Dilliner resident Santucci ready for U.S. Olympic marathon trials
Dilliner resident Clara Santucci, a former All-American runner at West Virginia, has won the Pittsburgh Women’s Marathon the past two years.
Clara Santucci crosses the finish line of the 2014 Chicago Marathon Sunday. Santucci finished sixth in the women’s race with a time of 2:32:21.
The first time Clara Santucci prepared for the U.S. Olympic marathon trials, she trained with few, if any, distractions.
That was in 2012, when the Dilliner resident and former All-American runner at West Virginia University was still a relative unknown on the national running scene.
These days, the 28-year-old Santucci can’t make a trip to the grocery store without being noticed. That’s what consecutive first-place finishes at the Pittsburgh Women’s Marathon can do.
“People stop me constantly, but it lets me know I’ve got a lot of people behind me,” Santucci said. “It’s been awesome. I’ve received more attention than I ever expected, but it’s been really neat. It’s been a lot different than the last trials. More people know what I’m doing, and so many are wishing me the best and wanting to see me succeed.”
In 2012, Santucci placed seventh at the Olympic trials in Houston and was an alternate for the United States team. She came close to achieving a lifelong dream of participating in the Summer Olympics, which begin this August in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Representing the United States in the marathon still motivates Santucci, but she will enter Saturday’s U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Los Angeles with added incentive. Santucci, known in racing circuits for her outstanding endurance and ability to maintain and improve pace through the 26.2-mile race, left Wednesday. She qualified at the 2013 Chicago Marathon, meaning the past three years were a long, grueling process with one goal in mind.
The top three finishers qualify for the United States team, and, like in 2012, it’s a loaded field on the women’s side.
“The closer (the trials) have gotten, the more real it’s definitely been the last couple weeks,” Santucci said. “The moment’s almost here. I’m nervous one moment, excited the next. Sometimes, I’m calm and confident. I know I’m ready, and a lot of people are cheering me on. I want to run my best for everyone.”
Santucci is one of two participants with local ties.
McGuffey High School graduate Jeff Weiss, a former PIAA cross country and track champion, is again running. Weiss, a Ravenswood, W.Va., resident and middle school health teacher, qualified with a third-place finish at the 2014 Anthem Half Marathon in Virginia Beach, Va.
Weiss ran in the 2012 trials, finishing in 81st place at 2:29.03. Weiss ran the trials only three months after competing in his first full marathon.
Santucci hasn’t run a full marathon since winning at Pittsburgh May 3, 2015, but she’s logged plenty of miles since, including a test run on the looping Los Angeles course in October.
Luckily for Santucci, it’s been a relatively mild winter in Southwestern Pennsylvania and the Morgantown, W.Va., area, where she does the bulk of her training.
“I’ve been getting miles in no matter what it’s like outside,” Santucci said. “It’s been a lot of miles, a lot of good, consistent work. I think I’m ready to go.”
Santucci, like most runners, prefers the outdoors for training, and she even hit the streets for a “fun run” during a recent storm that dumped about two feet of snow on parts of Greene County. But the cooler conditions and rolling hills aren’t the best simulation of Los Angeles conditions, so Santucci made adjustments.
“I knew I needed to get used to running in warmer conditions, so I did work on the treadmill,” Santucci said. “I can do it because I know what I’m running for, and I can listen to music. I’ve done some two-and-a-half hour runs on the treadmill, and I’ve done long runs outside, too.”
Santucci believes it will take 2:25 to 2:27 to qualify for the Olympics, though she’s predicting warmer weather in Los Angeles than anticipated, which, if true, will slow the pace.
“This race is what people build their careers around,” Santucci said. “I’ve always been inspired by the Olympic athletes, and this is a huge goal for me. I have lots of other goals – it’s more than just the Olympics – and I know this is not my last go at it. I’ll go for 2020, too. It’s nice to know this isn’t the end of the run, but I’m still giving it everything I have.”