Marblehead Flanagan is in the running - BEIJING 2008

Shalane Flanagan has her sights on a medal in the 10K. (Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)

By Shira Springer, Globe Staff | August 15, 2008

BEIJING - Shalane Flanagan enters the women's 10,000-meter Olympic final tonight with the fastest time in the event this year. This is both good news and bad news for the resident of Marblehead, Mass.

Flanagan set an American record (30 minutes 34.49 seconds) May 4 in her 10,000 debut, leaving plenty of room for improvement. But that time automatically made her a medal contender, raising the stakes at the Games.

"I definitely still consider myself a 1,500, 5K runner," said Flanagan, who will run the 5,000 next week. "I've had obviously some success at the 10K, but I feel like it's really not my race, which maybe is a good thing. My heart is really in the 5K, and when I go out to race the 10K, it's one of those survival races for me. I don't know exactly what I'm doing. But in a way, naiveness is kind of nice.

"When you get emotional and attached to certain things, it can sometimes affect the actual raw racing. At the trials, I wanted to win the 5K so badly and, of course, that's the event I didn't win and I won the 10K. I consider myself more of a 5K runner still, but after the Olympics, things may change. I may say, 'I'm a 10k runner.' "

Flanagan has heard her medal chances being discussed, making it hard to avoid an emotional investment in the 10,000. Her straight-talking coach, John Cook, worries that medal talk will become a distraction.

"Shalane is now coming to kind of a crossroads," said Cook. "It's the problem with a lot of great athletes, they come to a certain level and they kind of feel they have something to prove. If Shalane continues being the Shalane I met 2 1/2 years ago, she's going to be great. If she succumbs to some of the pressures that are now being put upon her, [it will be different].

"She talks about having a target painted on her back. There's no target. You've got to enjoy the journey. People can always say, 'Is she going to medal? Is she going to medal?' Frankly, I don't give a [expletive]. If she runs great, that's all I care about. The journey is going to be long, if she allows herself to relax. I'm finding now that there are forces working that are not necessarily positive, and she starts to feel a lot a pressure. There's a lot of information out there. I hope she doesn't read all that."

Typically, the 10,000 has been an event dominated by the Ethiopians, Kenyans, and Chinese. When Kara Goucher won the bronze medal in the 10,000 at last year's world championships, she became the first American woman to take home a world medal in the event. The last time an American woman won an Olympic medal in the 10,000 was in 1992 in Barcelona, when Lynn Jennings won the bronze. So, the medal buzz around Flanagan is understandable.

"I've always told my coach that if he can put me in contention to be a medalist, I can walk away pretty happy," said Flanagan. "As long as I go out there and display some of the hard work and come away saying, 'I worked hard and it showed in that race how hard I've worked this year,' I'll be happy with that. My goal is to, at least in terms of numbers, to be in the top half of every race and make that 5K final, which is really hard to do. Just be in contention, that's all I care about."