Heather May

A Grinnell College Grad Heads Aims for the Big Show.

Heather May’s background is in theater. Fittingly, the wispy 33-year-old Bloomington, IN resident’s running is following what could be described as a fairy-tale script.

The 1992 Grinnell College grad didn’t start running until 1998. One day, the treadmill stroll that she did for exercise became a tentative shuffle, and it stuck. Over the next several months, May continued her indoor-only running. "I was terrified of going outdoors because I didn’t want to run five miles and be stuck somewhere," she says. But a beautiful day drew her to a track, where she worked up to as much as 10 miles, until the day she arrived to find it closed for repairs. Now a runner for over six months, she took to the roads for the first time.

After finishing a 10K, May assumed the next logical step was a marathon. "I wasn’t a part of the running community," she laughs, "and I didn’t think there was anything between six miles and 26." Following a training schedule from a book, she finished the 1999 Indianapolis Marathon in 3:45. Having enrolled in a Ph.D. program at the University of Indiana, she joined the Indiana Track Club soon afterward. The benefits were immediate. "I discovered speedwork, and that made a huge difference," May says. She trained for Twin Cities in 2000, peaking at around 60 miles a week, weathering hip trouble and hyponatremia along the way. Her 31-minute PR of 3:14 granted her entry into Boston, where she ran conservatively to a 3:13.

Deciding she was going to break three hours next, she "promptly did everything wrong." Too little recovery and overzealous training led to a fibular stress fracture that knocked her out until October. Building up slowly to 50 miles a week, May posted an 18:40 5K and a 38:33 10K. Then, taking aim at the marathon again, she increased to weeks as high as 80 miles, including several marathon-pace runs of six to nine miles. It paid off: In October, she ran 2:56:27 at Columbus to finish sixth. The U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials standard of 2:48 was comfortably on May’s radar screen. "Before that race it was something I’d daydream about—you know, ‘that would be cool!’ But after Columbus it was something I began considering more seriously."

Over the winter, May again set her sights on Boston, with a goal of closing half of the gap between her 2:56 and the Trials standard. On a warm, blustery day that wrecked the ambitions of a legion of top marathoners, May ran another PR, running even splits en route to a 2:53:05, 19th-place finish. "After that I knew that shooting for the Trials was truly legitimate," she says.

At press time, May was aiming for her sub-2:48 at the Philadelphia Marathon on November 23. In late August, she ran the Capital Pursuit 10-Miler in Des Moines in 62:08: her final 10K was a PR by almost a minute and her final 5K a PR by a few seconds. With a progression like May’s, one might expect her next marathon to produce something, well, dramatic.