Even if she’d wanted to stop, with one of her U.S. teammates already out of the race, Shoemaker was left with no option but to continue unless she wanted to disqualify the American team from contention altogether.
With a quarter mile separating her from her opponents on both sides, Shoemaker had only herself and the Iberian heat to compete against.
“I cut another 1:30 off my best time,” Shoemaker said. “The improvement over the season was seven minutes. There’s only up to go from here.”
And, judging by her determination after the race, it seems likely that’s the direction she’ll be headed.
“After this race I’m going to try and get over the mental block I have with the run,” she said. “As my teammate passed me, I thought, ‘That’s okay. She’s a better runner.’ And I can’t do that any more.”
—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.