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GALLERY OF FINALISTS |
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It took 5,000 meters and a 7-day wait for
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left, Chantelle Dron Brittany Sedberry (in red) |
Getting to Foot Lockers once is an achievement. Getting back a second time is monumental. It takes the right combination of fitness, general health, mental toughness and a certain amount of luck. Chantelle Dron stormed onto the scene in 2002, a homeschooled sophomore from New Hampshire who finished 4th in the Northeast that year in 18:09, and then 18th at the national meet, its first year back in San Diego.
Brittany Sedberry of Ocean City, New Jersey also qualified as a sophomore, but that was just last year. She was 2nd in the Northeast in 2003 and 30th at Nationals.
But 2003 wasn't as smooth for Dron, as an injury early in the fall ended hopes of a return trip. Favoring the injured foot, she injured the other. But time to heal and a steady summer of training put her back on the road to San Diego. With one slight detour.
Entering the 2004 Northeast Foot Lockers, Dron was coming off a great fall. Having posted a 13:31 4k, she was in the best condition of her career. But then something else happened to nearly derail her plans. As a result, she would finish 9th, a position that during the first 25 years of the event would have been a ticket to stay home. But 2004 is different. With the Nike Team Nationals (NTN) race conflicting with the Foot Locker West Regionals, the two meets reached an agreement to add two finalists per region, per gender. The catch? An NTN finisher from her region would have to also be a qualifier to Foot Lockers from the Northeast. Thanks to Saratoga taking four of the first eight spots, and going into NTN as probably the best team of all time, it looked like a lock.
But as Chantelle says, she didn't take anything for granted. "You never know what can happen." Well, NTN followed form, with Nicole Blood finishing first from the Northeast (3rd in the race) and teammate Hannah Davidson second from the Northeast (6th overall) with a 30-second+ cushion over the runners who could have kept her and Sedberry from San Diego.
Dron really thinks she was lucky to finish 9th in the Northeast regional. Four weeks ago, just two weeks prior to the Northeast race, she was diagnosed as anemic. It's a condition somewhat common to distance runners. The good news, it's easily corrected. The bad news is, that takes time. Dron had been feeling sluggish during workouts and just generally tired.
Once the problem was diagnosed, she immediately began supplements. And the sequence of her New York race is easily explained knowing that while she was more fit than ever, she did not have all her resources available.
"I made a few mistakes during the race, all of them involved not listening to my body." The race went out hard, 2:24 for the 800, and very quick through the mile thanks to the front-running of Aislinn Ryan and the chase pack from Saratoga Springs. "I went into oxygen debt toward the beginning of the race. Then throughout the race, I was not relaxing when I should have. By the end, I was pretty close to not finishing."
But finish she did. 9th. Sedberry was 10th. And thanks to Blood and Davidson, both will be going to San Diego for a second time.
Dron knows two things about San Diego. One, she will run her own race. She is feeling stronger and more alert now that she has been taking the iron supplement for a month. Plus, she knows the race, the course and what to expect. "I'll enjoy it more."
Sedberry briefly considered not taking the new-found slot afforded because of NTN. But she didn't wait long to change her mind when she got the call. Sedberry told the Philadelphia Inquirer's Nikki Usher that while she had been disappointed in herself at Van Cortlandt, she had "over-reacted" when she said she didn't want to go as an alternate.
"I had a bad race (in NY) and hopefully I'll run well in San Diego."
But you have the feeling Dron would have been OK with staying home if the rules had not worked in her favor this year. "If feels good just to be running again. I love it."
Photos by Don Rich, Aaron Rich, John Nepolitan
Dron is with the leaders through a quick first mile. |
Dron is in some oxygen debt because she didn't 'listen to her
body'. But she is still 6th heading up Varsity Hill. |
| Dron is still in the hunt at 2.25 miles, but feeling every bit of the race and more.  |
Coming out of the woods, Dron is in good position, running with
Lindsay Ferguson and Kathleen Dicamillo, who would finish 5th and 8th,
respectively. |
DyeStat ©1998-2004 |
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