Aug. 24, 2012
For immediate release
Sacramento Running Association standout sets personal bests in mile, 3,000 meters
After her magical run to the Olympics, Kim Conley showed she knows how to deliver an encore.
The Sacramento Running Association Elite Team standout set her second personal best within a week on Thursday, recording an 8-minute, 56.38-second effort in a 3,000-meter race at a Diamond League meet in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Conley, a UC Davis graduate who lives in West Sacramento, set a personal best with a 4:27.23 performance to win the women’s mile at the Flanders Cup in Kortrijk, Belgium on Saturday.
Her time was the second-fastest in the world this year, trailing only Brenda Martinez’s 4:26.76 effort.
Conley’s performances follow two personal bests in the 5,000 meters: a 15:19.79 clocking in her dramatic third-place finish at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials in Eugene, Ore. in June and a 15:14.48 effort that left her 12th in her qualifying heat in the Olympic Games in London earlier this month.
At the Trials, Conley’s 15: 19.79 performance edged crowd favorite Julia Lucas (15:19.83) and Abbey D’Agostino (15:19.98) and just beat the Olympic ‘A’ standard of 15:20:00 needed to compete in the Games.
Conley, 26, almost gave up competitive running after graduating from UC Davis. But her coach, Drew Wartenberg, encouraged her to continue. A $10,000 training grant from the Sacramento Running Association helped Conley step back from her assistant coaching duties with the Aggies and focus on reaching her potential.
The Sacramento Running Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to finding ways to encourage people of all ages and abilities to run. The SRA is committed to developing new, quality running events that appeal to a broad variety of runners.
SRA events include the California International Marathon, which celebrates its 30th anniversary on Dec. 2. Already, 8,000 runners and more than 600 relay teams have registered for the race.
Other SRA events include the Lake Natoma Four Bridges Half Marathon on Oct. 28, The Super Bowl Sunday 10k Run on Feb. 3 and the Credit Union SACTOWN Ten-Mile Run on April 7.
SRA beneficiaries include the American River Parkway, youth fitness programs, local running venues and aspiring young runners.