Shalane and the Marathon

With a new coach and a new city, will Flanagan become the future of US women's marathoning?

At the track in the woods, in the southeastern corner of Nike's 200-acre Beaverton, Ore., campus, it is mid-May and the weather is good for running. It is neither warm nor cold, the sky is overcast, and there is no wind. Shalane Flanagan, the 2008 Olympic bronze medalist and the American record-holder at 5,000m and 10,000m outdoors and 3,000m and 5,000m indoors, is warming up on a 2-mile wood-chipped trail that encircles the Nike campus. Her coach, Jerry Schumacher, is inspecting the track. It has rained the evening before, and near the start and finish line, which is guarded by a statue of Michael Johnson on one side and a sign advising walkers and joggers to use lanes 4 and 5 and abstain from wearing spiked footwear on the other, there is a slug. It has Schumacher concerned. "I've got to kick that off there. Because that poor guy, if he gets trampled --"

"He doesn't stand a chance."

"No. He's dead where he sits. If I leave him on the track."