According to this article in the Naples News: “Sonja Friend-Uhl of Brentwood, Tenn., … is going for the U.S. Masters record in the indoor mile Saturday at the Hartshorne Memorial Masters Mile in Ithaca, N.Y.” Sonja is 40, so she’d be shooting for the listed American record of 4:47.26 by some jogger named Alisa Harvey. That’s the listed WR as well. Pretty gutsy to call her shot. Good luck, Sonja!

Sonja was 6 months' pregnant when she won this 2008 race in Palm Beach.

Here’s a profile of Sonja on a South Florida website:

Sonja Friend-Uhl: Champion Runner, Coach, Mom & Wife

By Risa Merl

Don’t try to pigeonhole Sonja Friend-Uhl. You won’t be able to do it. She’s all at once a world-class runner, savvy entrepreneur, loving mother and wife, dedicated coach, lively radio personality, friendly competitor and she even lists concert pianist on her resume.

In 2000, this Palm Beach County resident made the Olympic trials in the 1,500-meter event, an accomplishment that she notes as the pinnacle of her running career thus far. “That was a great accomplishment and achievement for me, but it’s continued from there,” says Friend-Uhl. “I’ve been on two world teams since then, which have been really great experiences.”

Friend-Uhl’s training practices are hardcore in order to keep her in top form when preparing for a race. She starts off by completing one race a week. At 10 to 15 miles, perhaps this is her version of a Sunday stroll?

Then she steps it up with an interval and speed-work session, which encompasses four miles of interval training on the track, ranging from the 400-meter to the 1,200-meter repeat. Next is stamina running, which is an 8- to 10-mile day.

“Those are my staples when I’m in the thick of training,” she says. “I’ve actually lowered my mileage a bit. I was trying to make it 60 miles a week, and right now I’m down to about 45 to 50 miles a week because I find that actually works better for my body. I have a lot of speed, and if I’m working with my coach we try to enhance my strength, which is my speed.”

She rounds out this intense running with some strength and core training twice a week. When lifting, she concentrates mostly on her upper body and core as she finds she gets enough resistance from the running.

In the next few months, she plans to race in the 10k in St. Petersburg, the Naples Half Marathon and the 15k National Championship at Gate River in Jacksonville.

Friend-Uhl is known for her great sportsmanship, always smiling and wishing everyone good luck no matter how competitive the race is, and shaking hands with competitors at the finish line. She hopes to be a good ambassador for the sport.

She’s also known for leaving these same competitors in her dust.

“Because I am a half-miler and miler in my roots, if we’re in a race, and we’re close to a finish and you’re a little in front of me, there’s a good chance I’m going to catch up,” she says. “I’ve heard a few of the guys say to me, ‘Oh you and that kick of yours.’ So I think I’m known for my speed at the end of a distance race.”

While running, training, and competing, Friend-Uhl is also living a busy professional and personal life. She’s the president and fitness director of FIT Studio, a Pilates and personal training studio in Wellington. Along with her certifications as an ACSM- and AFFA-certified personal trainer, and having AFAA specialty certifications in youth, senior and prenatal fitness, she is also a USA Track & Field level 1-certified coach. And she runs a coaching business called RunFastPromotions.com.

RunFast also serves as the base for her radio show, the RunFast Podcast, which she cohosts with Dr. Jose Antonio (writer of South Florida Adventures’ diet column). Although it’s recorded in Boca Raton the show can be downloaded and listened to nationwide. “I actually had a lady call this week who listens to us in Colorado,” Friend-Uhl says. “She said how much she enjoyed the show and loves listening to us, and that was really great.”

Friend-Uhl has limited her personal training sessions to about 15 hours per week so she can leave time to focus on the business side of her business. But coaching is more of a full-time job whereas running is her first love.

“People will call and ask me, ‘What do you think I should do? Should I go for this marathon or that marathon?’ Then I have people that I coach online and we have a structured program, and then I have the Wednesday night sessions that I coach for Wellington runners.

“I feel like I’m coaching 24/7 because there are a lot of people out there that I help with their goals and they know whenever they need help, I’m there for them. It’s almost like being a parent: you’re kind of on all the time, and that’s how I feel about my coaching. But I love doing it. It’s fun. It’s what I love to do.”

How does the athlete/coach/business woman/mom/wife get it all done? By learning to occasionally say, “No.”

Noticing that she has a tendency to take on more than she can handle, she’s learned to give herself cut-offs and rules. “One of the rules I have is I don’t take on any sessions or clients after 3:30 p.m. That allows me to get my little girl from school, pick her up, and spend time together in the afternoon and evening doing whatever she likes to do,” Friend-Uhl says. “I can be there and have dinner around the table and we can be a real family.”

Also to optimize family time, she gets her workouts out of the way early in the day, between 6 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. Her work time at the studio is slated for 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and she coaches late at night, getting to bed by 10 or 11.

She also gets creative by incorporating her family into her running and work life, bringing them to races as an away weekend for the family. On Wednesday nights she brings her 5-year-old daughter to the track rather than leaving her with a babysitter. “She loves it,” Friend-Uhl says. “She runs around and pretends she’s running and practicing.”

Friend-Uhl has passed another of her passions onto her daughter: her love for music. Friend-Uhl has played piano since she was five and went on to play for the Conservatory of Music in Toronto. Now her daughter has started taking lessons.

A competitive runner at heart, sometimes Friend-Uhl has pangs for what could be, but these are quickly squelched by what she does have. “There are times when I go to a National Cup or World Cup and I meet a world champ… and I know if I was running more hours a week, if I could just focus on my running, run twice a day, get more workouts in and get more rest, I’d be faster,” she says. “I know that I’d be at a different level. But I have a beautiful daughter, and I have a business I’m very proud of, and there’s a trade-off, and you just have to learn to be happy with whatever trade-off you make, and I’m happy with mine.”