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An 'overwhelming' homecoming
Russell, who will compete in the Summer Olympics, back at FCD
Blake Russell, 32, has qualified for the Summer Olympics in the marathon. She graduated from FCD and was an All-America at North Carolina.
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Published: April 27, 2008
LEWISVILLE
The only thing missing at Forsyth Country Day yesterday was a red carpet for Blake Russell to run over.
Russell, who qualified for the United States team for this summer's Olympics marathon in Beijing, China, spent some time at her old school. Whether she likes or not, she has turned into a local celebrity.
"It's a little overwhelming," Russell said.
"I mean, I was walking ... downtown with my dad (John Phillips) and he's introducing me to absolute strangers saying, ‘Do you know my daughter is in the Olympics?' "
It's been that kind of a homecoming for Russell, who along with her husband, Jon, make their home in Marina, Calif. Jon is a former standout steeplechase runner at Wake Forest.
Russell, 32, who was tooling around yesterday in her dad's minivan, made an appearance at a track meet at FCD, where she got her start in cross country as a raw ninth-grader. She eventually walked on to the track team at North Carolina and was an All-America before graduating in 1997.
Russell, who was then known as Blake Phillips, has been on a steady rise as an elite marathoner. But that climb wasn't always easy.
After qualifying for the U.S. team earlier this month in Boston, she put the disappointment of 2004 behind her. In 2004 she missed making the U.S. team in the qualifying marathon by 32 grueling seconds.
To get all the way back after what she called "the abyss," has been rewarding.
"I had given all I had and I was just spent," Russell said. "I crashed right after that pretty much physically and mentally. I couldn't even go out on a training run for a long time. It took a long time to get back to where I even wanted to run again."
But she slowly got back in the groove, and even a broken bone in her foot two years ago hasn't slowed her.
"I guess to get back it was just keeping a larger goal in mind," Russell said.
The students and faculty at FCD have been buzzing about Russell's accomplishment.
Russell caught up with several of her former teachers, including Judith Kuhn, who was Russell's kindergarten teacher.
Kuhn, who has been at FCD since 1977, said: "It was real exciting when we first read about it in the paper. And it's what everybody is talking about. It's not every day a former FCD athlete goes to the Olympics."
Emily Branch and Molly Mae Wall, both seniors on the track team, said they couldn't wait for the chance to meet and talk with Russell.
"I guess the big thing is it's great seeing somebody who used to go here accomplish so much," said Branch, who will run track at Pepperdine in the fall. "When they made the morning announcement at school about her making the Olympics, there was a big cheer from everybody."
Russell, who graduated from FCD in 1993, stumbled into the sport of running.
She was a tennis player until the eighth grade. Going into her freshman year, it was suggested by two of her friends that she run cross-country. But the friends had an ulterior motive: They needed another girl to have a full team.
"They needed another girl on the team, so a friend of mine, Wells Reynolds, and his brother, Marcus, were talking and they said, why don't we ask Blake if she wants to run cross-country?" Russell said. "I guess they said something along the lines of, she runs pretty good in P.E. class."
Russell can remember her first cross-country practice.
"I think I started running the wrong way on the track," she said. "I knew so little about running at that point."
Russell took to running in a hurry and her coaches in high school, John Danforth and Doug Pierce, started to mold her into a dominant high-school runner.
It wasn't until 1996 that Russell started to get serious about the marathon after watching the race at the Atlanta games. Then in 2000, Russell was seventh in the Olympics qualifying to miss out making the team before she had the difficult finish at the 2004 qualifying.
"I think mentally, the hard part is over," Russell said. "Just making the Olympic team is obviously pretty hard. So much has to go right and there's definitely an element of luck that goes into it. The trails are the hardest part."
Between now and Aug. 17, when the race will be held, she will continue to train. She said her coach, Bob Sevene, is one of the best in the country.
"I know I'm in good shape with my coach because he coached a gold medalist in the Olympics in Joan Benoit (in 1984)," Russell said.
■ John Dell can be reached at 727-4081 or at jdell@wsjournal.com.
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