Goal-getter -- Anderson headed to Beijing after conquering self-

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Jul 23, 2008 | by Doug Robinson Deseret News

After long, arduous training sessions on the track whipping her body into shape, Lindsey Anderson would retire to her home and work on her mind.

During the weeks leading up to the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials, where she would compete in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, she wrote two things on a sheet of paper every day: "I will run 9:30. I will make the Olympic Team."

And then she did exactly that. Knowing that a top-three finish would secure a ticket to the Beijing Olympics, Anderson finished second with a time of 9 minutes, 30.75 seconds. -- a full nine seconds faster than her previous personal record.

"I could've run faster," she told her coach afterward.

She'll have to if she hopes to meet her next goals. Already she has begun another written mantra as she counts down to Beijing. Every day, on the same sheet of paper, she writes: "I will make the Olympic finals. I will run 9:25."

"We talk about visualizing things, so that when she gets to the Olympic trials and these big meets, it's not so stressful, and she knows she can do it," says Anderson's coach, Paul Pilkington.

That wasn't always the case. Only two years ago, Anderson was so frustrated and filled with self-doubt after a seasonlong slump that she briefly considered quitting the sport. She had failed even to qualify for the NCAA championships that year.

Now she's headed to the Olympic Games, and even if that fact weren't on her mind 24/7 there are reminders everywhere, whether it's congratulatory text and e-mail messages and letters or via more direct deliveries.

"Good luck in Beijing!!!" a man yelled at her as his car sped past her during a training session on the roads last week.

The other day she and Pilkington were out for a training run on a back road in Ogden when a man driving a Qwest truck slowed down and shouted out the window, "Hey, you're the one on the Olympic team, aren't you?!"

As near as research can determine, Anderson is one of only a handful of native Utahns who have earned a spot on the U.S. Olympic track and field team during the last 100-plus years -- among them, Richard George (javelin), Mark Enyeart (800 meters), Wade Bell (800 meters), Julie Jenkins (800 meters), Blaine Lindgren (110 hurdles), Ed Eyestone (marathon), Clarence Robison (5,000-meter run), L. Jay Silvester (discus), Tiffany Lott Hogan (heptathlon), James Parker (hammer), Amy Palmer (hammer), Alma Richards (high jump), Lee Barnes (pole vault) and Eddie Tolan (100 and 200 meters). Only five of them medaled -- Lindgren, Silvester, Richards, Barnes and Tolan.

Anderson might be the least likely of them all. She is hardly a prepossessing specimen. At 5-foot-3, 110 pounds, she is usually the smallest woman in the race. This is clearly a disadvantage in an event that requires her to clear 30-inch barriers and hurdles 28 times and a 12-foot water jump seven times over the course of 7 1/2 laps.

"But she's a good athlete, and her technique is excellent," says Pilkington. "She's good over the water jumps and hurdles."

He says this as he puts Anderson through a training session in Ogden's City Park. She is doing a set of repeat 800- and 400-meter runs over a trail that winds around a small pond, past ducks and geese and joggers. Anderson and Pilkington come here to break the monotony of running on a track and because it's cool and shady under the trees.

"How do you feel?" he asks her a couple of times to determine the effects of the workout.

Pilkington and Anderson are a good team. She has complete faith in her coach and his training program, which is understandable given her sudden steep improvement under his tutelage. Pilkington's mild, serene temperament has a calming effect on anyone he meets but especially runners, who tend to be prone to self doubt and anxiety. He was a junior high English teacher for years until he blossomed into a world-class road racer and marathoner, which he turned into a fulltime profession. He once was hired as a pace-setter for the L.A. Marathon in which his competitors waited for him to slow down and then drop out, as is the custom; instead, he made worldwide headlines by winning the race. Now 49, he has been hired by Weber State, his alma mater, to coach its distance runners, and he has continued to coach Anderson into the professional ranks.

"I know I couldn't have progressed and gone to this level without Paul," says Anderson. "There's no doubt in my mind."

Anderson, who is married to her high school sweetheart, Mark Anderson, was the oldest of Scott and Sherilee Olson's five children. Her identical twin, Angela, was a good high school runner, but passed up invitations to run at the collegiate level. She served a church mission in Malaysia, then returned in January and enrolled at Weber State. She continues to run recreationally and will compete in the Deseret News 10K as a member of the Momontimes.com running team.

Nothing in Lindsey Anderson's formative years suggested a future Olympian. She won four state titles in the 3A classification for Morgan High, but none as a senior, and after her sophomore year her times declined. Only Weber State and Southern Utah offered track scholarships.