All will be Wells again in mini

Christina Wells was running royalty, the thrice-crowned queen of the Kentuckiana kingdom.

During an extraordinary reign rivaled just once in the 23-year history of the Louisville Triple Crown of Running, Wells was coronated with the crown’s three jewels three successive years.

And then she was gone, and the crown that no one could take from her was just left on the throne.

After winning all nine of the Triple Crown races from 2001 to 2003 (which are the only nine she has ever run), Wells moved from Owensboro, Ky., to Woodbridge, Va., in late 2003. Since then she has raced in Kentucky just once, when she won the Celebrating Women 5K in Louisville on June 26, 2004. Nine Triple Crown races have been run without her since she won the last of her nine.

But Wells finally will revisit the kingdom again this week, and she will return to some of the roads that she followed to those bygone glories when she runs in the Kentucky Derby Festival miniMarathon on Saturday morning.

“I’m excited about it,” Wells told Beyond the Derby’s Nathan Chambers. “Anytime we have a chance to be back in Kentucky, it’s special.”

Both she and her husband (and longtime coach) Bobby were born and raised in Kentucky and ran at Western Kentucky University. But his career in federal law enforcement pulled them to the Washington, D.C., area more than two years ago. So Kentucky, once a home, now is a vacation spot.

He actually had vacation time to use or lose this spring, and he proposed using that time to visit family and friends in Kentucky this week - without even knowing the date of the Kentucky Derby Festival miniMarathon and Marathon. But she knew it.

“And I already knew my mom (Anna Cook) was running in (the mini),” she said. “I told him, ‘We can’t go and not watch her run in it. So I might as well run in it, too.’ It beats going out to do 13-15 miles by myself.”

Those are the circumstances that have lured the 31-year-old Wells back to the city where she graced so many headlines for her victories in the Rodes City Run (in 2001, 2002, and 2003), the Papa John’s 10 Miler (in 2001, 2002, and 2003) and the Kentucky Derby Festival races (miniMarathon in 2001, Marathon in 2002 and 2003). Mary Anne Lyons-Tonini is the only other three-time Triple Crown champion (in 1996, 1997 and 1998).

Wells won all but two of those races after the death of her father, Earnie Brown. He died on April 15, 2001, and, 13 days later, the daughter he had encouraged to run years earlier clinched her first Triple Crown.

“The last time I saw Dad was at the finish line of the Papa John’s 10 Miler in 2001,” she recalled. “He had the biggest, most proud smile you’ve ever seen. He passed away the next weekend on Easter Sunday while walking the dog. They think it was probably a heart attack. He had been in poor health for many years. Unfortunately, he never got to see me run some of my best races or qualify for the Olympic Trials. But I always think about him before big races and how proud he is of me.”

Wells will not be coronated again Saturday, if for no other reason than that the KDF races have not been part of the Triple Crown since the Anthem 5K Fitness Classic replaced them in 2004.

But she also emphasized that she is not the same runner we remember - at least not yet. She gave birth to her first child, Anna Catherine, on March 25, 2005, and she has been trying to balance the often incompatible demands of motherhood and running for a year.

“If (running) was a huge priority of mine, I could make it work,” said Wells, who left her job as the program coordinator for the Northern Virginia chapter of Girls on the Run International last October to stay home with her daughter. “It would be tough, but I could make it work.”

She has run in nine races since her daughter was born. Her first was the 9-11 Memorial 5K in Arlington, Va., last Sept. 10, when she finished fourth in 18:29. She followed that with five other fall races of distances up to 10 kilometers.

“I was using races as workouts because it was so hard to get in any real workouts,” Wells said. “Then winter hit, and the races stopped.”

She was back on the roads for the St. Patrick’s Day 8K in Washington, D.C., on March 12 and was second in 27:51, just three seconds out of first. Then she won the Scope It Out 5K in 16:59 on March 25.

One week later, she placed a distant 12th against international competition at the Cherry Blossom 10 Mile Road Race in Washington, D.C. She finished in 57:46, well off Russian Lidiya Grigoryeva’s winning (and world-record) time of 52:11.

“I forgot what those longer races are like,” Wells said.

So don’t expect her to make any predictions about the miniMarathon on Saturday.

“I don’t know,” she replied when asked if she’s coming to win. “I’ll just give it my best shot.”

Of course, her best shot has been difficult to beat over the years.

Before she was a Triple Crown champion, she was a two-time Class A state champion in cross country at Owen County High School, a three-time Sun Belt Conference champion in track at Western Kentucky, and the NCAA Woman of the Year for Kentucky.

And since she last won a Triple Crown, she was sixth at the 2003 USA Track and Field National Club Cross Country Championships; 15th at the 2004 USA Cross Country Championships; ninth at the 2004 USA 15K Championships; 24th at the 2004 U.S. Olympic Women’s Marathon Trials; and 10th at the 2004 USA Half-Marathon Championships.

Wells would like to reach those heights again and qualify for the 2008 Olympic Trials, but she is not making any plans for it as she would have done in the past.

“I’m thankful I have the opportunity to get back in decent shape and race again,” she said. “I’ll just take it a month at a time now.”

The crown jewels will be waiting.