For elite athletes, it's about endurance

It all started for Lauren Fleshman when her dream of playing softball in high school was dashed by a coach who pointed out that at 4-feet-10-inches and 78 pounds, her chances of making the team were slim.

So she joined the cross-country team instead - a watershed moment that eventually led to meeting her husband, Jesse Thomas, and a career as a professional runner.

The couple spoke to an audience of about 50 on Tuesday, November 22 at Sisters Athletic Club.

"I wasn't spectacular as a freshman, but I had an impact and immediately loved the cross-country team for its acceptance and team unity," she said.

She not only grew 10 inches during the next four years, but developed into a national-caliber runner and invited herself to Stanford, where she became an All-American and five-time NCAA champion.

"My best season came my senior year when I was the California state champion in cross-country, but since most of the recruiting had already taken place, I walked on at Stanford with their promise that I could earn a scholarship if I did well there," she said.

The additional bonus came when she met Jesse Thomas, a Mountain View High School graduate, who ran cross-country and track for Stanford as well.

"The day I met him I wrote in my journal, 'Today I met my future husband,' which sounds zany, but it turned out to be true," she laughed.

Thomas, a high school state champion himself in cross-country in 1997, specialized in the steeplechase in track at Stanford, where he was the Pac 10 champion and an All-American as well.

Upon graduation, the two took distinctly separate paths athletically. Lauren signed with Nike as a professional, and Jesse pursued a business career and basically stopped running after breaking his neck.

Fleshman has continued to run professionally, and Thomas recreated himself as a triathlete who is currently in his second year as a professional.

He won the Wildflower long-course triathlon in May for his first professional victory. As a relative newcomer to the profession, race officials were not sure who he was when he crossed the line.

"They asked, 'Who are you?'" said Thomas. "It was sort of humorous, actually."

Among the pearls of wisdom the couple conveyed included Fleshman's assessment that she hasn't necessarily gotten so much physically stronger as that she has become better at handling pain. Her husband agreed with the notion that in competition the athlete that not only anticipates the pain, but invites it, will have the advantage.

"You sort of have to talk to pain and say 'Is that all you've got?'," he said.

The couple also agreed that they were fortunate to have high school coaches who didn't overstress and overwork them as prep athletes.

"I think a lot of high school athletes end up sort of burned out and injured because of the intensity of their high school programs, but neither of us experienced that and it translated into great college careers," said Thomas.

Host Tate Metcalf showed clips of Fleshman running the 5,000 meters internationally, including one of a thrilling victory in London last spring, after which Fleshman said, "Watching that makes my knees wobbly."

She won that race in 15:00, just shy of her personal best. Later in the summer she placed seventh in the World Championships, the highest finish for an American woman in many years.

Earlier this month, Fleshman made her marathon debut at New York City, finishing in 2:37 despite what she described as a two-mile death march at the end of the race after hitting the wall.

"I plan to be back for the upcoming track season to shoot for the Olympics, but I will run more marathons in the future," she said.

Her final words of wisdom included urging people to understand that elite athletes are regular people who, through hard work and a little luck, achieve their dreams.

"You have to persevere, correct your faults and keep reaching for that deeper level," she said.