Should women distance runners focus on track and cross country first?
VT: I believe men, as well as women, should concentrate on track and cross country first. It’s a natural way of building up continuity [consistency] with your trainings, rather than jumping to overly long races that will just cut short your potential career. Also, for younger people who run cross country, it seems to help with bone density, so I’d recommend to run on dirt and grass hills without putting too much stress on a young athlete’s growing bones. So, yes, I believe starting with track and especially cross country would have a great impact in your future marathoning career. CA: Tell us about her races in Chicago. VT: Chicago is a great course for her style marathoner, a pretty flat course with generally very wide streets. This does help by not having the visual pressure of narrow streets where you feel that environment somehow pressing in on you, on your brain. It is a psychosomatic feeling, running openly like that, as if you have more oxygen; mentally or psychologically, that
