Sometimes I'll just jump in to their workouts. I kind of just go with flow.

Wow, you're doing really well with that. Some people put years of thought into a training program for a 2:40 marathon.
I know [laughs]. I figure maybe I should start doing that. I thought maybe, after I'm done with school and I have more time to put into it, I'll have a more definite plan. I didn't think this was going to be something I'd be dealing with. I just thought running after college was going to be a fun thing that I was doing it for exercise and to stay fit. I didn't think that this was going to be something that was thrown on my plate [laughs].

Your high school coaches must have had a strong influence on you if you're still in touch with them.
Yeah, definitely. They're so knowledgeable and they've both run a ton of marathons. We kept in touch throughout college, and I've been in touch with them pretty regularly since I started training for Boston, just to get ideas. I had no clue how to approach marathon training. I had no idea how many miles I should be running, what kind of workouts to run, when I should start tapering, how long my long runs should be, so we've been in contact a bunch.

Does your success in the marathon change anything regarding how much importance you'll place on running in the future?
Yes. Since Philly, I've started taking it more seriously. I took Boston more seriously than Philly, and I'll probably take my next one even more seriously. And then once I'm done with school, and depending on how the 2008 Olympic Trials go, I'll maybe take the 2012 Trials a lot more seriously. It definitely changes my whole perspective on post-collegiate running.

Why did you decide to go to the marathon right out of college?
I jumped in [a half marathon] at the end of September and ran it as a bandit. I just wanted to see how I could do. I felt pretty good, and I ran a faster mile pace than I thought my body would be able to do at that point, with no training. So I decided to try the Philadelphia Marathon in November with a goal of breaking 3:00. I ran 2:49. Then someone told me that the Olympic Trials qualifying time was 2:47. I felt really good in the Philly Marathon, so I thought I could definitely do that. I decided to do Boston since I'm currently out on the East Coast and I'll probably only be here for another year. I figured I might as well do it while I'm out here.

Boston's a much harder course than Philly.
Yes, much harder. For the next one, I want to run a flat, fast course like Chicago and see how fast I can really run.

Do you think you might do Chicago in the fall of 2006?
I'm thinking about it. I'm also thinking about doing the Twin Cities Marathon, but I'm really not sure yet.

What did you think of the crowds in Boston?
They were great. As hard as the course is, the crowds make up for it. For the first four miles of the race, I was with two other women, and then they picked it up a bit. Since I was already running quite a bit faster than my goal mile pace, I didn't go with them. I ran 22 miles of the race completely on my own, so the crowds really helped a lot. I got a lot of cheers for Philly because I had my Philadelphia Track Club singlet on, and I had written my name down my arm in marker, so I got a lot of [personalized] cheers, which was very helpful. It was a lot of fun.

What do you think of the all-women's start? Do you like that?
No [laughs]. I didn't like it. There were only 50 of us starting, so it was really small. The elite elite pack went right out, and then I was in the middle, between the elite pack and the big chase pack. It would have been a lot more helpful to start with the whole group, and then there would have been a lot of men to race, as well.

Was there anything about your earlier running career that led you to believe that you might be good at the marathon?
I've always been really good a holding a consistent pace for a long time. My high school coaches didn't tell me this, but they told my parents that they always thought my best event would be the marathon in 2012. That just shows what great coaches they are, that they could see that when I was a sophomore in high school.

What kind of mileage have you done throughout your running career — in high school, college, and now?
In high school, I probably did about 40 miles a week. We had a week of two-a-day practices before cross country started in the fall. That was our really intense, hard week, and I may have gotten up to about 50 miles. I think my senior year I was probably at about 45 or so.

At Wisconsin…I don't really know; I never really counted my mileage until my fifth year at Wisconsin. So, this is just what I've been told by coaches or teammates about what we were doing. I think my freshman year was probably about 60, and then maybe a little bit more my sophomore year, like 65 or 70. I think I never really did more than 70 or 75 all through college.

For Philly, I think I was probably doing about 70 miles per week. Then I decided to pick it up a bit and I was at about 80 before Boston.

What was your experience like running for the University of Wisconsin?
I really enjoyed it; I loved my coaches (Peter Tegen the first four years, Jim Stinzi the fifth year) and my teammates.

What would you say were the highlights of your collegiate running career?
Running on the Big Ten Cross Country Championship team with Erica Palmer and so many other good runners my freshman year was definitely a highlight. We also got eighth at NCAAs that year. Then it would probably be getting third at Big Tens my last season in the 10,000, and qualifying for regionals. I was injured over the winter, I had Achilles tendonitis and I was really bummed that my last outdoor season was going to be [bad], because I couldn't really train over the winter. So doing well at Big Tens and then qualifying for regionals in the 5,000 was a huge surprise, and I was really pumped.

Did you ever go to track nationals?
No. I qualified provisionally a couple times, but I never got in with my provisional times.

You've beaten some of your college track PRs on the road recently, haven't you?
Yes. I ran a 16:45 5k a few weeks before the marathon, and then I ran a 10k in D.C. a couple weeks before that which was 35:49.

Do you have any plans to run more shorter races down the road?
I haven't really sat down and figured out my long-term plan from here, but I'm definitely going to keep doing 5k and 10k road races, because I love doing that. They're good workouts, good tempo runs, so I'll definitely do some this summer and in the fall.