The next time you see the finish order from an area road race, look for the name Aja Clark.
If you don’t already know to do so.
The same Clark who was a standout at Plainview High School and ran for the Oklahoma Sooners still goes at it on any course from 5 kilometers to 26.2 miles. And her name often is first on the charts.
“I think it’s the support from the community,” Clark, 25, said about why she still runs. “There’s a group that runs Tuesdays and Thursdays, and they convinced me to start coming in the morning — because I’m not a morning person.”
Clark, however, has shown she can rise and shine — rise to the occasion and shine during the race. She figured she has at least five victories within the past year, including winning a Boston Marathon qualifier in Dallas and the Redbud Classic 10K race in Oklahoma City.
And, yes, she took on Boston in April. Out of 26,331 runners there, Clark was 3,464th overall — 263rd among women.
“It was a lot of fun,” she said. “I don’t know if I would do it again because I had all my family and friends there and I like to have that support.”
Clark, who works for a land and exploration company in Ardmore, said she always wondered why some runners do marathons. She found her answer in Boston.
“It’s the fan support,” Clark said. “There were 10- to 15-thousand people there cheering, maybe even more. It’s crazy.”
She’d like to run the London and Marine Corps (Arlington, Va.) marathons as well, but she isn’t training for them now because of the scorching heat.
During the past school season, Clark mentored runners on Plainview’s girls cross country and track and field teams and ran with them to stay in shape. Clark won a state 1,600-meter and three 4x800 titles, finished second individually in the 1999 Class 2A XC meet and was a part of three state XC title teams before graduating in 2002.
“Just being involved with coach (Jerry) Naylor and the team made me want to get back into it,” Clark said.
She earned a scholarship to NAIA St. Gregory’s University for XC and track, but after two years there (she redshirted one of them), she made the leap to NCAA Division I and Oklahoma.
“I just wanted to try the challenge (of D-I) academically and athletically,” Clark said. She didn’t win any titles in college.
Sometimes, Clark would run into her Plainview classmate Jessie Gordon, who ran at Arkansas, for meets. But Gordon sees a difference in how Clark runs two years after her college days.
“I think she’s definitely a lot more relaxed after college, a lot more dedicated,” Gordon said. “It’s a different enjoyment.”
That may have helped Clark win races including the Ardmore Race for the Cure and the Ringling Great Steaks Run.
Or the Redbud Classic, where she teamed up with her Sooner teammate and Oklahoma City marathon champion Catherine O’Dell teamed up for a 1-2 finish shortly before running in Boston.
“We were helping each other,” she said. “We started to run straight into the wind and we noticed this girl behind us who was drafting off us. You think she would have helped with the wind … but once we took to the straightaway, I just decided to take off.”
Quite the tactician Clark is. And it doesn’t hurt she learned a lot from Naylor.
The biggest lesson she learned from him: “If I want to race, I show up.”
I.C. Murrell,
221-6527
