Lesley Higgins

By Cecil Harris

Everybody loves a good comeback story, and Lesley Higgins is writing one of the best. On June 30, she’ll be on the starting line in a preliminary heat of the 3000-meter steeplechase at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials -- Track & Field in Eugene, Oregon, with a chance to represent Team USA in Beijing this August.

Coming this far is an achievement in itself for anyone, of course. What makes it even more remarkable for Higgins is that she didn’t run competitively for nearly five years following an All-American career at the University of Colorado, and that she’s competing despite holding down a demanding full-time job in the Manhattan office of Governor David Paterson.

“As a runner and sports fan myself, I was thrilled to learn that a member of my staff is competing in the Olympic Trials. My family and I wish her the best of luck,” said the governor.

“I think I have a solid chance to make the finals in the steeplechase,” said Higgins, a Manhattan resident, by telephone on June 21 after a morning run in the Hamptons. “It’s not outside the realm of possibility.” [Editor’s Update: Higgins finished eighth in the preliminaries on June 30 and qualified for the finals, which take place on July 3.]

At this time last year, the notion of Higgins, 28, meeting the Olympic Trials “A” standard would indeed have been considered beyond that realm. After she had earned her master’s degree in criminal justice at Colorado in 2002, she packed away her Big 12 Conference championship trophies and moved to New York to pursue a career in government, content to run only on a recreational basis.

“I had no desire to keep training; I didn’t have the drive or the encouragement,” the Colorado native says. “Jason Drake, who was the assistant coach when I was at Colorado, and my dad both gave me the same advice: ‘Try to run five miles a day and don’t get fat.’”

Higgins didn’t pack on any pounds; she joined the renowned New York Athletic Club, where she ran with such standout athletes as Julia Stamps, Caroline Bierbaum, and John Honerkamp, and did fairly well in New York Road Runners events. But she didn’t compete hard or train diligently—until last year, when she ran a 10:35 in a 3000-meter steeplechase event at Princeton. Her time was close to the Olympic Trials “B” standard of 10:20—a standard that was readily achievable if Higgins got serious.

“I started to have that motivation again,” Higgins says, her voice rising with excitement. “I started to get back into runner-shape. Those five years or so when I wasn’t really trying to run competitively were a great mental downtime.”

No longer did Higgins use as an excuse the rigors of her job as a compliance officer for the governor’s campaign staff—a position she has held since January 2007, when Governor Paterson’s predecessor, Eliot Spitzer, ran the state. Higgins has proven capable of handling both tasks. And her efforts paid off on June 7 when she ran a 9:58.63 at Hillsdale College in Michigan to qualify for the Olympic Trials.

“There’s definitely a big adjustment period if you want to work full-time and train and run seriously,” Higgins says. “I work 40 to 50 hours a week, but I’m able to manipulate my hours so I can run in the morning and at night. I run at 7 a.m., get to the office at 10 a.m., do another run at 6:30 or 7 o’clock, and then go home and work from my computer. My co-workers don’t give me a hard time when I have to go to a track meet. They’ve been very supportive.”

Higgins says her coach, Brad Hudson, has been even more supportive, despite being some 3,000 miles away in Oregon. “Brad was the only person I spoke with over the years who kept saying, ‘Lesley, you can be really good,’” she says, laughing. “I’d tell him, ‘Oh, no, I’m never going to break 10 minutes.’ My best time in the steeple in college was 10:13. But Brad was always so positive about what I could do.”

Higgins and Hudson have virtually worn out each other’s BlackBerrys this year while preparing for the Trials. At first, she simply asked him to approve her workout routines. But as the Trials have drawn near, they’ve spent more time devising a specific training regimen for the steeplechase—an unusual track event that incorporates distance running, 30-inch hurdles, and an 11-foot-long water jump that must be cleared on each of seven laps. Her training has included runs in Central Park and Riverside Park and hurdling on the outdoor tracks at Columbia University and St. John’s University.

For Higgins to qualify for Beijing, she must advance past the prelims and, in the July 3 final, finish in the top three in a time that meets the Olympic “A” standard of 9:46. While not dismissing her chances, she believes that the 2012 Olympics in London are a more realistic goal. “If I finish in the top 10 in the finals in Eugene, I’ll be patting myself on the back,” she says, “because a year ago, I was 47th on the list, and two years ago I couldn’t run six-minute pace for a four-mile run in the park. I feel like I’ve only just begun in this event. I think I can keep improving through 2012.”

Yet before Higgins boards a flight for Oregon on June 26, she says she’ll be sure to TiVo the Olympics Trials coverage on USA Network and NBC so as not to miss her own performance among America’s elite in track and field.

You see, Higgins loves a good comeback story, too.