Meet Coach Kel -
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Published on: 3/1/2008
Last Visited: 3/1/2008
Kelly Keane and her training partner "Pre"
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Kelly Keane was alone when she passed the 23-mile marker at Sunday's HP Houston Marathon.
The Woodlands resident was the only runner around when the group of Elvis impersonators serenaded her less than four miles from the finish line.
And when a spectator yelled "Woman power" on Allen Parkway at mile 25, Keane knew the encouragement was meant for her - she was the only female marathoner within 200 meters of the young fan.
But by the time Keane crossed the finish line in a personal-best 2 hours, 32 minutes, 27 seconds and claimed her first marathon victory, the 32-year-old had all of Houston along for the ride.And as she triumphantly snapped the winner's tape and gave way to the smile that had tickled her mouth all along the 26.2-mile course, Keane realized she was no longer alone.
"It's amazing, just amazing," Keane said as she buried her head in a family member's chest just past the finish line."To win in your hometown is just a wonderful feeling."
Confident all the wayThat feeling most likely will return when Keane cashes the $10,000 check she will receive for being Sunday's top female finisher - one she felt was hers the minute she embarked on the 2 1/2 -hour run.
Early on, Keane and Poland native Wioletta Kryza were leading a pack of four women that included Peru's Maria Portilla and first-time marathoner Kay Ulrich of New Zealand.
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Keane and Kryza quickly broke away from the rest of the women and by the seventh mile had settled in to a steady pace.
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Greece's Ioannis Mairs and Keane's coach, Greg McMillan, joined the pair as the only four runners a mile behind the men's marathon leaders and ahead of the rest of the female participants.
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"She was running so incredibly well out there," said McMillan, who ran alongside Keane until dropping out of the race at mile 18.
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That pace, which was nearly a 5:30 mile and blew through mile 12 in 4:55, was enough for Keane to beat her personal record of 2:36:24 by four minutes.And two miles later, after Keane said goodbye to her coach, she quickened her pace and left Kryza behind.
"The goal was to take off at around the 22-mile mark and go as hard as I could," Keane said.
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And as Keane pumped her muscular arms and stretched her long, slender legs over the pavement, it was clear she preferred to be alone.If alone meant her first marathon win, that's where she wanted to be.If alone meant she wouldn't look up or smile until the finish line was in view, then alone might as well have been runner's heaven.
Alone was where she found the satisfaction she had only dreamed of when preparing for her past two marathons, only to suffer an injury less than three weeks before both races.But it was with the masses who greeted her at the finish line that Keane found her joy.
"All along the way, I kept hearing 'Go Houston' ", Keane said.
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The Woodlands' Kelly Keane reacts after winning the women's race at the HP Houston Marathon in 2 hours, 32 minutes and 27 seconds on Sunday.Keane earned her first marathon victory. (Photo by THOMAS B. SHEA)
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The Woodlands resident Kelly Keane fulfilled a dream on Sunday, winning the HP Houston Marathon in a personal-best time.
Keane, 32, who moved to the area from New England 1 1/2 years ago, finished the 26.2-mile course in 2:32:27.
"I trained hard and ran this race to win," said Keane."I felt very good and comfortable through the first twenty miles.I felt so good that I broke in the twenty-first mile and finished strong."
Keane enjoyed winning so close to home.
"Being a hometown runner here was incredibly motivating," she said."The fans and spectators were fantastic cheering me on."
Keane recently won the 15th annual Anadarko Run Thru The Woods, which took place in The Woodlands on Thanksgiving.
Keane, who made the Olympic trials last year, has done some of her training at The Woodlands High School.
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Keane warms to Olympic dreamBy ROBERTA MacINNISCopyright 2003 Houston ChronicleMost any elite runner would enjoy relocating to Boulder, Colo., where thin air builds strong blood, or to Portland, Ore., which Runner's World named "best running town."But Houston?
"It beats running in New Hampshire this time of year," argues Kelly Keane, a 31-year-old competitive athlete who moved to The Woodlands this past summer.Keane, a Long Island, N.Y., native who was an All-America track runner at the University of Massachusetts, has lived throughout the Northeast.
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KELLY KEANE of Manchester hasn't called the Granite State home for very long, but in the 10 months she's lived here, she has quickly established herself as one of the premier runners in the state.And she's not done yet.
Keane, 30, was the top New Hampshire woman in last Sunday's New Bedford (Mass.) Half Marathon, where she placed second overall in 1:16:13.If that weren't impressive enough, the New Bedford half wasn't even a target race for Keane.One week earlier, she had lowered her personal best at the half marathon distance to 1:13:06 at the Valley of the Sun Half Marathon in Arizona, an improvement of more than two minutes over her previous best.
"I went to race the half in Phoenix," said Keane, "Then I did New Bedford as a training run, trying to hold myself back and run my goal marathon race pace, which is what I did."
If you do the math, that pace comes out to 5:49 per mile.For the marathon, which has become Keane's primary focus, that would yield a time of 2:32, which is important for multiple reasons.
"I've definitely been focusing on the marathon now," said Keane, who is coached by Greg McMillan, coach of top U.S. marathoner Jill Gaitenby.
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The race, which is being run in St. Louis the day prior to the standard St. Louis Marathon, features the same course that will be used for the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials one year later, a race for which Keane already has qualified.
Running faster than 2:32 could have significant implications when it comes to the 2004 Olympics, as that stands as the international qualifying standard for the women's marathon -- although the rules appear to be more complicated than that.One thing is certain: a sub 2:32 will get a female marathoner in, as long as she qualifies for her country's team.
Five months ago, Keane demonstrated that she's not that far from that mark.
"I had been working full-time and trying to train," Keane said, "It was tough.I joined the Fila Discovery program at the end of July last year and began to train full-time."
Keane ventured to Lake Tahoe with the team and stayed for six weeks before heading back home to finish her training for the October 2002 Ocean State Marathon in Rhode Island.
"I hit mileage that I never thought I could," Keane noted, "I was up to 120 miles a week."
But the mountains were taking their toll.
"Living at altitude is great," Keane added, "but the training can be tough on your body, so I came back a little early."
The result of all her hard work was a fifth-place finish at Ocean State and a 12-minute improvement over her previous best marathon time, as she posted a stunning 2:36:26.
Not too shabby for someone who started out with a 3:09 at her first marathon back in 1997.
In addition to her heavy training schedule, Keane, who now runs for New Balance, still works part-time as a massage therapist and recently started an on-line coaching Web site -- www.coachkel.com.
She now coaches about 15 runners of all abilities interested in racing distances from 5K to the marathon.
"I love it," Keane said."It's the perfect job for me besides being a runner."
While her coach is based in San Diego, Keane doesn't have to go very far for other sources of inspiration or to look for company on her training runs.
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Kelly Keane got the e-mail from Mystic Places Marathon race director John Bysiewicz only a few days after the Ocean State Marathon, inviting her to run Sunday in Mystic.
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But a few days later, Keane, of Bow, N.H., felt much better.She had run a personal best (by 12 minutes) of 2 hours, 36 minutes and felt she had another race in her.So she called Bysiewicz and agreed to run.
"I'm not going to run what I ran two weeks ago," said Keane, 30.
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Keane isn't the only one in the women's field running her second marathon this month.
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Kea
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