BOSTON – Shalane Flanagan loves to run in front of the home folks. She also has an affinity for setting records.
The 2008 Olympic bronze medalist in the 10K will have a chance to do both Saturday when she participates in the Reebok Boston Indoor Games at the Reggie Lewis Center.
“I think I’m addicted to running in front of family and friends,” said Flanagan, who grew up in Marblehead and graduated from Marblehead High, Thursday at a media gathering for runners. “The excitement they get watching me perform ? how touched they are ? it’s very fulfilling to me.
“It’s also great to come here, knowing that I have such an understanding community, and that I’ve had such great role models,” she said.
However, she says, there’s a catch.
“I absolutely have to calm myself down,” she said, when asked whether she gets too much of an adrenaline rush running in the Boston Area.
“And that’s especially true within the first couple of laps,” she said. “Otherwise, I could ruin my own performance.
“So, I have to hold my emotions in until the last few laps,” she said, That’s when I really need to let them out.”
Flanagan comes into the new year with some new goals ? but minus a coach. She and coach John Cook parted ways after the Olympics. Nothing personal, she says ? just two people with different ideas about her career.
“It was kind of a gradual process,” she said. “We had very different opinions on where we wanted to take my career.
“It’s difficult,” she said. “I’m sure that, in your jobs, if you and your boss have different goals, then it’s tough to work together.
“I’m bummed that it didn’t work out,” she said. “I wanted it to work out. I hope I’m making the right decision.”
For the time being, she and her husband, former North Carolina runner Steve Edwards, will be working together to advance her career.
“Steve has been very supportive,” she said. “I don’t think this is permanent. We’ll just see where it takes us.”
Flanagan will be running the 5K event Saturday, which is the next-to-last event in a long evening of racing that begins at 5:15 p.m. and is slated to end at 8:15 with the men’s mile. Two years ago, when she ran in this event, she set a U.S. record in the 3K, “and that meant a lot to me at the time,” she said. “I was coming off a tough year, with injuries, and surgery on my foot, and to set a record at this event was great.
Now, she wants another one.
“That would be nice,” she said, regarding her goals for this race. “I’ve worked very hard.
“I’m not in the type of peak condition that I was in last summer, but I’m working toward it,” she said. “So, a win – or a record – heading into the new year would be great.”
But she’s also mindful that it’s OK to have a little run in life too.
“I was here (Marblehead) over Christmas,” she said. I got to see my sister (Maggie, who lives in Madagascar in Africa). And we went to North Conway. I got to ski ? it was great.”
Of course, no conversation with Flanagan goes too long before someone asks her about last summer.
“We watched the raw feed over Christmas,” she said, “the whole race, from beginning to end. We just sat there and watched the race progress, in silence, and the end came (when she put in a big finishing kick to finish third) and tears were just streaming down everyone’s face.”
Less than a week after winning that race, she was back trying to medal in the 5K, but she just didn’t have it.
“I came out of the preliminaries, and I mentioned that it was the hardest race I’ve ever ran,” she said. “But I was still good to run two races in the Olympics ? for my country.”