Magdalena Boulet has been known to forget her anniversary. Birthdays aren't a big deal in the Boulet house, either."She's not a big date person," her husband, Richie Boulet, said. "She forgets our anniversary all the time. We don't do things on our birthdays."
But even for Magdalena, it's hard to forget Sept. 11, 2001.
"If I became a U.S. citizen on any other day, I wouldn't think about it that much or remember it," Magdalena said. "It's a bittersweet kind of memory."
Magdalena grew up in Poland. She moved to California when she was 18. She ran in high school to get in shape for swimming, then discovered she was actually pretty good at running. So good, in fact, that last April she finished second at the Olympic marathon trials in Boston, qualifying for the U.S. team.
On Monday, Boulet, of Oakland, Calif., will be one of the top female contenders at the Stratton Faxon New Haven Road Race, the 20K national championship.
On Friday, she will be thinking about Sept. 11, eight years ago.
That day, she and Richie drove into San Francisco for her swearing-in ceremony. They were talking and didn't listen to the radio in the car on the way to the federal building.
"We had no idea what was going on," Richie said. "We got there and five minutes later, they were saying, 'OK, we've got to close the building. Stand up, quick, you're done.' "
Nobody told them what was going on. Puzzled, they returned to their car and turned on the radio and only then learned about the devastating events in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
"Becoming a citizen is a big thing for her," Richie said. "It's more surreal than anything else that her citizenship is kind of linked to that day."
Boulet, 36, is the mother of 4-year-old Owen. Up until a few weeks ago, she was the associate head coach of cross country and an assistant in track and field at the University of California-Berkeley.
When she qualified for the U.S. Olympic marathon team, she was the only one of the three women who had a full-time job — outside of running. Twenty years ago, this was the norm. Boulet — who had no sponsors, aside from her husband's running store, until that day in April — was now the exception.
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