Jim Hage, universalsports.com reportsRacing four quality marathons in one calendar year is a tall order, but Paige Higgins will be halfway there after finishing the 25th Los Angeles Marathon on Sunday. Call it the Paigemo (Paige Maureen) Slam.
Moreover, Higgins is looking to notch a sub-2:30 at the debut of what promises to be a quick Stadium-to-the-Sea route, L.A.'s point-to-point course with a net elevation drop of 430 feet. A time of two-twenty-something would give Higgins, 27, a personal best by more than 3 minutes and put her among the top U.S. women ever.
"I'm really excited about L.A.," Higgins told Universal Sports last week. "My training has been going great and I'm right where I was a year ago when I was training for Boston - minus the crappy knee."
That knee, which contained a piece of broken cartilage that had calcified in her iliotibial band, required surgery and caused Higgins to miss Boston for a second consecutive year. She had qualified for the 2008 Olympic trials there but stayed away because of anemia.
"I will run in the Boston Marathon eventually," vows Higgins, who owns a cat named after the city. "But it hasn't been easy so far." Officials from Boston invited her to next month's race recently but after her plans for Los Angeles were already set.
In January, Higgins finished fourth in the Houston Marathon in 2:33:22, just 14 seconds off the PR she set at the 2008 Chicago Marathon. That effort earned Higgins a spot on the World Championship team last summer in Berlin, where she ran 2:37:11 and finished 30th.
"Running in Berlin was an honor, but I was really still cautious about the knee. Houston was the first time I've felt right since [Chicago]. Greg [McMillan, her coach at McMillanElite in Flagstaff, Ariz.] and I didn't have a plan to do a marathon - we'd been thinking of a half marathon. But I do a 30K tempo regularly, so we said why not?"
At that point, Los Angeles was already in the picture, as was a fall marathon in either Chicago or New York, and a TBD summer marathon. "So four marathons just kind of happened," Higgins says. "But it won't happen again. This is not a World Championship or Olympic year, so I can do it. I'm finally healthy and my training is going well."
McMillan cites the examples of Kara Goucher, with three quality marathons in nine months, Meb Keflezighi, who ran four, including the 2004 Olympic marathon, in 13 months, and Ryan Hall, who ran three in 10 months in 2008. "If we hold to the schedule we have in mind," McMillan said, "Paige will run four marathons in 10 months, so it isn't something that is out of the ordinary and in fact follows the pattern of some of our best marathoners."
If any marathoner - male or female - can survive the physical and mental rigors of four major efforts in one year, Higgins would be a good bet. "I was not a star in high school [in Colorado] and walked on in college [at at Kansas University] where I was not stellar either," "Higgins says. "It just took a long time for me to develop."
Higgins always knew she wanted to be a marathoner, and as a youngster emulated Deena Kastor and Colleen De Reuck. After graduating from KU with a degree in fine arts, Higgins ran her first marathon in 2006 at DisneyWorld in 2:51. Her next effort, in the Chicago heat of 2007, yielded a 2:40:12, and then came the 2:33:06 at Chicago in 2008.
"The leaders that year went out at a crazy pace, so slow, but I knew what I wanted to run and I was leading until halfway," she says. "I felt like an idiot, leading, on TV, and the announcers had no idea who I was-they listed me as ‘Dublinski,' whoever that is." When the top women eventually made their move, Higgins maintained her steady pace and finished eighth with a seven-minute PR.
"I can't afford to go out at six-minute pace" and then pick it up the second half, Higgins said. "That's why the gender challenge [in L.A., with $100,000 to the first male or female based on a pre-established time differential] will help me, because it will keep the pace honest."
In addition to a natural modesty, Higgins works a mileage base that would make most male marathoners blush. In preparation for Los Angeles (and just a month after Houston), Higgins has run - with what can charitably be described as a shuffling gait - two weeks of 150 miles per, and more weeks than that at 140. "I'm only doing 120 this week, and then my taper starts, so I'm on a nice break," she says.
"Paigemo is pretty kick ass," says Ian Torrence, one of the assistant coaches at McMillanElite. "I'm an ultrarunner and I think the miles she's racking up are insane!"
Dedication? Check. Humility? Check. And with a bunch more marathons on the immediate horizon, and a spot on the 2012 Olympic team in the master plan, add ambition to her marathoner's mind-set.
"I've always had a fascination with the marathon," Higgins says. "It's so much more than just a race. After my first one, it really took my breath away - everyone involved was so supportive. It's what the world should be like."
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