Wendy Thomas had no idea she would become an elite runner. As a young mother of two boys, she simply wanted to lose a few pounds.
The treadmill was her weapon of choice.
“I figured that would be the fastest way to do it,” she said.
But when she reclaimed her former shape, Thomas didn’t stop running and she soon found herself finishing as the top female in a 5K race.
“I discovered that I was fairly fast,” Thomas said. “Next thing I know, Doug Bell (Colorado Running Hall of Fame inductee) calls and asks if I want to train with his group in Greeley. Then one thing just kind of led to another.”
On Saturday, the woman who never dreamed she’d become an elite runner will take the starting line in Copenhagen, Denmark, to race in the World Half Marathon Championship. Thomas will wear the red, white and blue uniform of the United States.
“It is really exciting,” Thomas said. “I think my ultimate goal is to run in a USA jersey. I feel really honored and blessed. It doesn’t happen to everybody.”
There are many in Colorado Springs who will remember her as Wendy Moyle, a skinny kid with knobby knees who once led the St. Mary’s High School volleyball team to a state championship, a scrapper who hit the volleyball with such force as to make the opposing team duck.
But running? She tried high school track and field. It didn’t hold her interest.
“Coach (Ed) Latimer told me, ‘you need to get your eye off the boys and focus,'” she said.
But as an adult, raising a family in Windsor with her husband, Kevin, the treadmill experiment stuck. In running she found a sport that kindled her love for competition.
“I think I’m just really competitive,” she said. “I like to challenge myself and I like to set goals and do better and better.”
The long hours of training and days away from home are a challenge. But her sons, Tripp, 9, and 7-year-old Chase, think it’s pretty cool that their mom is an elite runner. When the package from USA Track and Field containing her Team USA uniform arrived, they ripped it open and tried it all on. Thomas said she feels as if her running is a good lesson for her boys.
“They see me work hard, and they’ve seen me disappointed when I come home crying,” Thomas said. “But then they see me have success. I think there is a lot to be learned there.”
Thomas is a member of the Boulder Running Company/Adidas team and trains in the Colorado Springs-based American Distance Project group with coach Scott Simmons. Her ADP training partner and friend Mattie Suver, one of the best middle distance runners in the country, will join her on the U.S. Team in Copenhagan.
“It will be comforting to have Mattie there to gauge myself off of,” Thomas said. “She is just amazing.”
Thomas ran a personal-best half marathon time of 1 hour, 12 minutes, 29 seconds to finish fourth at the national championships earlier this year. She hopes to best that time in Copenhagen, but understands that even bigger races are ahead. Thomas is a good runner at the shorter distances, but Simmons insists she could be a great marathon runner. And she’ll get the opportunity to place herself among the best in the country at the Boston Marathon on April 21.
“We’re hoping for a great Boston, because I think she’s ready for it,” Simmons said.
Thomas had trained with the ADP group for a short time before the 2012 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, a breakout race in which she clocked 2:34:25 and placed 12th, better than anyone had predicted. Simmons is encouraged because he knows Thomas was “minimally prepared” for the distance.
“That was her first marathon, and in the last 10K she just started to roll people up,” Simmons said.
More than two years later, with additional experience and training in her legs, Simmons is predicting a fast time in Beantown.
“All of her training has indicated that she can go under 2:30,” he said.
Thomas affirmed that sub 2:30 is the goal, but she’s also excited to check Boston off the bucket list.
“It’s an exciting race,” she said. “It’s something every runner wants to do. And when I tell people I’m a runner, the non-runners always ask If I’ve done Boston. It will be nice to say, yeah, as a matter of fact, I have done Boston.”
After Boston the game plan will focus on the 2016 Olympic Marathon trials where a time in the 2:26 range could mean a berth on the Olympic team.
“That’s my main focus,” Thomas said. “The race at the (2012) trials was the one I enjoyed the most. Speed doesn’t come naturally to me. I can hold a pace, but I can’t get the wheels moving as fast as the other girls.”
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