New coach shaves time, leads to win in women's marathon

Want a candidate for coach of the year; somebody who isn't on television every night, who isn't getting interviewed during breaks in the action? Who isn't mic-ed? Who isn't Phil?

Looking for a coach who works far away from the glitter? A coach who isn't named Doc, but can perform surgery on your game?

Try this lanky, soft-spoken, aw-shucks, gray-haired genius of the marathon, Lyle Knudson.

Michele Suszek did.

"Lyle Knudson is a blessing in disguise," said Suszek, who shaved more than four minutes off her personal best, winning the women's side of Saturday's Rock 'n' Roll Seattle Marathon in 2:38.37.

Two months ago, Suszek didn't know where to go with her game. Fit and feeling as if she could shatter her personal best in Nashville, Suszek, by her own admission, embarrassed herself.

She ran a 2:53, remarkable by most people's standards, but unacceptable for someone with Olympic dreams. She knew something in her stride needed fixing.

She knew she needed a new coach.

The day after Nashville, Suszek saw a magazine article about Knudson and quickly e-mailed him. The next day she got a call from him, and the day after that she was headed from Colorado Springs to Boulder, Colo. to get her game fixed.

"He caught me at the perfect time," Suszek, 27, said. "I think we make a great team, working toward goals we have for each other [think London in 2012].

"He has made one of my goals and dreams possible. I wanted to break 2:40 and I thought Nashville was going to be it. It took me a couple of years to get where I thought I could break 2:40, but it only took him a couple of months to make it happen."

On one of those sun-kissed days that makes us grateful we live in the Northwest, Suszek had to hunt down Leah Thorvilson in the final six miles. She trailed by as much as 100 yards for most of the first 20 miles, before pushing past Thorvilson at Mile 21.

"I was just going to run my race," Suszek said. "And if I was still in it, then it was going to be 'Game On.' And that's what happened."

Thorvilson retook the lead between the 22nd and 23rd miles, then Suszek found a burst that she'd never before found.

"I just gunned it," she said, "and after that I never turned around to see where she was. I just went."

While the men's winner, Peter Omae of Kenya, ran a pedestrian 2:18:17, Knudson ran faster than she'd ever run in her life.

"We were planning for her to run this fast in October," Knudson said. "Not now."

Knudson, 67, is a former coach at Colorado, Colorado State, Utah State and Florida. He was Southeastern Conference coach of the year at Florida and is the author of a complex training regimen.

"After Nashville, I was completely devastated and literally in shock," said Suszek, a professional go-go dancer. "And I had no idea what happened. It might be hard for people to understand that, but when that happens, you just don't know what to do.

"You put everything into these races, all the financial, physical and mental demands, and to come out empty-handed is devastating."

Before Nashville, she wasn't thinking about running in Seattle. After Nashville, Knudson knew she needed another race to measure her progress.

She had been training for 10K races with Knudson, part of his work plan to improve her speed. There was no tapering, no peaking in her workouts before this marathon, which makes Seattle and her PR even more remarkable.

"My form was always a little lax and my turnover [stride repetition] needed a lot of work, and man, wow, within the last two months, he's worked wonders," Suszek said. "God has given me a gift and it's Lyle."

The one part of Suszek's training routine that Knudson hasn't tweaked is her go-go dancing. She dances (with her clothes on) at Ultra Sheer in Westminster, Colo. At times she dances all night, doesn't go to bed, and runs in competitive 5K and 10K races the next morning.

"I dance with these fire performers, and it's very high-energy," she said. "It's like a Las Vegas act, and although it takes a lot out of me, it also motivates me. For me, it's part of my training."

And just maybe Michele Suszek will be dancing, with her personal coach of the year, all the way to London.

Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com

The information in this article, originally published June 28, 2009, was corrected June 28, 2009. Steve Kelley's column Sunday incorrectly said Michele Suszek set broke her her PR by four seconds. Suszek, who was the top female finisher in the Rock 'n' Roll Seattle Marathon on Saturday, ran 2 hours, 38 minutes, 37 seconds and shaved more than four minutes off her personal record.