There's some history behind Kaci Lickteig's shock in qualifying for the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials.
• In her brief fling running cross country in high school, she ended up walking every event but one.
• She finished her first two-mile road run, the Kearney Shamrock Shuffle, in what she considered an astounding 15 minutes and couldn't imagine ever running five.
• An injury nearly made her first marathon in 2006 her last. Forced to walk and jog the final six miles of the Lincoln event, she vowed to never run another.
That she had come so far in a sport where success had seemed so unattainable brought tears of joy as she crossed the finish line in 2 hours, 44 minutes, 14 seconds recently at the California International Marathon to qualify for the Trials Jan. 14 in Houston.
"It was unfathomable," Lickteig said. "I can't believe that I finally did it."
The 25-year-old Omahan was one of two Nebraskans to qualify. Bridget Easley of Lincoln finished in 2:44.57, also under the qualifying standard of 2 hours, 46 minutes.
"We ran pretty much the entire race side by side, which is really cool," Easley said.
Lickteig (pronounced lick-tie) caught the running bug when she started competing in road races to help her mom kick her smoking habit. It became a fun way to meet people outside their town of Dannebrog, Neb., and a weekend adventure for her and her mom, Lori Leonard.
Finishing those road races, she said, brightened her day and eventually led to a walk-on role at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, where she became the program's first women's individual qualifier for nationals in cross country.
But that 2006 marathon nagged at her, so she tried again at the Omaha Marathon in 2008 while attending physical therapy school at Creighton.
"I wanted to accomplish and finish without walking and stopping," Lickteig said. "I just went out there and ran and enjoyed every moment of it. I decided I'm going to keep running these."
She's since run nine, including a 2:49 finish in the Chicago Marathon last October that spurred her dream of qualifying for the Trials.
It's a goal she set while watching Omaha runner Christy Nielsen, who has competed in three trials. Nielsen's highest finish was 54th in 2004.
"I would see her at races and think, 'I would love to be that woman. She's amazing,'" Lickteig said. "Maybe I could work as hard as she does to achieve those goals."
They've become training partners. Nielsen also ran the California marathon, though some health issues prevented her from qualifying.
She's not surprised by Lickteig's success.
"She's a mini-me," Nielsen said. "She's a PT, she thinks like I did, she trains like I did, she has the determination that I did.
"You don't see that very often. People don't realize what it takes to get to the Trials. It's a huge thing."
What sets Lickteig apart, Nielsen said, is how devoted she is to her goal. She said Lickteig is inspiring her to try again in 2016.
"When she puts her mind to it, she's not going to let anything get in her way. That's what I saw in her," Nielsen said.
Lickteig said she can't take all the credit. She draws motivation from other local runners on the website Ndorfnz.com, where she keeps track of her mileage. It's hard to sit home on the couch on those cold and snowy days when she logs on and sees how many people have already run, she says.
She typically puts in more than 100 miles a week, though she'll need to cut back to prepare for the Trials. The top three qualify for the 2012 Olympics.
"Five weeks isn't long between two races," Nielsen said. "The biggest thing I've learned in these five weeks is not trying to kill yourself, trying to recover. Get the rest in to let your body recover to perform well again."
That won't be easy for Lickteig, who said it's crazy to think about how much time and effort she's put in to achieving her goal. She calls it her second job.
Because anything can happen in a marathon, Lickteig said she'll enter the Houston race without expectations. Still, it's a thrill just to say she's qualified.
"To finally accomplish a goal and dream," she said, "words just can't describe it."
Taking her running to a new level helps Easley qualify
Having baby Ethan three years ago was the best thing that ever happened to Easley's running career.
The 31-year-old from Lincoln said she had shown some natural ability since she started running marathons in college, but she began hitting personal highs after her son's birth. That's when she decided to see what she could accomplish.
"I never really thought I was at this level," she said.
She ran 2:55:58 at the Grandma's Marathon in June, which she said spurred her goal of running in the Olympic Trials — though she knew she'd have to lop about 10 minutes off her time.
"I just kicked it in gear from June to December, and obviously it all paid off," she said.
She raised the quality of her workouts and the quantity of her mileage. Husband David biked with her on some of her longest runs.
On most workouts, she said it was her against her Garmin watch, which calculates her time, distance and pace.
"I just had a lot of self-motivation," she said.
Contact the writer:
402-444-1034, marjie.ducey@owh.com
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