Education
Elon University; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Elon University; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
After finishing third in the marathon at the 2008 United States. Olympic Team Trials, she went on to finish 27th in the Olympic marathon in Beijing. She was the only American woman to finish the Beijing Olympic Marathon. She walked onto the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill team in 1993 and eventually earned All-American Honors and Administrative Committee on Company-ordination Championship titles in the 1500m and 5000m her senior year.
She set the school record in the 1500 meters went on to place 13th in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Track and Field Championships.
While attending Elon University for Physical Therapy, Russell continued to train and qualified for the Olympic Trials, not in the marathon, but in the 10,000m by having met the 10,000m standard of 33:00. In 2000, she ran 32:17 in her first 10,000 meters at Mountain.
Sac and 15:21 at Penn Relays to qualify her for the 2000 Olympic Track and field trials. She went on the place 7th and 11th, respectively.
Her time of 2:30:41 was the 3rd fastest debut by an American at the time and qualified her for the 2004 Olympic Trials in Saint Louis, Missouri. After leading much of the race, she faded to 4th place, just missing a spot on the Olympic Team.
During the next few years Russell set most of her personal bests in events ranging from the 1500 meters to the marathon. She participated at the 2005 World Championships in Athletics, running in the 10,000 meters and finished in 22nd place. She was on the Bronze Medal 4k 2005 IAAF Cross Country Team in Saint Etienne, France.
She was 7th at the Chicago Marathon in 2005, setting her personal best of 2:29:10.
She went on to be the top American finisher at the IAAF Cross Country Championships in Fukuoka, Japan placing 11th in the 8k and 18th in the 4k. After the 2008 Olympics she had a son and made a successful return to the track placing 4th in the 10,000 meters at the United States of America Track and Field Championships and winning road running the San Jose Half Marathon, crossing the line in 1:11:55 – over a minute ahead of her closest competitor Linda Somers.
She DNFed the Boston marathon in 2011. She is originally from Winston-Salem, North Carolina and currently residing in Pacific Grove, California.
She holds a Masters degree in Physical Therapy from Elon University.