Sonja Friend-Uhl makes Olympic Trials B standard at age 41

Sonja the superstar.

W40 runner Sonja Friend-Uhl was hoping for a speedy 4:22 or 4:23 last Friday night when she came to the starting line of the 1500 at the Vanderbilt Invitational in Nashville. Boy, was she way off. She writes: “I wanted to share the news with you that I ran my 4th fastest 1500m EVER Friday night.” Her time of 4:16.99 crushed the listed American outdoor record of 4:23.54 by Kris Paaso in 2011. (But not the unratified 4:08.69 by Ruth Wysocki in 1997.) Sonja reports rabbit splits of 68, 2:17/2:18 and 3:27 and says: “I’m still trying to process that I ran that fast because 1) I was hoping for merely a 4:22-4:23 and 2) My training had not been as consistent or focused the last month due to work and family obligations.”

She continues: “I felt so strong and smooth — really just a great race with plenty of other fast runners with the Vandy girls and also Stephanie Garcia who is a national and world class steeplechaser. [And] I won the race, which was a bonus!  I literally have not ran a time even close to that since 2000 (my Olympic Trials year).  Woohoo! So excited!”

And there’s more: “It also meets (just barely!) the B standard for this summer’s Olympic Trials. I feel very blessed and very motivated, to say the least.”

The Trials will take the top 30 runners, and at the moment Sonja’s time ranks 17th in the country.

She has a great shot at Eugene!

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April 24, 2012

8 Responses

  1. peter taylor - April 24, 2012

    Sensational performance by Sonja. I was proud to announce her at the Hartshorne Mile in January and hope to announce her again in the future.

    Living in Virginia as I do, I just had to look up the all-time best outdoors in the 1500 for women at the University of Virginia. Turns out the record is 4:14.72, which Morgane Gay ran in 2011. What did Sonja run? 4:16.99? Just 2.27 seconds slower? Oh, is she good.

  2. Terry Ballou - April 25, 2012

    Awesome race, Sonja. That time is truly amazing. I hope you will run at the Olympic Trials, what a way to represent masters track. Great job and good luck in Eugene!!!

  3. peter taylor - April 25, 2012

    And Terry, while Sonja is out in Eugene for the Trials, why doesn’t she run in the masters exhibition 400 as well? After all, the qualifying standard is 64.50, and Sonja can crush that.

    How do I know? In her 4:16.99 1500 reported here she averaged 68.53 per 400. Now that is flying. Just think what she could do for a single lap.

  4. tOnY yOuNg - April 25, 2012

    GET the Uhl OUT of HERE!! Congrats

  5. Matt B. - April 26, 2012

    4:46.29 AR mile
    Might be capable of taking 10 seconds off of this!

  6. Levasseur - April 27, 2012

    Amazing congratuations Sonja.

  7. peter taylor - April 29, 2012

    At the Penn Relays this past weekend I had a bit of time to go through the program:

    4 x 1500 for women

    EVENT RECORD 17:08.34

    Tennessee (2009)

    Chanelle Price 4:19.5, Phoebe Wright 4:19.0,
    Rolanda Bell 4:19.6, Sarah Bowman 4:10.2

    What? At age 41, Sonja Friend-Uhl (above) ran 4:16.99. Only one woman on Tennessee’s record-breaking squad ran faster.

    This is almost unreal.

  8. barb friend - August 5, 2012

    Wow u look so strong a role model for women everywhere at any age I’m so proud kepp on running and. Congrats love u mom

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