Shalane Flanagan Reflects On World’s Best 10K

She came in sixth overall with little preparation.

She just won the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, but Shalane Flanagan was humble about her showing at last weekend’s World’s Best 10K in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Flanagan took sixth overall in the race.

“There is no world cross country this year, so on paper this was like world cross country,” she says of the loaded field in the race. “I got my butt kicked, but it was a nice effort. I really only did about two and a half weeks of training.”

Flanagan squared off against the race’s eventual winner, Vivian Cheruiyot, who prevailed in both the 5000m and 10,000m events at last year’s World Championships in Daegu, South Korea. Cheruiyot’s time last weekend was 30 minutes and 47 seconds. Flanagan was the first non-African to finish the race.

“I ran that race in 2009 when I was pretty sharp, and I actually ran it five seconds faster this year,” Flanagan admitted.

Her next race is the Lisbon Half Marathon on March 25.

For More: Oregon Live