By Peter Gambaccini from Runner’s World Racing News
Photos by Victah Sailer
Magdalena Lewy Boulet, a 2008 U.S. Olympian in the marathon, was 
fourth in USA Cross Country Championships in Spokane, Washington, on February 13. A U.S. citizen since 2001, she was born in Poland and will be returning to that country for the World Cross Country Championships on March 28. Lewy Boulet, 36, then plans to do the Rotterdam Marathon in the Netherlands on April 11. She won the 2009 USA Half-Marathon in Houston in January in 1:11:47 and was fifth in the 2010 Championships on January 17 in 1:12:22. Lewy Boulet was second at the 2008 U.S. Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials, where she set a personal best of 2:30:19 and led much of the way before being passed by eventual winner Deena Kastor. In the Beijing Olympics, a freakish knee injury (she’d clobbered it on a portion of a shuttle bus in the Chinese capital) forced her out of the marathon at the 15K mark. Lewy Boulet was fifth in the 2004 U.S. Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials in 2:30:50. She also competed in the 10,000 at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials in Eugene, placing sixth in 32:45.06. Her 2009 performances included a fourth in the 10,000 at the USATF Championships on the track in a personal best 32:20.45 and a sixth at the ING New York City Marathon in 2:32:17. She lives in Oakland, California, with her husband, the former standout miler Richie Boulet, and their son Owen, born in May 2005. She is a member and a founder of the Bay Area Track Club. She attended the University of California-Berkeley and was third in the 5000 at the 1997 NCAA Championships. We reached Magdalena Lewy Boulet when she in the midst of cooking dinner.
What are you cooking today?
Magdalena Lewy Boulet: We’re cooking quinoa with kale and a bunch of other veggies and portabella mushrooms and a bunch of other stuff.
Very healthy. So there’s no meat there.
MLB: You know, quinoa is a complete protein, so today it’s a vegetarian dish. But we had steak last night.
We wanted to talk to you now because there are a lot of interesting things you’re doing and are about to do. To start with, you’re going back to Poland.
MLB: Yes, I am. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It’s been years since I’d done cross country nationals. When will it happen (again) that Worlds will take place in Poland? It’s a pretty exciting time for me.
When you learned it was going to be in Poland, it immediately went on your schedule.
MLB: Yeah, we penciled it in and I got excited about putting cross country on my race schedule because it’s been a long time. I started mixing up the training a little bit and we threw in some different stuff and it just became more fun. I forgot how much fun it was to train for cross country.
Well, you did the half-marathon in January and you have a spring marathon coming up, so cross country is, as you suggest, a change of pace. You’ve got to come back down for a little bit, right?
MLB: Well, we have to mix in some different kinds of workouts, and it makes it a little bit more interesting than just training for marathons the past few years just solely for the marathon – doing similar workouts year after year.
And the changes included more long interval workouts, that sort of thing?
MLB: Actually, a lot of shorter stuff- shorter intervals – 400s and 600s. The ratio changes a little bit. You’re still doing all that stuff while you’re preparing for the marathon, but the majority of the stuff when you’re training for a marathon is longer stuff. It’s been a little bit more balanced. And fun.
How often do you get back to Poland?
MLB: The last time I went back to visit family was when my son was born, which was in 2005.
And you have a 98-year-old grandmother there, right?
MLB: I do. And I talked to her in December and I said “there’s a pretty good chance I will be coming” and she said “you better hurry up, I don’t know if I’m going to make it.” Okay, no pressure.
How about the USA Cross Country race itself? You needed to make the top six to qualify. I guess everyone knew Shalane Flanagan was going to run away. It looked like you tried not to go too crazy in the beginning but just stay with people like Amy Hastings (who finished third), who were pretty solid contenders as well.
MLB: Correct. I was rooming with Renee (Metivier-Baillie, who finished) fifth for the race. I just figured my goal was just to 
stick around with the girls who had made the team before and get a feel for the race in the first lap. I haven’t really raced on grass, which is always a little bit different. And I wanted to get a feel for the effort that was around me. You have to rely on the experience of the girls who have made the team year after year, that know what they’re doing. And it worked. I got pretty comfortable after the first lap (of four). I was expecting the grass to feel a little more difficult than it did. But it was totally fun, and I just tried to grab one of the top spots that would go to Worlds and walk away from the race feeling like I was competitive – and leave some more room for improvement in the next six weeks.
The Rotterdam Marathon is April 11, two weeks after World Cross Country. That interval of time isn’t all that unusual, so you’re pretty comfortable with that, right?
MLB: For most marathons I’ve done, I’ve done a 10K two or three weeks out, usually on the track, so I think it is a perfect tune-up for me. It’s what I’m used to. It’s going to really play out really well for me during the marathon. I’m really excited about running cross country and I think I can carry that excitement over. Most of the girls from the top six (in Spokane) showed pretty high interest in competing at Worlds, and if that’s the case, then it’s a pretty good team with a pretty good chance to medal. If that happens, and I believe we can do it, then I’m going to be even more excited about the marathon a couple of weeks later.
