Lauren Fleshman is intrigued, and entered, in a marathon like never before

For someone who never liked the race, Fleshman believes training for 26.2 will benefit her 5,000

BY RON BELLAMY

The Register-Guard

Published: (Wednesday, Aug 10, 2011 05:00AM)Today

Lauren Fleshman hopes to take the long road to running the 5,000 meters in the London Olympics next year.

A 26.2-mile road, in fact.

Today, the Oregon Track Club Elite runner from Eugene will be officially announced as part of the field for the prestigious New York City Marathon on Nov. 6. It will be Fleshman’s marathon debut and, as counter-intuitive as it may seem, she got the idea while recovering from a running injury last March.

“To be totally honest, I never wanted to do a marathon, and it came completely out of the blue when I was injured and cross-training in Arizona and trying to get my foot better,” she said.