Linda Somers-Smith has qualified for six consecutive Olympic Trials marathons. In 1996 she placed second, and qualified for the Olympic Team. In Atlanta that summer, she placed 31st overall. Somers-Smith qualified for the 2008 Olympic Trials with a 2:41:04 finish at the Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Marathon in January.

Boston Athletic Association: You and Joan Benoit Samuelson are the only women in this year's race to have qualified for the Olympic Trials six times. What has motivated you to keep competing at such a high level for that amount of time?

Linda Somers-Smith: That is one of the few times my name will be mentioned in the same sentence as Joan Benoit’s which is really cool.

Up until 2004, my motivation was related to performance and I kept running as long as I kept running well, so it was relatively easy to stay motivated.

In 2002 and 2003, I had a lot of back pain and training was not fun, so I started to consider not competing any longer. I elected to make the 2004 Trials my last race. In 2005, I ended up getting surgery and that cleared up my back pain. In 2004, I had bunion surgery, which I had put off way too long because I was concerned about how it would impact my ability to run. After the surgeries, I started running again and had no pain. Running was fun again and this in itself was motivating.