25 steady laps – and a record – cap Holden’s career at Salve Regina
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – As rain soaked the track, and the competitors, during the opening laps of the women's 10,000 meter run at Springfield College on Friday night, Salve Regina senior Shannon Holden (Hingham, Mass.) shot a tentative glance toward her coach and teammates, who were stationed at the top of the first turn.
Distance coach Rob McGuinness had seen the look often enough to know what it meant.
"That was a 96," McGuinness told Holden after three laps. "Just run the plan!"
The plan was for 96 seconds per lap, enough for a personal best and a new school record in the longest race on the track. The Seahawks had three qualifiers in the 10K at the Division III New England Championship, and the odds were good that one of them would improve upon the mark of 40:33.50 set by Aubrey Palmquist (Bristol, Conn.) in 2013.
Holden reached 2,000 meters at 8:00 – exactly on pace – with junior Victoria Varone (Providence, R.I.) and freshman Alex Demeo (Burlington, Mass.) by her side. The trio from Salve Regina had plenty of company, keeping contact with runners from Connecticut College, Brandeis and Babson.
Demeo pulled ahead of her teammates with 18 laps to go, opening a gap of three seconds. Holden and Varone held steady. Another 96. A 97. Demeo was six seconds ahead at 3,200 meters, but Holden and Varone were still on the mark. Holden bridged the gap between two groups pulled even with Demeo at the halfway point, and the two split 19:57 for 5K.
For Holden, the second 5K was just as consistent as the first. She caught – and passed – WPI sophomore Jasmine Higuera and Connecticut College senior Katie DuBois before settling in with Connecticut College sophomore Micaela Nee. The two would trade places for the rest of the race.
With nine laps remaining in the pouring rain, there was another look. And a question.
"Laps?" Holden shouted to the group at the top of the turn. The lap counter at the finish line showed the tally for the leaders, but the group in the middle of the pack was a full lap behind.
"Nine, Shannon!" McGuinness said. "That was another 96. You're good!"
The steady splits kept coming. A 96. A 97. Another 96. With one lap to go, it was clear that the record was attainable. Holden closed with a 90 and crossed the finish line at 40:02.67, nearly a minute faster than her previous personal best. The record was hers.
She waited, just past the finish line, for Varone (40:20.44) and Demeo (40:50.38) to cross. The three had trained together all season, and they would celebrate together. All three Seahawks posted personal bests in the regional meet.
A career for the record books
The meet capped a noteworthy collegiate career for Holden, who graduates with her name on several Salve Regina school records. In addition to the newly minted mark at 10K, she shares the 4x800 meter relay record with Varone, Raquel Pouliot (Coventry, Conn.) and Olivia Wilson (Bethel, Conn.). She is also part of the cross country lineup that holds the record for combined team time at 6K and she stands among the university's all-time best at 6K. 
All of this from a runner who wasn't recruited. Holden walked on to the cross country team after years of playing volleyball and running track at Hingham High School. It wasn't until her junior year at Salve Regina that the pieces started to fall into place.
"The summer after sophomore year, running became the priority," Holden said. "I still saw my friends and went to the beach, but I would bring my workout gear to run on the beach. Once I felt stronger, I kept wanting to challenge myself. During my workouts, I would picture myself being in the top seven, which was the huge goal of junior year."
That goal became reality. Training with the team's top group, Holden was among the varsity regulars throughout the 2014 season and made her first postseason appearance in the NCAA Division III New England Regional Championship. She was named one of the team's Most Improved Runners for 2014.
"Once I tasted a little success and achievement, I wanted more," Holden said. "Coach Rob and the team are so supportive. They kicked my butt in workouts and made me want to get better every day."
Holden continued to build on her success during the 2015 track campaign, posting her first sub-20:00 5K performances and contributing to the record-setting 4x800 relay. She set her sights on further improvement during her senior season of cross country.
"I had imagined it would be mostly like junior year," she said. "I would hang out in the top seven most meets, maybe get a PR because I was the most diligent with my training that summer. I never imagined that I would be where I was."
Holden ran in the No. 1 spot in the Seahawks' season opener at Roger Williams last fall. The next week, at Trinity, she did it again. And against teams with regional and national rankings at Williams, she held the top job for a third time.
"I didn't believe it. I kept thinking it was because everybody else was struggling, not that I was doing well or my hard work had paid off. It was surreal. And exciting," Holden said. "I didn't feel much pressure because nobody really expected it out of me."
Holden earned a Runner of the Week award from the Commonwealth Coast Conference for leading the Seahawks to a second-place finish in the Tri-State Invitational at CCRI. It was the first CCC weekly award of her career. Two weeks later, she was second in the lineup that broke the school record for combined team time at 6K in the Connecticut College Invitational. And her best was still to come.
"Shannon had some ambitious goals for the season, and she did the work to support them. She wanted new personal bests at 5K and 6K. She got them, more than once," McGuinness said. "One of her 'stretch' goals was to make the all-conference team. That turned out to be not so much of a stretch."
The Commonwealth Coast Conference Championship was at Colt State Park in Bristol, R.I., the course where Holden had first broken through to the top of the lineup. With junior Amy Irving (Bohemia, N.Y.) in the mix, Holden would have the second spot for Salve Regina. She would need a top-10 finish – and likely, a personal best – to make the all-conference team.
That's exactly what she did. The senior dropped more than 20 seconds from her previous personal best to finish in 23:22.09, the sixth-fastest 6K time in program history. She crossed the finish line in seventh place. The one-time walk on was now on the all-conference team.
"I work extremely hard at being the best runner I can be," Holden said. "It was an amazing feeling to have this hard work pay off."
Holden and Irving shared the team's Runner of the Year Award for 2015.
A future in nursing, and running
Running provided some much-needed balance during Holden's four years on the team. As a nursing major, she was accustomed to long hours in the library and the stress that accompanies a rigorous course load and clinical schedule. Competing at the Division III level was the right choice, she said.
"Nursing doesn't leave much free time for other activities. That being said, you always need a break from work, and that was practice during the week," Holden said. "Coach Rob was the best when it came to being stressed. If you needed a day, then you could take it. If I needed to do a workout or run early and study the rest of the day, he was amenable to that. And he could trust that I would do the work. I would feel far too guilty if I didn't."
As Holden moves on to a career in nursing, she is still setting goals in running. She credits her mother, Kristi, also a nurse and long-distance runner, as a tremendous source of inspiration. Kristi Holden is a multiple-time marathon finisher, and Shannon now aims to follow in her mother's footsteps at 26.2 miles.
"I just signed up for the Bay State Marathon in October," Holden said. "Hopefully, I'll qualify for the 2018 Boston Marathon."
She has already enlisted McGuinness, her partner in dozens of workouts, for training and racing support. The coach was happy to oblige, and the two will take to the roads in Lowell, Mass., this fall in pursuit of one more big goal.
"Shannon is, without question, one of the greatest successes I have seen as a coach. She had no experience in racing cross country, and transformed herself into one of our leading runners. She knew there was opportunity in the longest distances on the track, and she embraced the challenge," McGuinness said. "I saw tremendous potential in Shannon, and I told her so. But it was up to her to set the goals and to do the work. She invested the time, and now she has the results to show for it. That's how it's done."