Runner has priorities in line

Mary Jayne Harrelson, an assistant coach at Virginia Tech, will run the 1,500 meters at the trials. Her mother, Debbie, encourages her by telling her she has the rest of her life to get married and to "dream now." Her mother doesn't mind when she doesn't come home for Mother's Day or Thanksgiving - or that she doesn't stop running when she does visit.

"She always has a workout on Christmas Day, so we always have to get that taken care of before we can have family things," Debbie Harrelson said with a laugh in a phone interview. "It always comes first."

Harrelson is nothing if not dedicated.

"To be a track and field athlete, especially in distance running, you have to be extremely selfish," said Harrelson, a Roxboro, N.C, native. "That's something I battle with on a daily basis - having to think about me, me, me. When am I going to work out? When am I going to eat? When am I going to stretch? ... It gets really old sometimes. You just want to go have fun and be with your friends and do whatever, but you're like, wait a minute, how am I going to feel the next day?"

Harrelson, 26, will earn a trip to Athens with a top-three finish, provided she meets the Olympic qualifying time.

"We started training for this 3 1/2 years ago," Harrelson said. "The thing about track and field, especially distance running, it's definitely a very slow process. It's a long process with a lot of hours of work. You go through a lot of injuries and a lot of ups and downs."

Harrelson finished fifth in the 1,500 and sixth in the 800 at the 2000 trials, when she was still on the Appalachian State team. She also qualified in the 800 for this year's trials, but she has decided to conserve her energy at the meet for the 1,500. She ranks ninth in the trials field with a time of 4 minutes, 9.58 seconds, from a meet last summer.

Harrelson didn't run track until her senior year of high school. She joined the Appalachian State team as a walk-on and blossomed into a two-time NCAA champion in the 1,500.

After graduating three years ago, she accepted a job at Tech so she could train with Hokies distance coach Ben Thomas, who had once been her coach at ASU. She wasn't thrilled initially with the idea of living in Blacksburg.

"I was like, 'I don't want to move there. It's always cold and snowy,'" she said.

Harrelson is grateful to have a job that gives her time to train. During the school year, she ran early in the morning before going to the office and ran again with her charges during practice.

"In order to be an athlete at this level, it has to be a priority - the top priority," she said. "I can run with them [the Hokies] every single day and I'm not only benefiting them but I'm benefiting myself."

Harrelson took fifth in both the 800 and 1,500 at the USA indoor championships this year. Last year, Harrelson won the silver medal in the 1,500 at the Pan American Games and was sixth in the 1,500 at the USA outdoor meet.

"She's one of the most fierce competitors I've ever coached," Thomas said. "She really, really hates to lose. You get athletes that are like that in racing, but she carries it over into training."

Harrelson won't stop running at summer's end.

"The day I finish running is the day I know that I got all I could get out of this body," she said. "I want to keep going as long as I can because I'm having a good time. It's a way of life. I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have to get up and run the next morning."

MARY JAYNE HARRELSON

5-foot-7, 120 pounds

1,500 meters

Height: 5-foot-7

Weight: 120 pounds

Accomplishments: Two-time NCAA champ; made finals of 800 and 1,500 at 2000 Olympic Trials; runner-up at 2002 USA indoor championships in 800 and mile; Pan American Games silver medal; fifth in 800 and 1,500 at 2004 USA indoor meet

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