Moody just cruising along; hangs on as humidity hits

For the first four miles of Sunday's Alliant Energy Fifth Season 8K, Tera Moody said she felt like she was out on a training run.

But that last mile wasn't quite as easy.

Moody, one of America's top distance runners, had to dig deep to hold off defending champion Racheal Marchand and win the women's open division in a time of 27 minutes, 8 seconds. Marchand was second and Erin Moeller of Mount Vernon third.

“The first four miles, I was like ‘I can't get tired. This is so easy,' ” said Moody, 29, who lives in Colorado Springs, Colo., and trains at the United States Olympic Training Center. “I had so much air. It didn't hurt like it hurts at altitude.

“But that last mile, I was just hanging on for dear life. I kicked it in pretty good at the end, but if you saw me, it was ugly. It was brutal. I had to really fight for it.”

Moody, who has been treated for insomnia for nearly 18 years, had to be helped from the finish area by race officials. The race began at 7:30 a.m., but the humidity level was in the uncomfortable region for civilians, let alone racers.

“It was very humid out there and typically I struggle a little bit in humidity,” said Moody, who was a two-time Illinois prep state champion at St. Charles, Ill., before running four years at the University of Colorado. “I was tired. The humidity just threw me off a little bit.”

Moody would not have been in the race if not for a family medical emergency. She was a late entry after having spent the past few weeks in Chicago where her dad was seriously ill.

“I had planned on running a Fourth of July race in Colorado,” she said. “Then I found this one - and there was some prize money - which I definitely could use because I hadn't planned on this trip to Chicago.”

Moody, a part-time realtor, said the $2,000 first-place check made her dig all the deeper.

“I was very motivated,” she said. “That's one of the reasons I ran so hard. I really, really pushed myself.”

Pushing herself is nothing new. She was seeded No. 152 of 160 but finished a surprising fifth in the 2008 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, missing an alternate's berth to the Beijing Games by one second.

That finish earned her a trip to the 2009 World Championships where she finished 28th and was third among five Americans.

After taking six weeks off this spring because of a heel injury, Moody said she was looking for a shorter race like the Alliant Energy Fifth Season 8K before beginning a marathon training segment in a week or so. She is building toward the Chicago Marathon in October.

“I'm thrilled with how I competed and how the race went,” she said.

- By Mike Koolbeck, Correspondent