Jenny Kincaid Boone

Jenny Kincaid Boone has been running since she was in eighth grade. She competed in cross country and track at Fort Defiance High School (Fort Defiance, Va.) and at Roanoke College, where she was all-ODAC in cross country for four years. When her knees and legs aren't aching from the wear of years of competition, she hits the 19 to low 20-minute range for a 5K.

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She's had her glory days. A four-time state cross country champion while at Glenvar High School. A fourth-place finish in the Foot Locker National Cross Country Championship as a high school student. An All-American at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Trish Nervo has learned not to take running for granted.

Her training slipped after she graduated from college, and now, at 26, she’s trying to make up for lost time.

Nervo’s move back to Roanoke last year symbolized a fresh start to life and running. She’s running regularly, winning races and gradually slimming down her times. She’s reviving her running career with hopes of getting faster.

"Since I’ve moved back to Roanoke, I’ve sort of gotten back on track," Nervo said. "I still have a long way to go, but I can see that I’m improving."

Nervo, a running standout at Glenvar High School, graduated from UNC in 2001, rounding out a successful track and cross country career. In 1999, she earned All-American honors, placing 15th in the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships. In 2000, she ran 16 minutes 6 seconds on the track for 5,000 meters, one second shy of qualifying for the U.S. Olympic trials.

But after graduation, Nervo’s motivation to train consistently melted.

"I would ‘train’ for these short periods of time," she said. "I would do it for a month and a half, then I would kind of get out of it, and then I’d pick it up. I wasn’t consistent with it."

Trish Nervo (in blue) runs with members of the Roanoke College cross country team one afternoon in Salem. She usually trains with them two days a week and travels to some meets.

Nervo had a son, Lucas, a year ago, and decided to move back to Roanoke to be closer to her family. She lives with her parents in Roanoke County.

Now, a return to competitive running is her driving motivation. Nervo, who works four hours a day cleaning her sister’s house, decided to start training several days a week with the Roanoke College cross country and track teams under head coach Finn Pincus.

"I’m hoping anyway that if I just stay consistent and get the work done and do the workouts that Coach Pincus is running for his team, that eventually I will get back there again," said Nervo, who was named a volunteer coach for the team. "That’s just a matter of time. It takes time to get back when you have been away from it for awhile. But I feel like my body is capable of doing it again. I just have to wait."

She’s getting closer. Nervo placed third overall in the Lewis Gale Salem 10K in August, with a time of 38:41. And she won a Virginia Tech cross country invitational at the beginning of September, finishing the 4K course as an unattached runner in 14:45. There’s a good chance that Nervo can reach her collegiate running level again and get faster, said Joan Nesbit Mabe, former coach at UNC who described Trish as a "cheetah on the Serengeti."

But there are several factors that runners should consider once they finish college and want to keep running faster and possibly turn professional. Those include whether they have a coach, time to train and to sleep well and consistent training partners. But even if all of these factors aren’t all there, a runner still can reach their goals, Mabe said.

"There must be an inner drive of unfinished business that won’t let your spirit rest until you complete the task God set before you," she said. "If Trish desperately seeks the fulfillment of her huge talent, then she will be the fastest cheetah on the plain."

Nervo realizes that she has more work to do. She runs several easy miles in the mornings and runs harder workouts in the evenings, a training regimen of 50 to 60 miles a week.

"It’s an easy way for me to sneak in a little bit of mileage without being too hard on my body," she said. Nervo said she’d eventually work up to running one longer run a day.

She’s trying to enter as many local races as possible for practice.

"It takes a lot of practice to race well, and it takes a lot of practice to get through pain," she said.

Nervo said the afternoons spent training with the Roanoke College team give her needed "structure."

"With most of my life, I don’t necessarily like structure, but when it comes to running, I thrive much better in a situation where somebody is saying ‘Okay, we’re going to do this today at this time, be here and do this.’ It works well for me."

Pincus said Nervo’s role on the team is helpful to his runners, who often ask her questions about how training on the Division I level compares to the workouts that they are doing.

"She was a very successful college runner," Pincus said. "It gives credibility to our workouts."

Nervo said a career running professionally is a potential goal, but right now, she’s enjoying training with the Roanoke College team and spending time with her family.

"It’s tempting when I see other people getting sponsored by Nike and getting gear and getting shoes to want that, but for one thing, I’m not there yet, and when I am there, if the opportunity comes up, I might take it," Nervo said. "But I’m pretty happy with where I am right now."

Nervo’s given herself the next four years to re-master her running potential. She’s gearing up for the USA Track and Field’s National Club Cross Country Championships in December. Nervo said her strength is racing.

In the last few years, she's learned the hard way the importance of consistent training.

"I didn’t know that I would fall out of running for awhile and have to come back," she said. "You think, ‘Oh, I’ll just get in another race or I’ll just train for the next one. I had these plans that I would keep running."

"It’s hard to know what’s going to happen in your life," she continued. "You definitely need to take advantage of your fitness when you have it because you never know where it’s going to go."

In Nervo's quest to run faster and keep her life balanced as a mother and young adult, impatience sometimes sets in. It hasn’t stopped her.

"It’s hard sometimes," she said. " I want to be doing more, but it’s like I can’t get over it. I feel like if I give this a go, and I reach my PR [personal record] and maybe just see how fast I can get, I feel like once I’ve done that, then I can move on. So, hopefully, there will be time for other things later."

Upcoming races:
Sept. 25: Marine Mud Run 5K, Salem, Web site

Oct. 2: Star City Striders Women's Distance Race 5K, Roanoke, Web site

Oct. 2: Little Life 5K, Danville, 836-5433

Oct. 9: Vinton Fall Festival 5K, Vinton, Web site

Oct. 9: Light the Fire 5K, Blacksburg, Web site