Interview with Ann Alyanak

By Pat Goodwin

Ohio native Ann Alyanak has raced in New York City three times: at the 2006 More Magazine Half-Marathon, the 2007 NYRR New York Mini 10K, and, this past weekend, the 2008 NYC Half-Marathon Presented by NIKE. At the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Women’s Marathon in Boston in April, Alyanak finished seventh in a best of 2:34:46.

Alyanak, 29, lives in a Dayton, OH, suburb with her husband, Ed Alyanak, who has also been her coach since 2002. She is the head women’s cross country coach and the assistant track and field coach at the University of Dayton, working primarily with distance runners. She earned a BA in movement and sport science from Purdue University in 2001, and then spent a year in medical school at Wright State University in Dayton. She is now completing her master’s degree in exercise science at the University of Dayton.

During her collegiate career at Purdue, Alyanak won the Big Ten 10,000-meter title and finished second in the 5000 meters. She ran her first marathon in 2002 at Columbus in 2:52:04 and her second in 2005 at Twin Cities in 2:48:04. Her breakthrough marathon came at Boston in 2007 where she posted a time of 2:38:55 and finished second in the USA Women’s Marathon Championship. From there she was selected for the U.S. team for the 2007 IAAF World Championships Marathon in Osaka, Japan. (Her roommate was Zoila Gomez, who also competed at the NYC Half.)

NYRR interviewed Alyanak prior to her race at the NYC Half, where she’d hoped to improve upon her personal best time of 1:13:46. Alyanak placed 16th in the race in 1:15:13 in warm, humid conditions.

New York Road Runners: You’re starting your fifth year of coaching at the University of Dayton. How has that been going?
Ann Alyanak: I’ve definitely learned a ton. Every year I learn a little more about training, handling collegiate athletes, just dealing with a variety of things. It has been a great experience and I work with a great group of young women. This fall it is all my team because I have brought in everyone who is here.

NYRR: How do you think your team will do this fall in cross country?
AA: I’m hoping the team will be in the top five at our conference meet. We’re coming off a very good track season where most of the distance girls ran PRs in their events. We had a bad day at conference last year so we are sure to improve this year.

NYRR: You had a great race at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Women’s Marathon. Do you feel like you’ve recovered pretty well?
AA: My training has been going well this summer. I can’t complain. I’ve been training more toward the half-marathon distance and down. I’m not planning to do a fall marathon. I have come off three marathon cycles in a row. It’s been nice to change gears now.

NYRR: What kind of training have you been doing and how has the weather been this summer in Ohio?
AA: This summer I’ve been on the track about once a week for some of the workouts. I do a lot of my training with men in the area and they like to meet once a week at the track. Because I’m running with men, a lot of time it’s me chasing them around. On the easy days I run with my husband. Regarding the weather, it’s 90 today and we’ve had a hot spell this past week, but overall this summer has been pretty good for training.

NYRR: Have you done any races since the Trials? What are your plans for upcoming races?
AA: I ran the Peachtree 10K on July 4. It wasn’t great but it wasn’t terrible. I also ran the Hyde Park Blast 4 miler on June 28, which I won. Now I’m looking forward to the NYC Half-Marathon. It’s always competitive and New York Road Runners does a fantastic job. After the half, I’m going to run Falmouth on August 10. I also plan to do some of the women’s championship races in the fall – the 5K [September 21], 8K [September 27], and the 10K [October 13]. With my cross country schedule, I couldn’t make it work to get to the women’s 10-mile championship in the Twin Cities [October 5]. This will be the most racing I have done in a long time and I’m looking forward to it.

NYRR: The past year seemed to be a breakout year for you all the way up through the marathon trials. Can you describe how you prepared for the trials after the marathon in Osaka?
AA: After Osaka, I took a good down time. I didn’t run for a week and then really took my time getting back into it. I ran easy for a few weeks and I didn’t race much last fall at all. Ed’s plan was to use all the time to prepare for the trials marathon and with everything leading toward a good base of fall training. It was good that we took our time getting ready. I ran the Armaco Houston Half-Marathon [site of the USA Championships] in January and placed 12th, and after that I took a couple of weeks to recover. By the end of January, we were in marathon mode. I probably averaged low to mid 90s per week. I had a three-week stretch of 105 miles per week but otherwise we kept it pretty consistent in the 90s. That’s when I started running with a lot of the men in the area. One of my training partners runs for Wright State. Ed was coaching him and he was preparing for the Boston Marathon [the day after the Trials], so we did about all the workouts together.

NYRR: Did you feel you had prepared well for the Trials? What expectations did you have for the race that day?
AA: I was confident going into the Trials. I didn’t have any setbacks or injuries. I knew I was very fit. I was confident that I would run a PR. But I also knew it would take the race of my life to be in the top three. In the back of my mind I was shooting for top 10. I was in the pack pretty much for the whole time until it splintered around mile 15 when Deena [Kastor] took off. Pace-wise it felt right. I was pretty pleased with the race. If I had to do it all over again, I would have run the race the same way. I didn’t have anything left to pick it up in the last two miles. I left everything out there.

NYRR: Between running and coaching, you seem to have found your passion. Is that why you decided to leave medical school?
AA: I went to medical school at Wright State for one year. I enjoyed all the bookwork and the program, but I didn’t have the passion that I needed to go to four years of school and three years of residency. Certainly running had something to do with that. I knew the running wasn’t going to happen if I was in medical school. After I left, I started graduate school the following year at the University of Dayton and became a volunteer coach as well. Then the coaching position opened up and I was able to get it.

NYRR: Will the marathon again be your focus for the 2012 Olympic Trials?
AA: Yes, the marathon will be my focus for the next Olympic cycle. I was worried that there would be a post-Trials letdown, but there wasn’t. I was really excited to get back.

Interview conducted on July 19, 2008, and posted July 28, 2008.