Caroline Cretti '06 shines in marathon debut

Caroline Cretti '06 burst on the international marathon scene recently with her stellar performance in the Twin Cities Marathon held in Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN on October 7th.

Running in her first marathon in conditions that were the hottest ever in the Twin Cities Marathon – a temperature of 74 degrees at the start, with a relative humidity of 87% – Cretti finished fifth overall and second among American women.

Svetlana Ponomarenko (Russia) topped the women's field with a time of 2:34.09 and Cretti crossed the line in 2:43.11. Just ahead of Cretti in fourth place was the top American finisher, Robyn Friedman. Friedman was clocked in 2:42.15.

Cretti's time qualifies her for the Olympic Trials, which will be held in conjunction with the Boston Marathon in April. Cretti's Williams classmate and teammate, Michelle Rorke, had previously qualified for the trials with a strong showing at the 2006 Boston Marathon.

Commenting on her Twin Cities and he marathon debut, Cretti said, "The main goal was to qualify and the sort of "dream" goal was the "A" standard for the Olympic trials which is 2:39...so I missed that, but given the circumstances of the race, I am really excited about the time.  Right now at least, I switch between happy with the time and mad that I didn't run faster."  

Cretti currently trains in North Carolina with Zap Fitness. "I will obviously spend a lot of the winter and spring training for the Olympic trials, but I will still run shorter road races, some xc, and on the track," said Cretti.

Cretti found out from her days at Williams how much she loves the running sports and with Zap Fitness she has find out how good she can be by focusing solely on running and training. "My experience with running and athletics at Williams made me love the sport and (combined with Zap and their support), has allowed me to continue to compete. I have come to realize that the "Williams experience" is pretty unique, in a wonderful way; the xc and track programs just take that same energy into the athletic realm in a way that I don't think you can find at many schools."