The Trials Standard Spotlight: Shalane Flanagan – The Olympic Marathon Trials in Houston, Texas in January 2012 will highlight America\’s top distance running talent. One in a series of Trials spotlights on the athletes who will participate follows.

At the USA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Ore. on Thursday, June 23, 2011 two-time Olympian Shalane Flanagan won the 10,000 meters in 30 minutes, 59.97 seconds, a national championships record.

The 2008 Olympic bronze medalist ran unchallenged to her second USA 10,000m crown and qualified for the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea later this summer.

A record five U.S. women in the same race – Flanagan, Kara Goucher, Jen Rhines, Desiree Davila and Magdalena Lewy Boulet – ran sub-32 minutes for 10,000 meters in Track Town USA.

Flanagan, 30, will be one of the favorites for the upcoming 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon in Houston. Her third run for the U.S. Olympic team on Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012 will be only her second marathon. The North Carolina graduate debuted at the 2010 ING New York City Marathon in 2:28:40 and ran a smart, in-contention race, to finish runner-up (and national champion) against a world class field.

The Portland, Ore. resident has had good racing success in Houston when in January 2010 she won the USA Half-Marathon title in 1:09:41 in her debut for the distance and the 2011 World Cross Country Championships bronze medalist also set a Texas state record.

Her parents – Cheryl Treworgy (nee Bridges) and Steve Flanagan – were top runners in their day. In 1971, Bridges set a world record in the marathon (2:49:40), while her father was a national class 10,000 meter and cross country runner so Shalane inherited a good set of genes for running as her top times, U.S. records (3) and Olympic and World Championship medals (2) indicate.

Find more Flangan highlights in her Running USA Runner of Interest bio here: https://runningusa.org/node/16131

The 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials will be run on a revamped course in Houston, Texas on the weekend of the Houston Marathon. Houston is the first city to host the men's and women's Olympic Trials races at the same event. For more information on the 2012 Olympic Marathon Trials, visit https://www.houstonmarathon.com/2012USOlympicMarathonTrials/index.cfm?SRe…