Marathoner from Moorestown aims to qualify for U.S. trials

Colleen Tindall admits that her high school and college running careers weren't spectacular. Even though she ran cross-country and track for Moorestown High and West Virginia University, her heart wasn't in it.

"I was way more interested in hanging out with my now husband than running," she said of her college days. She didn't even run as a senior.

It wasn't until after having two children that Tindall, 28, discovered what she could really do. She ran the 2012 Philadelphia Marathon in 2 hours, 46 minutes, and 5 seconds - five seconds shy of the qualifying time needed to run in the 2012 Olympic Marathon trials.

"I was not nearly as fast then as I am now," she said while sipping coffee at a Starbucks up the street from the Moorestown Running Co., where she works.

She and her husband married right after college, and settled into life in Gettysburg, Pa. Running wasn't on the agenda, especially after the birth of her sons, now 5 and 3.

In 2010, when her youngest son was 2 weeks old, the family moved back to her hometown of Moorestown. When she was cleared to run again, she set a goal of finishing the Scott Coffee Moorestown Rotary 8K, a June race.

"I thought, wouldn't it be nice to complete a 5-mile run?" she said.

She trained in what she calls "very small windows of time." Until he turned 6 months old, her youngest son would be up from 3:30 to 6 a.m. So she started staying up, too, running a half-hour at a time up and down the hill outside her home.

She ran the 8k in 41 minutes and 18 seconds, which made her "beyond happy." After running a 5K in 18 minutes, 22 seconds, she figured it was now or never. She started training with a group of men's masters runners who train in Moorestown six days a week.

"That first year, it was all about putting my head down and hurting. I showed up and stayed in the back. It whipped me into shape," she said.

The group trained for the 2011 Philadelphia Marathon, so she decided to as well. She hit the wall and finished in 3 hours, 31 minutes. She trained smarter for the second one and, while running with one of the members of her training group, hit her personal best of 2 hours, 46 minutes, and 5 seconds.

She also started working part time at the Moorestown Running Co. about the same time she got back into running, which is how she found out about the masters group - coworker Ralph Harris is the coach.

After being asked to speak at a running basics seminar in Cherry Hill, she proposed starting one through the store. "Running 101" trained 20 runners for the 2011 Haddon Heights Firecracker 5K.

The program was so popular that it's now offered as a beginners course for women four times a year at a cost of $100 for eight weeks of instruction, and runners may stay on for private coaching from Tindall for marathons and half- marathons.

The Olympic marathon trials qualifying standard is expected to drop to 2 hours and 43 minutes for the 2016 Olympics. Tindall is confident that she can hit that goal.

"It's three minutes, and I have about four years," she says.

SATURDAY: Chocolate Frosted Buns 5K, a 5K and half-mile fun run, Robesonia, Pa. Register on site. For more information, go to pretzelcitysports.com.

NEXT SUNDAY: FARC Winter Race Series 5K, Freehold, N.J. Register on site. For more information, go to farcnj.com.

Every Sunday through Feb. 24: Browning Ross Winter Series, Glassboro 5K. Register day of race only. For information, go to: tuffgangrunning.com.

Feb. 9: Feel the Love Couples 5K, NavyYard. The race benefits Parkinson's Foundation. Bryn Mawr Running Co., 610-527-5510.

To add your race, e-mail jquinn@phillynews.com.

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