Can you talk about your selection of the Rotterdam Marathon? Most of the other top Americans either choose Boston or London in the spring. I think there’s an obvious reason to select Rotterdam, but can you tell why you selected it?
MLB: I think it’s frustration, more than anything. So many times, my fitness level has shown that I should be running in the high 2:20s and it just hasn’t happened. The emphasis has been on time, and I kind of wanted somewhere where I can just race people. Rotterdam is a race where men and women start together. The emphasis is mostly on men in that race, but I just want to race people and I just want to run a fast time. That’s the goal.
After the New York City Marathon last fall, you were looking sad. I know you wanted a sub-2:30. But you were sort at the back of the elite pack. And then what happens? Do you just end up running too much of the race by yourself?
MLB: Yeah. Yeah. It’s such a great race, and I keep telling myself that before I retire, I want to nail a good race in New York. And oh my God, what can I say, this year (November of 2009) was the year for me to shine if I was going to do anything because the race was not really that fast, and if everything had gone the way I had hoped, I could have been there at the very end, but I wasn’t. Once you get separated in New York, it’s tough, because you’re on your own. You’re in-between. If you’re not in the lead pack, the next pack is two, three, sometimes five minutes slower. You just end up running by yourself. It just becomes uneventful. That’s never really worked out for me yet.
At what point did you get separated from the leaders in New York?
MLB: The halfway point. I was still there, probably, after the halfway point. I could see the lead pack but mile after mile, I was just losing more and more contact. Once that happened, I was on a mission to finish. That’s not the way to feel when you still have a good 10 miles to go.
How did you feel after your half-marathon in Houston in January?
MLB: I was pretty disappointed. I went into the race with some really good training behind me, probably a little bit more intense training than I did the year before going into Houston (when she won the 2009 USA Half-Marathon). I spent some time in Flagstaff probably a week before Houston. I just felt flat, from the gun. I started the race and I just never switched over. I was stuck in one gear. I knew the fitness level was definitely higher than last year, but something just was not clicking. I talked to my coach right after and he said “you know, sometimes at altitude (or right after), you just never know when it’s going to click over. Sometimes it’s right away, sometimes it takes a couple of workouts at sea level.” He just said “just be patient.” It’s about now, a month later after altitude, that everything’s starting to feel really goods in training. I’m ahead now of where I was at this time last year because last year I had won Houston and then I got sick and got hurt. I consider this is a good start, even though I didn’t run as well in Houston.
Can we assume you’ll stay over in Europe between World Cross Country in Poland and the Rotterdam Marathon?
MLB: Yes, definitely. We’ll probably stay a few days with my family and then head over to Rotterdam.
You played a big role in getting the Bay Area Track Club going. Can you tell us about it?
MLB: It’s such an exciting time. For most of the elite runners here in the Bay Area, it’s an opportunity we have created. It’s a cooperation of athletes in the area who have been dreaming about this support system for a long time and local coaches that we couldn’t have done it without. A corps of us just put our resources together. The Bay Area Track Club is a nonprofit organization that goes beyond the goal of supporting Olympic athletes and future emerging Olympic hopefuls. We really want to take advantage of all the great athletes we have in the Bay Area and really promote running and health in the community here and teach and inspire young kids to get involved in the sport of running. It’s always great when individuals do it, but when you put all the heads together, you can achieve something great, and that was the goal. And we’re off to a great start. We’re supported by the U.S. Distance Project and by New York Road Runners. We’ve got great goals and we’re chasing them all. And hopefully we can raise enough money to support future athletes that are graduating from local colleges and give them the opportunity, for example, that I didn’t have when I graduated from college.
People like you and Shannon Rowbury have shoe contracts. Is any of this meant to give you financial support or is that not the goal of the BATC?
MLB: Everyone has a different goal. Some people who don’t have contracts might need help with equipment and travel money. But people like Shannon, as an example, might need the training support just from being around people, more than financial support. But both of them are extremely important to take the athlete to the next level. What we’re trying to do is find out what each athlete needs and support them – whether it’s massage, being at the track and watching them work, or going on runs together. Before, we were doing everything we’re doing now but on our own. Now, we’re putting our resources together and we have people behind us who want this to work long-term. We want the next generation of athletes graduating to have the opportunity to stay in the Bay Area – or at least have a choice. Most of us love where we train. We’re surrounded by the community that knows us and supports us.
So you’ve got a couple of things coming up, but what we’ve talked about before is how close you’ve come to 2:30 in the marathon. Hopefully, you’ll be doing this sport for very a long time, but you probably have a sense that there is a certain limit to the number of opportunities left, so let’s hope a sub-2:30 happens this time in Rotterdam.
MLB: Correct. I still think there’s definitely room for me to improve my times. If I’m still improving at whatever distance, I know it can carry over to the marathon. Yeah, I’m hoping that it (sub-2:30) is this year.