Alyssa Tower finishes April’s Race for the Roses in Portland, Oregon.

Alyssa Tower of Vancouver, Washington, and Club Northwest turned 45 in late September and in October set herself a tall order: Break the 17-year-old American age-group record in the track 10,000 of 38:10.89 by Joan Colman. In fact, she pulled a Babe Ruth, calling her shot several days before the race. Alyssa wrote a friend: “I guess everyone will finally find out, so here it goes. I am going to get that current USATF masters 45-49 age group record. It is currently only 38:10. I am planning to run a 37:45. Wish me luck!” The night of May 10, Alyssa stepped on the track at Western Oregon University for the women’s 10,000 at the John Knight Twilight meet — her first track 10K since 1992. She then proceeded to average 6:05 miles in clocking 37:57.46 for the 6.2-mile race. (Here are official results.)

When Alyssa wrote me with some questions on the record-application progress, I sent her some queries of my own — to which she graciously replied.
Her story is simply amazing.
She wrote me:

I had this goal to break the age group 10k record since October. I knew it was definitely possible. My next goal is to lower that record time and I plan to do that come August in Spokane at the Masters National Track and Field Meet. My love is the track. If I had to pick where to race it would be on that beautiful surface.

Here were some other replies to a short Q&A:

Masterstrack.com: What were your splits?
Alyssa Tower: Well, I was aiming for a 37:45 so my 400 splits were supposed to be 1:31 400. I started out right on, then until about the 5k when I started to catch one of the girls who went out too fast. When I caught her, she hung onto me for awhile and that is when I started to slow down.
I finally broke from her and caught another girl around mile 4.5. She hung on to me too. Then when I had about six laps to go, I felt like I had a second wind and just went for it.
My mother and a couple of friends from the Red Lizard team helped me with my splits. Now I know that I have to find a way to deal with mile 4 and 5 because that is where I lagged. I will have a plan for this in Spokane.
When did you turn 45?
I turned 45 September 30, 2007.
Did the other girls know you were shooting for the record? Did they help in any way with pacing?
Unfortunately, no to both of these. My mom, friends and the meet director knew.
How long have you been pointing to this race as a record attempt?
I hired a coach (Sean Coster) last October and he wanted me to pick a goal. The only goal I could think of was to possibly PR In the 5k and 10k. I don’t think I really have achieved my best in these events yet, and when I saw that the age-group record was only a 38:10 I knew it was possible to break it.
Further, in college I was a walk-on (for) an NAIA team. Since I was an older runner (28 at the time), the coach wanted me to do the marathon for points. I never really liked the marathon but ran it anyway. What I discovered was that the track was so exciting and the 10k on the track was my favorite event.
My last year in college I qualified for nationals in the 10k, but the coach made me do the marathon instead. This really disappointed me, but you can’t blame the coach just because he wanted to make points. I was guaranteed to make the top three in the marathon and I probably wouldn’t have placed at nationals in the 10k.
So now I want to lower my time for the 10k again at nationals in Spokane — I guess to quench that old dream of mine.
What do you do for a living?
I am currently a stay-at-home mom to a 5-year-old boy named Max. After college I worked as a Geographic Information System Technician for a Regional Planning agency but I quit to become a stay-at-home mom.
Have any kids, husbands, cats, dogs?
My husband, Dan, is a computer programmer and a great fan. We have one boy named Max, a big bull mastiff named Grizzly (who doesn’t run with me) and a cat named Penny.
What are your all-time track PRs?
My PRs aren’t that great — that is why I finally plan to surpass them.
1500: 4:57, valtrex online 3000: 10:37, 5000, 18:07, 10000: 37:14 My best marathon was only a 3:07. I don’t plan to better the marathon because I don’t like the event.
Where did you go to school?
Southern Oregon University (SOU) in Ashland, Oregon.
Did you run track in HS or college?
I did not run in high school because I was a gymnast and place seventh at state. In college (SOU) I ran both cross country and track.
What achievements?
I made all-American in the marathon by placing fourth and I qualified for nationals in cross-country.

Alyssa also provided some background that she also shared with her local newspaper:
Just recently, I won the Race for the Roses 5K. I was first female overall and my time was 18:13.
Here is some general info about me:
Military service from 1983-1987
NAIA College athlete 1988-1992 Southern Oregon State SOSC. Now Southern Oregon University (SOU)
After college, I started my career in GIS (computer mapping), got married in 1996 and continued to run but got injured several times from overdoing it. I am an overzealous trainer, which always got me into trouble.
When I turned 40 I had a boy (Max) who is 5 now. I live with my husband Dan and my boy Max in the Fishers Landing area of Vancouver, Washington.
My sister Laurie got me excited about running again when she beat my marathon PR in 2005. So I decided to train hard again and predictably got injured, but this time it was bad. I somehow injured my left ankle and had very sharp pain while walking so forget running.
I went to four doctors and after X-rays, a bone scan and a CAT-scan they concluded that I had arthritis and should not run anymore. So I ran in the pool 6 days a week but didn’t give up. After seven months, I finally saw a sports medicine doctor (who) diagnosed me with FHL tendonitis. He said yes I do have arthritis, but the FHL is aggravating it.
So he told me to wear my running shoes whereever I go, do massage and ice therapy and take glucosamine (and) chondroitin and you should be better in about a month. Needless to say, I was running within a month — but it has been a long haul getting back to fitness.
I know this is probably too much, but it is interesting because I know that so many others are probably told they can’t run when they can and it makes me mad.
I had a relatively good year in 2006 and 2007, placing first master in the Eugene Challenge mile with a chip time of 5:27, placing second at the Portland Race for the Roses (18:44 — much slower then this year) and first in the Cascade Runoff 3-mile with a time of 17:44, but I had no endurance.
In 2007, my endurance improved but then I started to get injuries again which hurt my consistency. I finally gave in and hired Sean Coster to coach me through cross-country season and I joined Club NW. I had a pretty good season placing first in both the PNTF Masters CC Championship and the NW Region Masters CC Championship. I placed ninth at the Masters Nationals Club CC Championship.
I am so much stronger than I was in previous years. In fact, I’d say I am fitter than I was in college due to all the injury prevention work, weightlifting, plyometrics and dynamic work I do. Sean makes me work hard, and I believe it will pay off.
Here’s how her local paper covered her AR:

Community notebook: Vancouver runner sets age-group record
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
By Columbian Sports Staff
Alyssa Tower of Vancouver set an age-group American record in the 10,000 meters on the track at the John Knight Twilight track and field meet on May 10 in Monmouth, Ore.
Tower, 45, completed the 25 laps in 37 minutes, 57.47 seconds to break the record for women ages 45-49.
The age-group record had stood since July 1991, when Joan Colman ran a 38:10.89 at the age of 47.
She finished sixth in a field of eight women in the race, and said she was helped by running with faster college athletes in the race at Western Oregon University.
“I knew I was going to break the record,” Tower said.
The Columbian will feature Tower and her pursuit of the American record in next Tuesday’s Community Sports report.

Just FYI: the listed W45 world record for 10,000 meters is 32:34.06 by Sweden’s Evy Palm in 1988. That’s quite a mark. But don’t count Alyssa out. She’s already amazed us once.
Here’s Alyssa (second from left) with her Club Northwest teammates, who took third at cross-country club nationals: