I admire runners older than I - they are now my heroes. I want to be like them as I grow older.

How did I know you ran a 4:30 mile in high school? That's easy. Everyone ran a 4:30 mile in high school.

Being in school is the best place to be if you are an athlete because you can structure your own time.

Yes, winning the gold medal was undoubtedly the biggest day of my career - mostly because I won the way I had prepared to run it. It was a totally satisfying experience.

For the novice runner, I'd say to give yourself at least 2 months of consistently running several times a week at a conversational pace before deciding whether you want to stick with it. Consistency is the most important aspect of training at this point.

The potential elite runner must realize that hard means hard, easy means easy and they must patiently seek out what combinations work for them. They have to learn to be persistent and patient with their training and racing.

I admire runners older than I - they are now my heroes. I want to be like them as I grow older.