news-record.com

BEIJING -- Shalane Flanagan wants the folks back home in Chapel Hill to know she can't wait to get back and celebrate her Olympic triumph with them and see a few North Carolina Tar Heels football games.

First, the North Carolina graduate and Pittsboro resident will go for her second medal of the 2008 Beiijng Olympics in the women's 5,000-meter run at the Bird's Nest on Friday.

Flanagan, who won a bronze in the women's 10,000 with an American record Saturday, finished her heat in the women's 5,000 meters in sixth with a time of 14:59.69, her fastest mark this season.

"I told myself, if the mind is willing, the body will follow. And I tried to tell myself, 'You're going to feel great. You're going to feel great,' " Flanagan said.

Flanagan's heat was the much faster of the two that also sent Americans Jennifer Rhines (15:15.12) and Kara Goucher (15:98) into Friday's finals.

Flanagan showed her kick at the end, latching onto the lead group in the final lap and a half.

"I didn't know how fast we were going," she said. "But it felt really fast. I was trying to run and not to look across at what was going on."

Flanagan, 27, said she could feel the pace of the race afterward. She repeated several times that the race felt hard and she was "really tired" afterward.

She self-prescribed a lot of rest, massage, mental preparation and hydration between now and Friday at 8:40 a.m. when her final Olympic race begins.