Olympic Medalist Shalane Flanagan Was Gone To Carolina In Her Mind

US Olympic distance runner Shalane Flanagan was coming off some sort of stomach bug in the first week of the games, and found herself back mid-pack after the start of her 10,000 meter race. To get through the tough effort of working her way up through the field, she imagined herself back on the trails that she trains on in the NC Triangle Area, including the American Tobacco Trail:

"I went to my happy place," Flanagan said. "When I started to hurt, I pretended it wasn't this huge stage with all these people watching. I visualized some of my training in North Carolina -- running among the trees. It helped."

By the end of the race, she'd passed her way up to third place, finishing in a time of 30:22.22 which broke her own previous US record for the distance. She became only the second American women ever to gain a medal in this event, following Lynn Jennings who won bronze as well in 1992.

Location