Stomach Ailment Spoils Jones’ Run

Once again, the Olympic Games will go on without Kim Jones.

A stomach ailment forced the Spokane runner to drop out after 20 miles of the U.S. Olympic women’s marathon trials here Saturday - the third time she’s been foiled in an attempt to make the Olympic team.

Long-forgotten Jenny Spangler - who won her last marathon in 1983 - won the 26-mile, 385-yard race in a stunning upset, clocking 2 hours, 29 minutes, 54 seconds.

She’ll be joined on the U.S. team in Atlanta by runner-up Linda Somers and third-place finisher Anne Marie Lauck - though fourthplace Gwyn Coogan could make the team if Lauck makes the team at 10,000 meters and opts to run that race instead.

Joan Benoit Samuelson, winner of the 1984 Trials and the Olympic gold, came across the line 13th, in 2:36:54.

The other Spokane-area qualifier, Gayle Jacklin of Post Falls, was 78th among 128 finishers in 2:51:27.

Jones, wearing the No. 3 bib by virtue of her 2:31:24 qualifying time, ran with the leaders early in the race but experienced intestinal distress and made two stops - returning to catch the lead pack both times. But after making a third stop, she fell back and eventually dropped out.

The 37-year-old Jones was also forced to drop out of the 1992 trials because of an ankle injury. She finished fifth in her first trials in 1988.

Spangler took control of the race at 16 miles and not once looked over her shoulder.

The winner of Grandma’s Marathon in 1983, Spangler ran the ‘84 Trials on a stress fracture that became a broken foot midway through the race. She finished 33rd that year, 49th in ‘88. She then took almost six years off from competition, and her qualifying time - 2:43:02 - for this race was modest enough that she was given the No. 61 bib.

The 32-year-old has been training with the Santa Monica Track Club - noted for Carl Lewis and its stable of sprinters - to escape the brutal winter in her hometown of Gurnee, Ill.

The lead pack of five went through 10 miles in 57:27, and the half in 1:14:40. By then, Somers said, “I knew I had to take her pretty seriously because there was no chink in the armor.”

Well, there may have been a momentary dent in the mental armor. Spangler said she was thinking, “OK, just try to hang on to 14. Then, OK, just try to hang on to 16. Then, when I took over the lead, I got really scared for a minute: God, what am I doing up here?”

But she knew her anonymity was working in her favor, figuring “if I did take off, they would probably let me go because I would come back to them later.”

At Mile 16, when Spangler clocked a 5:22 mile.

“Had I known the good shape she was in, I might not have let the distance get so great,” said Somers.

“I kept waiting and waiting for them to come up and they didn’t, so I tried to stay as relaxed as I could,” Spangler said.

But the stranger ran alone for almost 11 miles, although Somers closed in the last two to reduce what had been a 50-second gap for a while.

, DataTimes